Cave Canem

Means roughly, "Beware of the Dog".

This is the subject for my mosaic project- all the lessons are learnt, now to make something of my own choice.
First saw Cave Canem in Pompeii, in an early spring holiday to Piano Sorrento, in the south of the bay of Naples. Using the Circumvesuviana train, Pompeii can be reached quite easily.

Whereas we would put up a sign on our gate to say beware of the dog, the Pompeians and other Romans, had a mosaic depiction of a dog and the Cave Canem warning, in the entrance to the property.
I chose to use as an inspiration, a similar, but easier to construct mosaic from the Isle of Capri.

here is a picture of the dog - made of pre-cut marble tiles, ready for the background tiles to be laid and the words to be created and grouted to finish it off.

As you can see - it is a stylised dog. I did not know until using marble for the first time , that although you can cut the tiles using the nippers we use for other tiles, it takes more effort and the resulting cut tile shape is unpredictable as they shatter easily. This meant that I did not cut many of the tiles (also had just about enough to make the shape so scared to waste them) just laid them in as flowing a way as possible, so in some places there are some weird gaps. Still it should look OK when grouted.
The dog is wearing a reddish brown collar and will have a lead attached as well.

We have next week's session and a follow up session after half- term if needed  to finalise the mosaic.

Today finished the mowing strip around the lawn, so that was good- the lawn looks neater in having the edge, and also a more defined shape as when it was seeded in the spring, we made it a little wider than the original lawn that this replaced, to allow for trimming later.

Spherical Balls!

No not that sort - but three dimensional objects to use for a mosaic exercise.

This weeks mosaic lesson was on how to create a design on a three dimensional object - we had a clay flower pot and a polystyrene ball to cover.

As part of covering the flowerpot we had to provide a plate of some sort to break and use as some of the covering tile work. If there was a small design on the plate, it could be cut out and used on the flower pot. Not too easy as it was a crude hammer job to start off with and then the finishing cutting could begin.

Of course being mostly flat the pieces from the plate could not be to big as they would stand proud of the curved surface, shame I did not realise that before nearly finishing!

Grouting this next week will be very interesting, lots of sticky out edges to make neat (hopefully) Still I departed from my usual line everything up properly approach that I have been doing and left big gaps between the pieces and a random layout.

Our other challenge was to cover a spherical surface with tiles or beads- this time it needs to look neat or it will truly be a mess.

We started the lesson by looking at the mosaics from last week, sorting our pieces of now fired glazed ceramic  and learning the new techniques.

We had all been to enthusiastic with the clear silicone adhesive to stick our last weeks glass pieces, so all the gaps were filled with the adhesive and no room for the grout.  The solution, pick out the excess rubbery adhesive with a dentists tooth pick. Luckily we could take this away and work on it at home( and very tedious it was to)

Then it was back to the concrete slab we made and a chance to remove the sand from what is now the top surface of the piece and grout the article. Then they were wrapped again to continue curing for another week.

As usual I was a bit behind some of the others and only just started the first row of the ball - you have to start at the circumference , which on these balls is easy as there is a mould join line all the way around.

As soon as the lesson was finished it was off to Birchanger to meet up with some of my ex colleagues as one of them was leaving the company. As they had been there since about 12-15ish  and I couldn't get there before 1pm, it was a short greeting and meeting time, as they, unlike me, had the pressures of work to drive them back to the office and calls or other tasks to get back to.

I definitely don't miss that aspect. However there may be a little, or not so little task for me to help with , so I should see them again soon one way or the other.

Over the weekend, worked on the ball again to make it ready for grouting as below

Apprentice piece and garden update

Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.

Last week attended the first of a one morning a week mosaic/craft course lasting 6/7 weeks (depending on the speed of the person in producing the finished articles)

Last week involved cutting up shapes from a clay sheet to be used in a future project, and making a small mosaic piece. The subject was compulsory, it had to be a heart on a wall tile base.

We all had different skills and knowledge, so some completed the preliminary design and some, like me, had to finish off at home.
The picture below shows the mosaic at the point of taking it home.

A week later allowing for an interruption to re-roof the lean to shed at the rear of the garage due to UV induced plastic fatigue, you can see the finished article.

I could tell I was a bit short on practice as I had difficulty cutting tiles in to even squares to fill in the background area.

This week it was glazing the pieces of bisque fired clay so that they could be fired again to produce a transparent glaze seal so the pieces could be used later.
Also a chance to use marble tiles al la roman mosaics using the reverse method, tiles are laid face down and using a frame to act as a mould, concrete is poured over the back of the tiles so that when released and turned over, the image can be seen.

Also a quick and cheerful small reverse mosaic using colourful small glass tiles and clear silicon adhesive to be stuck on to a glass pane, again when turned over the final image is revealed.

We have moved forward on planting up the raised beds.
The potatoes planted for a hopeful Christmas crop have shoots just peeping above the soil level. once grown a bit and before any frost, they will be earthed up progressivly so they occupy a bed of their own. We found at the local nursery, overwintering peas- initially it looked like a dozen or so, but once tipped out of the plastic tray they turned out to be nearer three dozen little pea plants. These have gone in staggard rows about six inches apart and are sharing with the rhubard plants.

Meanwhile the slugs or snails managed to eat all but a few brassica plants, so new ones were acquired and are firmly under a mesh covered cloche with slug pellets around them ( no birds or other animals should be able to get to them as the ends of the cloches are firmly sealed and the mesh pegged down.)
They are sharing the bed with the leeks and chives.

This leaves one last bed that will have dwarf french beans and also broad beans sown from seed to overwinter for next years crop - the planting is imminent..

Hotter update

Well, discovered yesterday that draining the central heating system also turns the boiler off- DoH!

I should have figured that out beforehand- it was only when E said that she had to re-adjust the manual shower to get more warmth that the penny dropped - The low water level detector had shut it down.

So hastily turning off the power to boiler and pump I switched the "Water Otter"  (immersion heater) on to give us hot water. Luckily both washing machine and dishwasher are cold fill only.

Today started to fill the system again, spanners, hose for emergency system drainage etc. to hand in case of leaks. I was pleasantly surprised that neither radiator sprung leaks- considering there were nine new joints per radiator that could have leaked, I was lucky.

Will restart the boiler today and hope no damage was done.
Addendum 14th Sept. Phew- boiler had a secondary overheat trip switch which needed re-setting and off it went, heating side Pump tested as well to check for air blockage, needed bleeding then nice hot radiators emerged!

Next job, replace a leaking fitting in the caravan water syetem, new piece arrived yesterday.

Thursday sees me off to a new mosaics/ceramics course which I booked back in May- time flies!