Special Garden Sculpture

This sculpture was created for my mum to celebrate a special birthday. My mum loves gardening and I wanted to build something with an organic form, which fitted in with the surroundings.

First, I used sheets of pink insulation foam to create a block, then I carved the shape into this foam. I inserted a metal bar through the center of the foam block, for weight and stability. Once I was happy with the shape, I covered the foam with a layer of tile cement, waited for it to dry, then I started adding the mosaic tiles. For this project, I used vitreous glass in many colours and some golden ceramic pieces. The sculpture design represents the flowers of the garden, the sky and the sun. It was important to mark Mum’s birthday, so a small message was also added to the design. The overall size of the sculpture was 1.5m tall.

Because the sculpture was for exterior use, it was important that I used waterproof materials.  The substrate, the glue, the mosaic tiles, the grout…everything was waterproof and 3 years after construction – it’s still doing well. The colours are vibrant, and there are no cracks.

And, the most important thing is that Mum loves it!