A client contacted us about imbedding mosaic stone in her countertops that would be part of an entire kitchen theme from Classical Italian motifs. Her walls would have mosaic wall panels of rams butting heads and other mythical symbolic images tied to the countertops via the mosaic vines that danced across the surface. To begin with we received the artist’s watercolor renderings to scale to study and photograph. These drawings were then sent to the stone cutter for the mosaics to be created. We templated the project and set up the forms while working with the client on counter top colors and patinas as well as practicing techniques for the pour. When the mosaics arrived with the original art work we decided to pour the top face down. We put our edge forms in place and painstakingly tacked the mosaics on the forms as directed by the original watercolors and placement notes. After mixing the integral color and pouring it in plastic drinking cups we spread the contents gingerly over the mosaics.  The thin vines were at times only the width of ¼”. The flowers had semi- precious stones glued to some of the stone mosaics.  The process was labor intensive but the time taken to hand place and massage the mud around the pieces was worth while and saved the mosaics from being lost.  The rest of the concrete was applied after the hand holding phase then finished as usual. Two weeks later we broke the forms with our fingers crossed as all was reveled. In the bottom of the forms laid all the semi precious stones that delaminated from the stone bases that the mosaic cutter had attached them to. Everything else looked good except for a couple of pieces that needed to be dug out and reset. The semi precious stones were a jumble but we were saved by the watercolors. We were able to reattach all of the stones in the right places which took hours of pure concentration. The kitchen tops and a large island as well as two window seats were for a beautiful Victorian apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The tops became part of the artwork of the kitchen and integral to the final overall look to be achieved. The wall murals were completed after our installation in order to follow the vine patterns up to the walls. As true with many projects the cabinets were completely finished as well as the walls, floors etc. Some key things changed in the window wells therefore, our project needed tweaking with grinders. All in all a perfect fit at the end of the day and one of the most fantastic furniture grade pieces we have done to that point. We look forward to more opportunities like this one.