The Birds Have Left the Nest

 Well, yesterday I set my ceramic birds free from their cold, stony perches. This process was actually easier than I thought it would be - most of the them came off quite quickly. We had only one injury. Well, we actually had one bird injury, as one bird lost his tail. I also suffered a cut that needed a band aid. However, for a mosaic project, a "One Band Aid" rating is pretty good. Here are the little guys:

All of these birds suffered no harm in the removal process.

Little blue bird  here lost his tail, but that can be glued back on.

I also took the roses off of the - the - that ceramic dish thing that I bought.  They also came off very cleanly:

I also have a collection of broken dishes that I might use.  Here they are:

These were little bowls that we bought on our last trip to Prague.  They were so cute - perfect for dipping sauces, and I loved them.  Unfortunately, they met a cruel end after falling out of the cabinet onto our new tile counter tops.

Here we have the salt shaker from our wedding dishes:  Poppies on Blue.  It suffered a "Moving to California" injury.  We still use these dishes everyday, but obviously not the salt shaker.  It's healthier that way, anyway.

This is one of the china plates that we bought right before we moved from Prague.  It also was broken in the move.

Well, I suppose the best thing about breaking dishes when you do mosaics is that you get fresh new materials - and from things that you love and have meaning.    Or from the things that you really don't want and break on purpose.   (Just kidding.)

Tomorrow night we start to work on the plaques, so there will be some serious breaking going on between now and then.  I think I'll stock up on Band aids!