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Nancy's Tile Art -- A Major Bathroom Remodel
Click for larger images	Here's a photo of the business end of our shower/tub surround (this end has the controls). Nancy did this without much in the way of guidance, too. When we moved into the house the bathroom needed to be completely rebuilt, so we had the workmen leave the sheetrock around the tub completely bare except for an extra waterproofing layer. Then she free-hand drew the art -- the trees, birds, where she'd put the fish, even the seagulls. A note to herself here and there about colors she would use -- and then she started gluing. Some of the pieces of glass are store-bought squares, and some (many!) are pieces she'd break into the shape she needed for a particular spot. Notice that she went to the trouble of using various greens (for instance) to make the palm tree leaves look more realistic, and ditto the browns and pinks in the birds.
	Here's the "other" end of the tub. Okay, this is one of the parts of which I'm most happy to brag. Look at the sun, setting slowly into the waves, with reflections glinting off the clouds -- and off the top of the waves, below. A couple of green plants on the shore help make the scene more realistic. And notice that the "bark" on the near palm tree is shaped differently from that on the other palms. It makes for more variety and improves the artistic effect.
	Hey, if this is a seashore, there should be seagulls, right? Here they are, floating in the gentle breezes above our shower/tub.
	And in the water there should be some seaweed and some fish swimming around, of course.
	Here's a close-up of the "backsplash" that's around the back of the counter in the bathroom. It's a 1x4 piece of trim glued in place/tucked under the bottom edge of the mirror.
	A longer shot of the backsplash, showing not only how the top edge of the 'splash reflects in the mirror, but also some of the tropical-motif knick-knacks -- and, if you look closely in the upper left corner of the photo, you can see our glow-in-the-dark froggie that helps us find our way in the dark. I knew you'd be interested in that tidbit of information.
	This is how an artist tries to fix a minor goof-up. In the planning we made a measurement of how long the backsplash should be, and when all was done -- dang, we had made it an inch and a half too short. So she took a piece of wood of the correct (short) length, mosaiced it to match, and now it's hiding the error. We would fix the little gap between the long piece and the little fixer one, but we like having that gap in which to stick the frog's tiny foot. And yes, get it out of your system -- those are my legs wearing my "banana peel motif" shorts. Let me know if and when you stop chuckling...
	Here's the corner of the counter and the backsplash, showing not only how Nancy worked through the corner, but also the charger for her cellphone. Hey, did you notice that even our bathroom drinking glass has a tropical/flamingo motif? If you got this far, I bet you're wondering "HOW MANY PIECES??". A semi-scientific count gave the number as about 23,000 !