If I had a dime for every person that has asked me over the last year how I learned to do my Pique Assiette Mosaics, I could buy 8907 more china plates on eBay! Until now, I have been rather closed-mouthed about the genesis of this relatively new passion and "skill". I had highest hopes of actually selling many, if not most, of my pieces. Reality bites sometimes, doesn't it?

I co-created a stunning and elegant web site (Mystical Moments Mosaics) for my work last Winter in collaboration with epinions member Atheena who discovered me on the site last Fall. I joined the epinions.com affiliate program to promote my work, and am certain I am registered with 55 search engines, because every single day I get at least one charming and thoughtful email, chock full of praise for my work, my talent, and my site. (Along with the kudos usually comes the request for free help and advice, of course).

I have not sold one piece from that site in 4 months!
I may as well review the dang book that started it all for me and hope to recoup some costs, and my pride, in this manner.

One day late in the Winter of 1999 I was thumbing through the newest issue of Country Living Magazine. My eyes fell upon the tiniest little mention of a book called: "Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics" by Marlene Hurley Marshall. The three sentences of text was accompanied by one even tinier color photo of a PA (pique assiette) watering can. Call it fate; call it serendipity; call it a spontaneous, eyes wide open past life regression; I was THERE! The colorful and whimsical shards of pottery and china, broken in haphazard and chaotic, yet somehow controlled and deliberate, sense-making ways, were glued onto a watering can and grouted over. The image took my breath and will to resist away.

I ordered the book from Amazon.com and the day that it arrived I shared it with my best friend, sure that this would be the way for us to work together and find our fortune. Well, the punch line to that joke is: I was better at it than she, all that "closeness" led to the surfacing of some touchy issues, she moved away last Fall, and we don't keep in touch. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

We poured over the book in the town park, me oohing and aahing, almost wetting myself for the sheer exhilaration and personal potential I perceived in this craft form. It seemed to play right into my love of color, antiques, thrift stores, flea markets, treasure hunting, whimsical art, and did I say color? My friend ran right out and got the supplies we needed (I delegated that to her since she built her own house and I can barely replace a light bulb). I gathered the ornamental materials and got a feel for the whole process. One Sunday we sat down in my dining room and on the kitchen floor and did our first PA flower pots. You'd have thought we gave birth. And we did; to a whole new form of self expression that became so highly addictive and rewarding it took epinions.com to drag me away from my shard table.

I must begin by saying that the photography by Sabine Vollmer Von Falken in this over-sized book is exquisite. There have been so many days on which I merely had to flip through the pages to gain the inspiration and impetus to start a new piece. While my style has evolved away from the style that Ms. Marshall employs, a style that I would term more "crude" and free form, the beauty of this craft is that there is a wide berth allowed for a plethora of personal styles to shine forth. A dear friend of mine who lives in Fresno looks at my work as crude and free form because her work reflects her personality and is more precise and uniformly controlled and tight than mine (she's a mortgage broker and a Taurus. Need I say more?). I like the colorful, whimsical, intensely fun and dramatic parts of myself to be reflected in my work, and did I mention that I dig color?

Ms. Marshall offers a lovely and brief Preface chronically her PA odyssey that spans over ten years; from mildly interested to a life's obsession and vocation. The book then quickly and effortlessly leads the reader through six chapters full of stunning photos representing not only the author's work but those of many other artists as well. Sprinkled throughout you will find inspiring and poetic quotes on art and its place and value in the personal and collective lives of a culture by the likes of Einstein and Angelou.

Chapter One: Introduction to Bits & Pieces Mosaics

The first chapter offers an inspiring look at this Folk Art and Craft over many centuries, cultures and countries. Photographic examples and references are drawn from medieval Rome, Vietnam, Thailand, Spain, Australia, the United States, and India. My favorite section introduces us to Raymond Edouard Isodore, "The Father of French Pique Assiette". He was born in 1900 and at age 38 was seized with a compulsion to collect bits of colored glass and pottery surrounding his home in the fields of Chartres:

"He spent the rest of his life covering every surface inside his house, including all the furniture, down to the stove, the stove pipe, clock, and even his wife's sewing machine." He covered the garden, the courtyard, and the exterior of the house with shards of glass, china and pottery. The neighbors mocked his fanaticism and called him "Picassiette", which loosely translates into "plate stealer". The photos of the interior and exterior of his home and garden are not to be believed. I can not imagine anything more inspiring than to be standing in that garden in Chartres at Maison Picassiette, absorbing the sheer beauty and dedication in each individually placed piece. Marshall states that most accounts of Isodore's life "portray him as a misfit, a private, maniacal ornamentor". Anyone that falls head-first into this craft form will not only identify with that characterization, they will bear it proudly and obsessively.

Chapter Two: Collecting and Designing with Bits & Pieces

You know you are a PA Addict when the full page shot of what I assume is a set of shelves in Ms. Marshall's studio holding potential materials finds you moaning with shard envy. Talk about one person's trash or broken plate being another's treasure!

This chapter suggests items to be collected and incorporated into the piece, and great places in which to find them. The list of potential in both categories is endless. Speaking from personal experience, I found thrift stores to be the most rewarding providers of the perfect plates, cups, and all manner of funky items to create with. I also found several thrift and antique store owners and managers very supportive of my work, and eager to set a box aside for me full of broken items that they could not sell. I made a weekly habit of hitting all the stores in my own town, and even driving 60 miles to Durango for more exciting loot.

Alas...all that changed once I found eBay's dinnerware category. If you could see the third level of my house at this very moment, you would certainly call me a "maniacal accumulator". I found the most beautiful china sets on eBay, and often at my price. Not to mention the several dozen eBay sellers who offered me chipped or cracked treasures for the cost of shipping alone. I soon had antique dealers around the country emailing me, often providing digital photos, wondering did I want these 6 pieces of Wedgwood china that had chips on the back for a buck each? I tell you, you don't know how many good people there are in the world until you start networking with those that share your passion for something.

Chapter Three: Getting Started: The Basic Technique

This was the chapter I referred to over and over in the early days. Marshall has conveniently laid out two pages side by side that cover Equipment and Materials. I probably use 80% of the materials and equipment she suggests, but quickly developed my own way and style. The biggest change in my work came on the day I stopped smashing up my shards with a hammer, and began to precisely hand cut them, one by one, with tile nippers. I also differ with her in the grout. I use sanded grout, she recommends unsanded. I don't add acrylic additive to my grout, for the packaging label discourages it. I also buy colored grout, as opposed to adding pigments. It is too risky to match the exact color shade if you start mixing your own and need to mix more or patch at a later date. Those are the only secrets I will divulge on my techniques. I learned many a hard and painful lesson in the school of hard knocks, and until I start selling the stuff, I ain't giving nothing else away!

DO pay attention to the section titled: "Selecting and Preparing a Base; Porous and Nonporous Surfaces"! OK, one more free hint because I hate to see artists suffer: if you choose to use a wooden base, paint it first to seal it. The raw wood will suck the water right out of the grout, and you will spend the rest of your days patching hairline grout cracks and chips from corners.

The Step-by-Step Instructions portion of this chapter is excellent and clear. I follow Marshall's progression almost precisely, but I do not use a dremel or a metal file to finish the piece and smooth the rough edges in the end. I am usually so exhausted from all the previous steps that I figure a sharp edge here or there is not to be bothered with.

Chapter Four: Projects for the Home

Here you will find easy to follow tips on how to cover a flower pot, lamp base, mailbox, umbrella stand, fruit bowl, mirror, a fireplace (something I would do in a heartbeat were I not trying to sell this house), and a kitchen backsplash (something I will do first in the next house I own, along with the kitchen counters and an island, of course).

The photos of the backsplash are enough to send me running to my PA table, whipped into a frenzy of creative mania. Naturally, these are just ideas for some popular items to cover. If you go the path of my friend and I, you will inspect and survey every object you see from now on, asking yourself: "Can I cover that?" It is actually the same distorted world view that you slip into when your addiction for epinions takes over your life, for you constantly ask yourself: "Can I review that?". The entire world becomes one big surface on which to slap shards and grout, and one long list of potential review subjects and angles.

Chapter Five: Projects for the Garden

Here we have the Killer Birdbath Project which, so far, has overwhelmed me. Perhaps the fact that I don't want to attract any more birds than I already do (considering the four hunter felines and one dog) explains the lack of fervor I feel for this project. I do, however, love to make birdhouses, and find them to be the most time intensive of all the pieces I create. There is the guide for the watering can that started all this for me in this section, a plant stand project, and the garden stepping stones. My pal in Fresno and her pal in Hollister make rose garden stones almost exclusively, and are they gorgeous! I have done several myself and find working on a round, flat surface to be a most welcome break from the many sided surfaces I usually wrap myself around. There is an example of a PA garden wall, and a garden table. One day I intend to cover a round table myself, right after the new fireplace, backsplash, and kitchen counter and island projects.

Chapter Six: Bits & Pieces of the Imagination

This final chapter presents some most unusual pieces by some most extraordinary artists. It is beyond inspiring. Also included is advice on how to make jewelry, projects for children, and a wonderful photo of Marshall's own funerary urn. She crafted a large jar, for her own ashes, using shards from china she has loved, old jewelry, coins, crystals, porcelain roses, and a perfume stopper. I borrowed on this idea last year and made a "Dead Kitty Box" that now holds the ashes of a dear friend's cat. I used themes of the ocean (we met in Carmel, CA), birds, flowers, and trees, since those were the most important things in Kitty Kitzer's life. I can't think of a more personally meaningful piece I have done for a friend since.

So there you have all my shard secrets before you in one easy-to-read, logical-to-follow, photos-to-die-for book. If you have an interest in this most exciting and fulfilling of art forms, hop on over to one of the on-line book sellers linked to this site and order up the one and only book you may ever need to give you that first push off the Pique Assiette ledge. Speaking as one who has fallen hard for this creative craft, Marlene Hurley Marshall does a wonderful and thorough job of gathering all of the "bits & pieces" together for us.

And now, if you have just a moment more, could you hop on over to my web site and leave me a nice comment, or better yet: BUY SOMETHING PLEASE!





Recommended: Yes