I was heading out to the garden to do some weeding and discovered two boxes on the steps. The tiles arrived! Even though I'd ordered from two suppliers - one in Georgia and the other in Minnesota, they both ended up together on the same truck. The boxes weighed 43 pounds. I got them to the greenhouse and with great hope opened them.
I was a bit surprised but not disappointed. Very few of the pieces had broken - totally minor chips on the edges of two sheets of the tiles from the smaller box. The biggest surprise was that the swirly stained glass 6" x 6" tiles were not cut. I had assumed that the dimensions indicated the size of a mounted set on mosaic mesh. Another surprise was that the polished marble was 1/4 inch thick - I should have known this. I guess I was so taken in by the green colors that I missed the obvious - stone tiles are always thicker.
I checked out everything and started to play with the pieces. Some came glued on brown paper. I cut off some and soaked them to release them from the backing.
All in all I am very happy with the materials.
I went to youtube to see if there are any good instructional videos on cutting glass - this one was very good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrqPq163yoc
I also watched several others - this one was very good for the design inspiration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb_NhaLtpQk&feature=related
After dinner I started planning my grid. I divided up my design in 30 cm equivalent segments (on my drawing 3.5 cm equals 1 foot - not the best scale! Next time I will be smarter and do all my measurements in cm which are easier to divide. Unfortunately the tiles come in inch measurements - I had had to convert everything to square inches for ordering.) I then used parchment paper to work on the segment number one. This is the design at the far left with the flower pot. It not only is way to the left and is a good place to start - not too obvious or noticeable but symbolizing the place the growth begins. My skills will be growing, starting with the pot. Now I chuckle - today April 20th is some kind of pot holiday I read on Huffington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Milos set up a saw horse table in the greenhouse. I will be practicing cutting glass today... after I do some gardening. The weather is beautiful!
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