"Forest in the seat" outdoor mosaic sculpture

Outdoor poolside seat constructed of hebel with ceramic mosaic covering

Artist comment: The final creation you see here is a culmination of nearly two years work interrupted by two long heavy wet seasons. it also marks a rather long and steep learning curve, as it's the first time I've ever attempted sculpture and is certainly the largest mosaic I've created on a non-flat surface. Took some faith from the client & a good deal of persistence on my part (most mosaic artists will know what I'm talking about there!)

The first stage was to create the seat from hebel which I did by laying the blocks in roughly the shape of the seat and with a handsaw, grinder & files create the final shape. Much consideration had to be given to the comfort of the seat, and to ensure that all water would run off - it wouldn't have been very practical if the seat were to hold water as we live in a very wet & dewy area.

I then designed & constructed the mosaic in pieces using a combination of the mesh method & by paper facing. Due to the contours and to allow some margin for error I mostly left spaces between the mosaic pieces, which were filled on site using the direct method.

Once the mosaic was installed and set, I then spent a couple of days going over the work with a dremel filing off all the sharp edges.

I also installed a couple of insets around the pool (see below) and all in all the customers pool area now looks quite magnificent.

A most difficult but satisfying project!

Side view

Waterlily inset 2