When Minnie & I go for walks we always come home with more than we set out with! She loves collecting 'treasures' as we stroll along. She has quite a collection now & we thought we could use them to create some outdoor art for our garden.
We picked up a couple of redundant house tiles from a friend, & some tile grout (the stuff you'd use in a bathroom/kitchen to attach tiles.) This cost very little & is perfect to use in the garden as it's waterproof.
Minnie helped mix the grouting powder & water using an old tin & wooden spoon. As you can see we were well prepared with our rubber gloves!
Once the grouting was mixed we had to wait 10mins for it to set, so we collected Minnie's treasures & added some coloured glass nuggets & marbles to her collection.
Once the grouting was ready, we spooned it on & spread it along the tile. It looked just like glossy white icing as it dripped off the spoon. Minnie added a thick covering, & then started to add her treasures.
Lots & lots... & lots of treasures were placed (dropped) onto the grout; shells from beach walks & holidays, favourite stones from the park, & a corner of an old flowerpot! It was lovely to watch her ponder & take a really good look at the contents of the basket before she decided where it should be placed on the tile.
Minnie tried to stick the coloured glass on the raised section of the tile, but it kept rolling down, so we added a little more grout & Minnie instructed me where she wanted them to go so I could hold them in place for her. To my surprise with just a little pressure they stayed in place. When we had used most of the treasures we left them to dry in the afternoon sun.
I brought it inside over night & left it under our hall radiator to dry. (Thanks again to my Husband for not complaining about another random piece of art work appearing in the house!) In the morning the grouting had set & it was time to take our mosaic outdoors again.
We tried several different areas of the garden, but Minnie liked her work of art in the corner. It looks beautiful in the morning when the sunshine catches the coloured glass & makes it glow.
This activity had Minnie actively involved from beginning to end, & the tactile experience it offered at the end was fantastic. It's been great to see spiders, ladybirds & other minibeasts exploring the mosaic too.
The decorated tile has been in the garden for several days now & nothing has come 'unstuck' as yet, even after being hit by a passing football!
Minnie was so engrossed in this activity, I'd love for her to create another mosaic with the other selection of 'treasures' we have sometime in the future.