Tutorial: How to make a Mosaic Covered Flower Pot

I’ve been wanting to make something with mosaic for ages, and this summer I finally found both the time and the place. And the material, some coffee cups featuring lovely vintage roses!

I decided that my first project should be to cover a flower pot with pieces of broken porcelain, using the rosiest of pieces. While making it I took some photos, so here is a quick guide if you want to try this craft too!

How to make a mosaic covered flower pot

1. Find the china you want to use.
I thrifted a couple of vintage cups with different kind of rose prints, plus the plates for them. I found mine in a favorite second hand shope for 3 SEK each. This find was also the beginning of my rose cup collection (I kept two).

2. Hammer away, and break the cups into small pieces.

I sat outside and put a cup at a time in a plastic bag wrapped in a towel. I used a rubber hammer, and made a couple of hammer-blows to break the cup up. Then I used dad’s cutting pliers to cut away the white surrounding the roses and nibble at the edges where I thought it was useful.

Don’t forget to drink your coffee and protect your eyes all the time while you cut.

3. Collect the patterned parts to the side, and keep the rest in the bag.

I just lay mine out to admire them, they looks so beautiful together – and I took lots of photos of them before I even used them. Don’t you just love when the material is making you happy before anything is used even?

4. Mix the tile adhesive

I used one that is actually for bathroom tile setting – it looks like cement. It should be a bit thicker than it says on the package.

5. Add the cement in chunks to the item you want to mosaic.

I took a thrifted flower pot, and added the cement as I went around the pot.

6. Add the china mosaic pieces

I started with the rose pieces and made a “front” and then also a “backside” (which has more of the white pieces). I added very thick pieces from the plate, that made my pot buckled and uneven, but I kind of like it like this, it’s very artistic… If you want a more flat surface you should sort out the thick pieces first or make mosaic on a flatter surface like a mirror frame or table.

I also made another mistake: I put to much cement onto the pot so the mosaic sunk into it a bit to much. This made my finished surface a bit gray, so don’t let the grout “stick out” between the pieces if you want to avoide this.

7. Mix the grout, a white powder (or coloured) with water before using it. Then add it to the surface.

8. Smear the grout on top of everything and make sure the holes between the tiles are filled.

9. Clean it of. After this has dried for a while (5 minutes) go around the whole pot with a wet cloth and clean up the mosaic pieces from the grout. You have to do this again in 30 minutes with a damp cloth, so the tiles shine. Then let it dry properly.

Ta-da!

Enjoy your finished mosaic flower pot.

I know I will enjoy mine for many years to come – and make more mosaic too when I have the opportunity. I have more rose cups at home, that I don’t want to use. Plus a whole big box of glass tiles in blue and turquoise that I found at a flea market last year. I just need the right furniture piece for it – a table would be great. We’ll see what happens, I’ll keep you posted.

I highly recommend you to try mosaic, it was really fun and I love the result. Good luck if you try this, and let me know how it goes.

PS: Also check out previous craft and art tutorials and feel free to subscribe to my newsletter, and I’ll let you know when new and awesome things happen in iHanna World.