A Gatepost Mosaic

A decorative mosaic fills in where a bad mortar patch once was.

There was only one left, gatepost that is, on the left of the driveway.

I imagine there was a small carving or a plaque with the residence address on the approximately 9 by 11 inch area on each of the four sides. It has a great limestone capstone which is characteristic of this neighborhood.

Inspired by a mosaic I saw in a Minnesota bank, I asked the homeowner if she would like to try a mosaic. When I showed her a cement version of my 'fleurette', she really liked the way it looked, so I proceeded to prepare the brick post for a mosaic/ornament.

I used some pink styrofoam insulation to help re-tuck the loose mortar in the old brick post. I had my doubts about how it would work when I found myself stuffing mortar in with my fingers. Though, after keeping it damp to cure well, and once I was able to fill in all around the styrofoam, it worked great. When I pulled out the pink foam, it was perfect to use to prepare the mosaic.

I wanted the face of the tiles to be roughly the same level as the mortar joint I had prepared, and I knew I had about a 1/2 inch of depth, so I decided to make up the mosaics inside on some 'tilebacker' by hardiplank. I had some scraps that would work perfectly ( sizewise).

The tile pieces themselves cut rather easily and I found that there were tons of possibilities.

I used thinset to lay the tile onto the tilebacker, then I even grouted indoors for the most part. It went so quickly, I decided to go install them and use my leftover grout to grout around the complete piece.

To keep the piece from falling out, or sliding down, I stuffed pieces of styrofoam under it, and began grouting it in immediately.

Two mosaics.

Reality.