Mosaic story floors

I started tiling last year when Sarah Haas came through and showed me what she leaned with Dan Phillips, other tilers, and then through trial and error of her own professional tiling efforts. She showed me how to tile with commercial thin-set mortar and grout with scrap tile. I decided that I wanted to complete the stairs with scrap tile and bottle caps. 

This year I started a new project involving bottle bottoms. I cut the bottom off of beer bottles with a tile saw and mortared them in.  To strengthen the bottoms (even though they are pretty flat) I filled them in with mortar as I set them. 

As always I had to try new things. I started with the thin-set mortar for tiles, but remembered how easily some of the tiles on the stairs had popped out pre grout. Instead, I grabbed a bag of premixed brick style mortar.  Once dry these tiles were not going anywhere. Thin-set mortar allows future changes if you may want to scrape everything up and try again, but after this much work with mosaic, I can't imagine wanting to redo the floor. 

I then mixed my own mortar for a bit, with local masonry sand from the quarry and a bag of portland cement. I found with this that sometimes there were still small pebbles that would make an uneven setting for the tiles and they would pop out. Next time I use this sand I will pre-screen.  Darrell, a contractor staying at moonCat right now, brought a bucket of fine sand scooped from a local property. Even though this contained a small amount of silt the mix held great, and this was my absolute favorite, until the cats found the bucket and made it into a litter box.

I did consider using an earthen plaster of clay, sand, starch, matrix material (such as straw, manure, etc.) and water. I decided against this because the house is in the ground. If by chance flooding occurred, I would need to redo the natural plaster and tile. With the amount of time I put into mosaic work, I think I will seek sustainability by using materials that will not need to be continually consumed, but will last for a long time (use of portland cement instead of natural plaster).

I did start with commercial grout, and decided to end with commercial grout, but recently spoke with a friend about mixing my own. My friend Michael (that I met at Earthships) recommended a fine sand mix very similar to the actual mortar I was making. He said mixing in the structural poly fibers used for cement may help prevent cracking. I may play with adding lime to the grout as well. At The Farm Ecovillage Training Center I had seen that the home Albert Bates was staying in had bottle caps laid in a lime plaster, but it did not hold well. Perhaps a mix of some portland and lime . . . and a little soaked sawdust?

I prefer to use natural or "waste" materials when possible. With this floor I used scrap tile from a mix of other contractors, the Habitat For Humanity Re-Store, and bottles and bottle caps that were being thrown away from local bars. I will admit that on one dark and frustrating night I decided to "Just finish it quickly!" by laying actual square tile bought from a store and did buy a couple of boxes of cheap tile.

I have come to realize that my tiling values include local material sourcing and waste/recycled materials as much as possible, but also there is a measure for my time and effort. I wanted to make the tree much larger with the bottle bottoms, but this is very time intensive.  I pushed myself for long days to complete the mosaic tile quickly and used all of my great TFH kinesiology pain releasing techniques to support days of statically bending over and mortaring in bottle caps and bottle bottoms. The tile portions go very quickly and are not quite so static. 

I can thank craigslist, local bars, and local flooring contractors for most of my tiling material! Thanks to Phoenix for all of her help placing bottle caps, and WWOOFer Chris Burke for hours of helping me to cut bottle bottoms.

I really enjoyed this project and have found it very rewarding. I am looking forward to more! As little girls at moonCat plot about who will own the house when I die I feel that my mosaic story floors can promote inspiration, creativity, culture beyond my lifetime. 

Kids: conflict transformation and mediation

Ivy and Zoe are back with their mother and soon will be headed back to their other new home in Europe. We really enjoyed having the girls here. Jerome took a few weeks of vacation and we all had a lot of fun playing and exploring new areas. Having two four-year-olds and a five-year-old requires a lot of attention and energy. I think this seems like an age with a lot of transitions. The girls are all still learning where they can be independent, when they need to ask, and how to best communicate their needs and desires.

I think communication is a fascinating subject. When people are together though, misunderstandings and confrontation are unavoidable. A little over a year ago (two years ago?) I discovered Non-Violent Communication when I ran across the book in a library. It is a way of expressing your feelings and transforming conflict. Jerome and I have used this throughout our relationship when we are feeling, tense, stressed, hurt, or having a hard time understanding each other. We use it with Phoenix to help her communicate when she is upset. Phoenix really seems to enjoy it and often steps in as mediator for other kids who aren't getting along well. At our Mommas and Babes camping trip Phoenix would step in to help Shelby and Grace when they would get upset and yell at each other, helping them to communicate effectively.

When Ivy and Zoe were here it was fun watching the girls take responsibility to resolve their own conflicts.

It breaks down to:

1 Observation (objective)

2 Feelings

3 Needs

4 Request (of the other person)

For kids we often guide the process as so:

ok, wait, take a deep breath

Now (to kid #1)) tell me what you saw happen.

(To kid #2) tell me what you saw happen.

(To kid #1) Tell your sister/friend how that made you feel

(Now kid #2's turn to share feelings)

Each kid then gets asked what he/she needs and how he/she thinks that this need can be met.

Both kids are usually able to resolve things at this point.

After a few times we tell that they can work it out between themselves, because they now have a template. It is really fun when there is a third kid to act as mediator. They take charge and act so grown-up, it is like another game.

. . .not to say that there are not times that we all get tired and irritable and end up having quiet time or nap time instead of talking through a conflict . . .

I really want to do the NVC workbook and attend a conference sometime.

www.cnvc.org

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

Marshall B. Rosenberg