Fond du lac Lake House View

This was a commissioned project I did for my friend Emily. It is based on a photo of her family’s lake house in Fond du lac, WI. I’ve been to the house before and it’s beautiful. We spent most of the weekend sitting on the dock eating delicious food, drinking wine and knitting. I remember I made a blue headband with yarn and nettles Emily’s mom got for us. We also went out on the boat and jet skied (which we capsized after the four of us got on and stopped for a photo) and relaxed in the sun. I couldn’t help but think about that visit while working on this piece.

I did the trees first and used a deep purple. Samantha went with me to purchase the glass and we picked out the palate together. I am using glass, backer-board (cement board) and thin-set because all of these are OK for outside. The board is not going to warp with moisture, and the cement-based thin-set is super strong. Emily wanted this to be able to live outside so I had to make sure to use all the correct materials.

Next I worked on the reflection over the lake. You’ll see I made a few edits to this part when you compare it to the final, grouted piece. I didn’t think you could really read the water as reflecting the trees as well as you can in the finished version.

Here is the pre-grout stage. I went with Pewter Gray grout which is dark enough to make it still feel like a sunset but not too dark that it just blends the trees together. There is too much detail in the trees and I didn’t want to hide that with a super dark grout.

The last step is rigging the piece for hanging. This is normally a step you want to do first, but I tend to get excited about starting a project right away that I forget about these important steps. It’s no problem, but I did have to close my eyes while we drilled holes into the back of the completed mosaic, being extra careful not to go further than the 1/4 thickness of the backer-board. Luckily it went smoothly and as a gift, my dad gave me my very own power drill. It came in a sweet box and now I can do all the drilling myself, prior to laying down tile.