A few days ago, Tamar suggested that perhaps I’d want to do a mosaic on the outside of my house. I’d been doing the exterior earthen plaster and was nearly complete, and I had only a small portion of wall remaining near the entryway. I took her up on the offer.

I enjoy beautiful mosaics in buildings, but I haven’t been so inspired to do some of my own yet, thinking that maybe I would do some alis painting once everything was said and done. (I think I wasn’t willing to slow down to do any mosaics, to be honest… since they must be done while the plaster work is going on.)

Anyway, I’m happy we took the time to do this mosaic. Mosaics add a lot of character to a building, and it’s worth the effort. This particular mosaic took an entire day’s worth of time. It was a little tricky since we had to glob on extra earthen plaster every time we added a piece of tile. Once the plaster set a bit, I buffed the surface with a piece of rubber and smoothed everything out.

You can use small stones, broken tile, glass, or any other small or flat objects to make a mosaic on a cob wall. The mosaic must be set immediately into the earthen plaster before it has a chance to dry. You can always spray the wall down as you go to prevent drying. Once everything is burnished and cleaned, the mosaic really shines.