Day Thirty Five

The Grouting began. We had bought a big box of gray non-sanded grout, which I am sure would be too dull a base for the color grout I want to mix for certain areas of the mosaic, especially in the flower and the leaf motifs. I had a doctor appointment in Great Barrington. Not wanting to make a special trip to Home Depot in Pittsfield or burden Milos with an extra errand when he goes there tomorrow, not wanting to even try to park on Main Street in Great Barrington to go to Carr Hardware, I realized I could buy the grout in West Stockbridge, en route and a pleasant small town, at a small convivial hardware store. But their grout supply was limited to a repair tube. The saleslady suggested I go around the corner to "The Floor Store," where I have never set foot inside, but always admired their colorful opus quadratum sign. The small showroom is packed with great tile and carpet samples but I did not see much in the way of work supplies. When the patron was free to help me, I explained I just needed a small amount of white unsanded grout to experiment with on my mosaic. He said they didn't not have any in the shop but he could get some in the warehouse. Remembering my aborted field trip to Connecticut to buy tiles that "can be ordered, we only carry white, blue and black in stock," this conjured up much more inconvenience than I was prepared for. Instant gratification was what I was after. But my better half told me to smile and wait. He then remembered that he had a partially used bag "around here somewhere," and opened a closet door, a closet like a closet in a bedroom, to give an idea of the scale of the room. He poked around various cans and bags in what could have been a storage cubby in our cellar, but couldn't find it. He then called the warehouse. "Where is the warehouse?" I asked, wary of getting in too deep here. "Just a mile down the road on 41, do you know Quarry Road?" I wasn't sure. He got Joe on the phone and they conversed about unsanded white grout. Joe found a bag, "25 pounds" I heard. "Too much" I said. "Isn't there an opened bag?"he asked. Pause. There was. He explained he would be sending a customer over to pick it up and he hung up. "You can have it for 2 bucks," he told me, proceeding to draw me a map of how to get to the warehouse, down to the spot where I would find Joe. "1.3 miles." I gave him the two dollars, thanked him and left. Without any problem I pulled up in front of a garage where Joe was working and he pleasantly handed me a worse-for-wear bag, very second hand garage workshop, rolled it up tightly, and there I had it. Enough white grout to handle my needs. For two bucks. No receipt. I drove away feeling a very warm small town feeling.
I gathered all my supplies - gloves, sponge, plastic and newspapers to protect the floor, clean water, dry rags, empty container, mask, glass of iced coffee, camera...I kept remembering one more thing! I used acrylic paints to color the grout mixture, and I put about a half  cup of water in a yogurt container and added the dry grout powder, about the consistency of basically plaster of paris. I squirted in dabs of color and mixed with my narrow trowel. There were white lumps I couldn't get rid if and I surmise the grout was a bit damp and somewhat imperfect. Oh well - it will be fine. I am not that much of a prissy perfectionist.
When I put the grout on, I scooped clumps on with the trowel and then spread it with my rubber trowel, but then found the sponge is easier to control in the small areas I was filling. Also, my unground glass edges really were chewing up the rubber edge - they chew up the sponge, but that is not that much of a loss.
Below are pictures from today's session. Also shown are the bracelet I am working on and the camp shirt project cut and ready for sewing.