This piece has been done for forever, but I’m only just getting around to posting it because I’ve only just gotten around to taking a picture of it. Why, you ask? Well, 2 reasons: (1) I’m lazy / forgetful and (2) do you know how hard it is to photograph mirrors?? I can’t seem to get a good picture inside because the flash totally buggers things up, but today was a lovely sunny day so I was able to take this guy outside and snap some shots. And yes, those are telephone wires in the reflection. Sorry.
I guess one interesting tidbit about this plate is that the mirror was found in the trash. Yes, the trash. The neighbourhood where I live is overrun with students and at the end of each semester it seems that the dumpsters just overflow with perfectly good stuff they’re throwing out as they move back home to live with mummy and daddy for the summer. As my primary school librarian used to say in a very exasperated tone, “Kids, kids, kids…”
Anyway, one day I got home from work and there was this large mirror just sitting beside the dumpster, which I can see from my living room window (yes, it’s all quite scenic). Granted, it was a little bit chipped here and there, but for the most part it was in good shape. I thought to myself, “Julie, there’s a mosaic in that mirror.” So I grabbed an empty cereal box and my partner (dumpster diving is always more fun in pairs) and out we went. Of course, the mirror was too big to fit in the cereal box so we set about breaking it up, which was much easier said than done in the end-of-winter melting snow and mud (although there was something quite satisfying about stomping on the glass to break it).
And that’s how this plate came to be. It’s just one of the many treasures we’ve found in the trash here in Ottawa. Maybe I’ll tell you about our other finds sometime…like when I’ve got no mosaics to blog about yet have an urge to write.
