Broken Plate Trivet

I mentioned in another post that I have a collection of antique china, well I'm not the only one. My sisters have their own collections and so I have a collection of broken pieces as well from my own items and my sisters. They are too pretty to throw away. So what do I do with them? I turn them into mosaic of course!

Here is another one. This is the complete cake plate belonging to one of my sisters. The plate was from a set called Windsor made by Tuscany of England. My sister bought the set from England when she was staying there and had them shipped over to Australia when she came back. But when she opened the box, a few pieces were broken. This was among them (including a tureen!).

For this trivet or teapot stand, I wanted to keep all the pieces. These were the pieces that I started with.

Then I used a glass tile cutter to cut more pieces.

Next, I glued the pieces onto the wooden trivet, let them dried then I grouted the whole thing with a cream coloured grout. Any of the sharp edges that stuck out were then filed with sandpaper to smooth them out. I then painted the sides a gold colour to match the gold on the side edge of the plate. Finally, I applied varnish over the gold paint to protect it.

Here is a photo of a tea party that my sister had earlier using this lovely set. I especially made this trivet for her. Now, the next time she uses this set again she can use the trivet. Imagine it under that teapot!