The week of November 4 – 10, Rochelle and I traveled to Baja California Sur, accompanied by our husbands as support staff, to install our big project. It was kind of surreal to arrive and unpack the project we’d so carefully packed into shipping crates back at the end of August! Everything arrived perfectly, and we were ready to get started. There’s always some kind of glitch, and ours was that our luggage didn’t arrive with us on our flight! But from the kindness of our clients, their friends, and a mosaic artist in town, we were able to borrow clothes, and some important mosaic tools, so we didn’t miss a beat getting getting right to work. Here is the photo journey of the installation!
Day One
The job site, on the pool side. There’s our wall…at the deep end!
Transferring the cartoon to the wall.
Application of mortar to the first piece to install.
First piece attached.
Day Two
Moving right along with the sections on the pool side.
On the front wall, a worker chisels out the places where the decorative metal pergola beams will go. We will be directly applying the final bits of mosaic around these openings!
Rochelle is nearing the top of the pool side mosaic, while the guys work on those pergola beam openings.
It’s a gorgeous view of those mountains from inside the courtyard.
Next up, getting the cartoon taped to the front wall and traced.
First piece of this side installed!
Day Three
The bottom row set and taped for security while curing. The warm weather there aided in quick curing. We had to be careful to get our pieces tightly positioned before it set up too much!
Makeshift nipping station on the front porch.
Mixin’ and a washin’. We’re moving quickly up the wall!
Day Four
Double decker action!
View from top observation deck of the casa. Across the way was where were staying in a vacation rental. The serpentine path is a wheelchair accessible path to the first level rooms. Landscaping will fill in all around it.
Top of the wall: Done!
Closing in on it. Matching the top of the wall with the front.
Day Five
My on-site work table, to nip and shape tesserae for Rochelle to install directly.
Chopping stone on the portable hardy (but my auto timer camera set-up missed getting the hardy in the shot!) I had to get back to work, not take time setting up photo shoots!
Day Six
Final touches: screwing in the two gears.
She’s placing the last tessera!
And preparing for the “pièce de résistance” gear!
Final cleaning.
Two happy mosaic artists
View from across the way. One day, when more homes are built, you won’t get this distant of a view. But for now, it’s fun to see it when walking over from the other neighborhood! When the casa is complete, the wall surrounding our mosaic will be painted the color of the rest of the walls, tying in perfectly with the mosaic.