Part 1: Lady of the Garden - mosaic make over

Reviving Lady of the Garden - cement sculpture with bling...
A couple of years ago I made a cement sculpture - from scratch with metal frame chicken wire body stuffed with paper and covered with cement.  Long wavy hair and a crown of some sparkle stone  - she adorned our garden for the past 3 years.  I always wanted to finish the body part but everybody said that she looked lovely.
Today I decided - enough - she needs a makeover. Some mosaic and bling stones to make her look new And here is the process:

I have used:
PVA Glue
Smashed up old dinner plates
News paper
Small hammer - to smash the plate
2 x Coloured imitated stones (Crazy Clark $2.99 a packet)
Paintbrush - to paint the glue on
Plastic gloves - to protect my hands from sharp bits of the smashed up plate (and I have just painted my nails and couldn't stand glue on my new pretty nails.
White Grouting - Keracolour (Sanded grout with Polymer) $8.99 from Masters

This is The Lady before the makeover.
She is quite heavy - 20 kg of solid cement.









Mosaic body
I drew an outline on the body where I wanted the mosaic tiles and decided that a cloak would do nicely. I took some old plates (sitting in the back of the cupboard) and smashed them up.  Put newspaper down, then put plate on newspaper and cover the plate with an old towel and smash away.  The towel keeps all the bits from the plate from flying around.  Do not ever smash any glass / porcelain without a cover.  The splinters can fly up and cause serious damage to your eyes not to speak of the sharp bits on the floor.  Be very careful and clean the working area regularly.  There is nothing more annoying than digging a piece of glass out of your foot....

 Smashed up bits

Anyway...

I glued the big stones around the neck and did two rows of blue and clear stones down the middle. I added mosaic tiles to define the inner bits of the pattern.
I then filled the space between the small mosaic tiles with the pieces of the blue plate.
                            

This is the result.

       

I need to wait for the glue to dry  - this will be overnight - and then continue to fill the spaces between the tiles with grouting. I will post the final product on the blog tomorrow.  So look out for Part 2 - Lady of the Garden. Feel free to comment on the process.