Sea glass mosaic window frame (spring 2012)

Before

After

I had what I thought was a great idea: cover the wooden window frame in our shower with a mosaic of sea glass. I was always afraid to leave anything there lest I damage the wood, and it looked sort of dingy. And mosaics... how awesome would it be to have a Gaudi-esque area in my home?

So I stopped by our local hardware store, where they know everything - I can go in there with a list of odds & ends I've been needing for months, and within minutes a brusk sales clerk will have zig-zagged me through every aisle, collecting exactly what I hoped for, and I'm done. This time, I was trying to find some sort of adhesive for the glass, figuring that would suffice and then I could grout around it. I had seen some tiling videos and there seemed to be more supplies required than I wanted to hassle with (a notched trowel etc.). Turns out I can use an all-in-one product and use the tool I spread spackle with to smear this stuff on.

Next I found a stash of sea glass I had gathered last summer in Maine with my daughter and friend. I sifted out some flat pieces and got started. In retrospect: I should have laid out a pattern. Did I really think I could fit a puzzle of random colors and sizes together and actually stumble upon an interesting design? Ridiculous. In my attempt to to fit each puzzle piece of glass, rushing so the grout wouldn't dry up before I was done with a section, I made something really ho-hum.

When I was done with the ledge, I thought climbing up the sides of the frame might improve the design. Alas, it still did not look very good. When my husband came home he said it looked "dangerous", although each piece of glass is worn smooth. From a distance, it looked jagged. Also, it looks a little too similar to the shower floor, which is a pattern of muted stones. Similar, but not unified... maybe even a bit 'matchy-matchy'.

Shower floor has similar pattern, which is a problem

I was not sure what to do next. I didn't want to tear it down - there would be repair to the sill, I was sure, plus what a waste of glass! It really is beautiful stuff. So I charged ahead with another layer of grout. What a mess - I really should have stopped to read instructions. With all of the slight curves of the glass, this was not a smooth surface, so grout caught in so many nooks and crannies the glass was barely visible anymore. I tried scraping away some, and the grout looked pitted. What a mess. I found some rags and used them to smear away the excess, to again expose the glass. That worked decently but I ended up smoothing out the surface with my fingers.

In-process mess of grout

After wiping excess and smoothing grout

In the end, this was not a successful project. I put this off for months because tile work seemed daunting, but I fully expected to get swept up in the process. That did not happen. And you can tell; the end result is uninspired. There is nothing of the Gaudi or other organic, beautiful mosaics in this.

Ah well, perhaps this project will serve as a cautionary tale... I don't think it should have been difficult, but my impatience did me a disservice in this case.

Cost: <$10 for a bucket of grout and a cheap spreading tool
Time to complete: several hours over two nights