Mosaic Maisons

Mosaic Maisons, garden art for you, a cosy home for your garden birds.

New to my website (and the houses will be available on Etsy as I add them too), Mosaic Maisons. The idea was that bird boxes make the perfect way to display panels of mosaic, so they become like a practical frame for garden art. Mosaic Maisons is a fun way to offer these bird houses like an estate agent like luxury residences for your garden birds.

The first three boxes are these, although only one has made it onto my website, the other two have been reserved. So it pays to get in quick, just like on the real property market.

Summer Meadow Design

Summer Meadow Bird Box

A couple of new items with the Summer Meadow design on them, and with new colours of grout used with it too. The mosaic decorated bird box has a lovely blue grout used with the wildflowers to give a hint of blue sky behind them. The roof is painted a very pale sky blue too. A touch of summer all year round for the birds to use too.

Summer Meadow Coaster

The other Summer Meadow item is a home or garden use mosaic coaster which has a black grout used. This gives the design a slightly folk art feel to it. Great for using on the garden table as a decoration with a practical use too.

Mosaic Bird Box

Spanish Farmhouse Mosaic Garden Bird Box

After adding a couple of bee houses to my wildlife range, I thought I'd add some bird nest boxes too. The first one is called Spanish Farmhouse. It has a geometric blue and white design mosaic which, with the wooden roof gives a lovely rustic feel. The sides of the mosaic have a line of metallic copper and the sides and back of the box are painted with a muted putty colour which gives a fresh, modern feel, so this bird house will look great in any style of garden.

Summer Meadow Mosaic Garden Bird Box

The second bird box is using the Summer Meadow design that I've used on garden ball decorations before. It's a lovely bright design with poppies, buttercups, cornflowers, daisies and butterflies, that will add some colour to your garden, while being practical for the birds to nest in, in spring and roost in, in winter. The roof and sides of the mosaic are painted with sky blue, and the sides and back are painted white to keep the whole box looking light and airy.

Copper Verdigris Wirework Daisies Bird Nest Box

Sometimes, I like to do something a bit different from mosaic. I like to create effect and textures, which is sometimes hard to do with tiles. So, I make decorative wirework bird boxes. This one had a lovely brown wood stain on it already, so I thought a light whitewash would suit it, and I really wanted to make some daisy decorations that looked like they were made from copper and had the verdigris starting to happen on them. I think it turned out quite nicely.

Fairground Flowers Garden Bird Nest Box

Fairground Flowers Garden Bird Nest Box

The flowers on this bird box have been handmade with wire, then hand painted with weatherproof paint in bright fairground colours of red, yellow and blues. Each flower has then been randomly attached to the bird box. This nest box is practical for the birds as it can be left in the garden all year round so can be used for nesting in the spring and for roosting out of bad weather in the winter. The bird box also makes a great garden decoration for you to look at too.

Rambling Rose and Seed Heads Bird Boxes

Rambling Rose Bird Box

Seed Heads Bird Box

These two bird boxes have been hand painted with a slight distressed finish using layers of paint. Then both have had wire decoration applied to finish them. The first one has wire Rambling Roses that are hand painted pink and copper, and includes wire hearts on both sides of the box. The second box has wire flower Seed Heads all around the sides and front. Both are practical for the birds, and both are very pretty for your garden.

Wired Bird Boxes

Rambling Rose Bird Box

Daisy Chain Bird Box

I love hand decorating with paint. Adding effects and creating patterns. I also like creating and engineering things. So as I've got the tools to use wire for my jewellery it seemed like a good idea to find a way to add some wire to the bird boxes to create a raised effect to the designs. I really like the finished look. Especially as I've got some special paint that is suitable to outdoor use that I can use to create even more effects on the wire. For these two bird boxes I've created a rusty copper look to the wire. Practical for the birds, and decorative for the garden. A perfect combination.

Seed Head Bird Box

Rose Daisy Mosaic Garden Bird Box

Rose Pink Mosaic Garden Bird Box

Newly listed for Easter, this bird box has a design of rose pink, blossom like, daisy flowers, with pale green leaves on a pastel grey background. The border tiles are soft aqua blue, and the box is painted sky blue to tie in. It has a lovely airy feel about it. It is designed to be in the garden all year adding colour and decoration, and as a place for the birds to nest and roost in.

National Nest Box Week

Mosaic Bird Box

Did you know we are in National Nest Box Week? 14th - 21st Feb. Time to put up a nest box to help the birds out, if you can. Here's the official NNBW page - apparently last year was the worst breeding season on record. Probably because of the odd weather we had. Putting up a nest box, and providing food and water during the breeding season, and beyond, are all going to help. If you haven't got room for a bird box, a bird bath or feeder are going to help keep the breeding birds in top condition when they are busy collectiong food for the young.

Mosaic Bird Box

I'm not an obsessive bird watcher, by any means. In fact if the weather's no good I'm not going out anywhere. But I like that I can help my garden birds by just putting a nail up and hanging a box up. Filling a saucer for water. And popping a few fat balls, and peanuts in a feeder will see them alright if times get a bit tough. It's very easy. And a free wild bird display to watch out of the kitchen window while I'm washing up. Win win.

Pop over to my website to see the latest bird bath designs I have in stock, as well as the mosaic bird boxes. They are great in a garden because they are decorative as well as practical. So you can enjoy looking at them as well the birds enjoying using them

New Season Preview - Part 2

Heathland Mosaic Garden Bird Nest Box

Heathland Mosaic Garden Bird Box

The garden tests are going well and the tester bird box has survived the snow and ice intact, so far. I'll give it to the end of this spell of bad weather and then I think they will pass for garden worthy.

This is another of the nest boxes that I will be listing when the testing is complete.

I've been trying to think of names for the palettes I'm using that will link them all together. Not easy, I can tell you. But once I got an idea for one, the others seemed to slot into place. This one I'm going to go with Heathland because of the sandy browns, light and silvery greens, and heather purple which you find in that kind of hot, dry landscape.

Coast Mosaic Garden Bird Nest Box

The bird box that I previewed last week I'm going to call Coast because it's reminding me of a rocky coastline with grey cliffs, blue sky, white clouds and blue/green sea.

Coast Mosaic Garden Bird Nest Box

I have one more palette that I want to add to the range and I have a landscape name in mind that will fit the colours for that too.

I also think that if I name my palettes (like I have done on my mosaic bird baths) I can use them on other items to create ranges. I love it when a plan comes together. So watch this space (or my Folksy shop or website) for the bird boxes and for matching bird baths in the bird box landscape palettes too.

A new season preview.

Coast Mosaic Garden Bird Nest Box

This year I am planning to add to my wildlife product range by including hand decorated bird boxes. I was originally going to cover the whole box with mosaic. But I've decided that I quite like the flexibility of using paint and mosaic to create colour combinations. I like having the large blocks of colour on the sides and roof, contrasting or complimenting with the front design.

Putting mosaic straight onto wood that's going to be used in the garden is a bit iffy, as wood expands and contacts when it gets wet then dries, so I have designed a panel that I can attach to the front of the bird box which is a stable base for the mosaic to go onto and won't be affected by movement. It's also great as extra insulation (helping keep the interior warmth inside the box) and protection (helping to stop the box from overheating if the sun is on it, and protecting the entrance hole a bit more from predators, and direct rain).

Coast Mosaic Garden Bird Nest Box

As with all my items I am currently trialing the boxes my own garden to make sure they stand up to the weather. There's still a few more cold snaps for them to go through before they'll pass. Plus I might well tweak some of the colours (the beauty of leaving some of the design as painted wood).

Keep an eye on this blog, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get a heads up when they go on sale.

In honour of our new shed...

...I decided to create some decoration for it. I had an ornamental bird box that has seen better days. The paint that had been used originally I don't think was for external use because it was all flaking and peeling off after one winter outside. The roof wood was warping and cracking. I don't think shops should be allowed to sell things aimed at the garden unless they use materials that are all weather, or at least specify it's for interior use. Anyway, I also had some vintage plates with chips around the rims, so I decided to try my hand at Pique Assiette. Basically, it's mosaic made up of broken china, or ceramic pieces. I sanded back the paint on the bird box, cut up a couple of the plates and added the mosaic to the front of the box. I then painted the rest of the wood with weatherproof paint.

I painted the roof a shade of blue to match a shade in the tiles and artficially aged the roof by overpainting the blue finish with some green wood preservative. I'm quite pleased with the end result. For a first attempt. To be honest, I've always thought things made with the Pique Assette technique were a bit, well, twee. Which is why I've never tried it. But I didn't want to throw this bird box, or my vintage plates away, so I gave it a go. I think my bird box has a touch of vintage style about it, so I like it.

I may start making some more of these to go in my shop, but (as I always do) I want pass it onto my Quality Control department. Which means I'll be testing my one in my garden first to see how it fares.