It's all Folk.

This idea came to me the other day when I was putting together a Pinterest board of Vintage European tourist souvenirs, ones that I liked and would buy. When I'd got the items all together I noticed there was a very strong folk art theme to them. I have always liked Swedish Folk Art so I decided that would be the design for my next mosaic mirrors. I have handpainted the folk symbols onto the tiles, then fixed the paint to give a durable finish. The first one I made was this Red and White version. It's the traditional colours I think of when I think of Swedish Folk Art. I painted over the bare wood with white gloss to give a clean, bright, slightly shabby chic, finish. The strips of pattern also remind me of embroidered trim.

The second version I've made is another, what I think of as traditional, Swedish country folk style colour combination of pale Blue and Grey. This time the design is painted in blue onto pale grey tiles, the plain tiles are pale blue, and the bare wood of the mirror has a blue/grey woodstain which has a nice, sunbleached, faded effect to it.

The handpainting, fixing, and then making the mosaic, makes this mirror pretty labour intensive, but the results are worth it, I think.