Fast Making #7 - Paint Chip Mosaic Bottle Vase

In New Orleans, one of my favorite galleries to go to on Julia Street was Jonathan Ferrara. Carlton Scott Sturgill (see here) presented his work there, and I really loved his paint chip mosaics, and though I’ve never been a fan of faux flowers I still appreciate what they’re made of and the process.

I wanted to make a similar mosaic, but I’m trying to steer away from just 2D work. So, easy solution is to just glue it on a 3D object and repurpose it.

I went to a paint shop and tried to subtly hoard as many colors as I could. The day before I went to the science museum the day before and bought a water in a glass bottle for myself. I always feel the need to repurpose glass but can never think of something actually useful. This project normally wouldn’t be useful to me either, except I just moved and I want flowers but don’t have a vase. So, glass bottle vase it is. I’m hoping I can cut the top of it so I can fit more flowers.

Referencing from a drawing of the teddy I made, I cut each paint chip with a color close to the bear’s, and glued it on. I used a glue stick, which may have been fine with regular thin paper, but it was curling off the bottle a bit. It wouldn’t matter too much as I would Mod Podge it later.

I made sure to include the paint number/name in some of the pieces.

And the mosaic is complete.

I painted over it with Mod Podge with a sponge—which unfortunately left a good bit of bubbles, I think I need to use a paint brush instead next time. But it is waterproof enough now to fill it with water & a rose.