Mosaic Redeux

Have you ever mosaicked a project & then pried off EVERY tile & started over?

I had a coffee table that I'd been using in my formal living room & I decided to mosaic it with china rose tiles. I spent hours gluing at least several hundred tiles in a random pattern all over the coffee table. There were at least 20 different patterns of china and all the tiles were very small so it took me a LOOOOOONG time to glue them all down.

When I was done with gluing down the rose tiles I started to fill in between the tiles with white china filler. When I'd gotten about 1/3 of the table filled in, I took a trip to visit my parents in another state. After I got back I decided to finish mosaicking the table. However, when I looked at it I just DID NOT like the way it looked!

I decided to leave it for a few more days to see if the design "grew" on me but the more I looked at it, the more I HATED it. Here's a picture of how it looked.

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Soooooooo, I got the BRIGHT (?) idea to remove all the tiles & start completely over. I was able to remove all the tiles & only about 10 tiles shattered in the process. I'm now done re-gluing those tiny rose china tiles back onto the table. One thing I've learned is that random patterns do not appeal to me. I am an organized person (some would say anal retentive but what do THEY know?) & in most aspects of my life I need neatness & order.

I started by drawing different size circles onto the table. Some of the circles intersected with some of the other circles & some circles didn't. Then I sorted ALL THOSE tiny rose tiles by pattern & decided to mosaic the outside of each of the circles with a different pattern. I originally was going to do the remainder of the table in only white china filler. My idea was that the circles would stand on their own but later I decided to glue china focals in the middle of SOME of the circles. Here's how it looks today:

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I'm much happier with the way the table is turning out the second time around. The brown spots you see are where the white laminate tore off the table when I removed the tiles from the first attempt. Once the table is tiled & grouted, you won't see the brown.

I'll post pictures when it's finally done!