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Crafting Fail

So you know how there are those websites that do Pinterest projects that failed miserably...well this is one of my craft fails...not from Pinterest but the concept is the same.  Something that seemed simple...that did not go well, that I hope you can learn from. 

 I "rescued" a bird bath from the curb that had a hole in it.  I thought "no problem, I'll mosaic over it and the  hole will be covered and it will be prettier." 
Seems small enough to cover

Lesson 1:  in mosaic-ing-or any other any craft project. Have the right materials. 


You should not try breaking pieces with a rolling pin...you'll just dent your rolling pin
Quick-drying is not what you want for a mosaic-art takes time!
As you can see from some of the above pictures I did not have the appropriate materials.  I had purchased some plates from the thrift store to break for my mosaic, but I couldn't find a hammer so I proceeded to smash them with a rolling pin.  This will not work, this will result in tiny shards breaking off instead of one large piece becoming several workable pieces.  You should not use a quick-drying medium.  I was using Plaster of Paris, which would have been fine, except it was literally drying before I could get more than a few pieces stuck into it.  Read the directions, get a medium that's meant for what you're doing.  

Lesson 2: Have a plan. 


Mosaics are not usually abstract and if you want it to have some sort of design you need to know and have the pieces ready for that design because your medium is drying while you're thinking, it doesn't stop working just because you do. 

Have the pieces you need ready 
Since I hadn't planned out my design in advance I quickly realized I didn't have enough gold pieces to go around the outside of my flower once I was finished with it.  This is a problem because by the time I go get more pieces of china and break them my medium was dry.  

Lesson 3: Sometimes you have to let go. 


From memespp.com


This was my second (yes second) attempt at doing a mosaic to rescue this bird bath (yes I know my second attempt looks like my nieces did it thank you for your moral support).  That's two times that I failed and I have discovered that I was not enjoying it, and it wasn't worth it.  I literally was spending more money and time into something than I spent on it (it was free remember!).  So this project, we're going to accept defeat...and let it go.  

So the moral of this story is yes, even my amazing self fails sometimes (its actually my specialty). So now go forth and FAIL!


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