A Celebration of a Table

Recent history

 The table top is done!!! Once the grout has dried a bit, we'll mount it to the table base... I'll need to seal the grout next week as well but I'm counting it as done.

I'm very pleased with the finished product; it looks better in person that in the photo.  HOWEVER... If I didn't critique my work, then how would I become a better artistan?

I originally wanted a ring of poppies in a field of graduating color, but one I got the poppies ready to go the rest of the concept didn't work. The project went on timeout. Then one day I thought it would be awesome to do a bay laurel (a native species) leaf border, like you see on quilts; I guessed where to put it and was relatively pleased with it. That took awhile as I got tired of cutting leaves, and wasn't sure of the spacing. (More timeout.) Once I completed the leaves, I couldn't figure out what to put in the middled (Again more timeout). Somewhere in the middle of this, the garage bay that I affectionately call "Studio B" was used for storage for a variety of fiber things, sapping my gumption. Finally, I decided to put radiating leaves in the center, and almost put the table again figuring out out what to use as background; this time, I just went for it. The thin gap between the leaves and the outer border was problematic.  But I finished the table. And grouted it today.

Better in person than in the photo... Table is 2' in 
diameter (60 cm?)

So the biggest issue was the design. Had I gone into the project with a design that worked,  we'd have been using this table 5 years ago and I could have moved onto other projects that didn't make me feel bad about my decisions.

Other issues?

• I don't love the leaves in the center. But I don't hate them, and I don't know what I could have done otherwise. 
• For background areas, I need to pay attention to piece size; pieces should be fairly uniform in size, even with crazy piecing.  Also, the grout gaps should be more uniform. The ones around and between the leaves are particularly oversized, which made it hard to grout.
• The leaves are higher in some spots; I think I used more thinset under them. DH will not be happy about this! But really, neither am I.
• I don't care for the dark tiles in the outermost border; they would stand out less if they were closer to a uniform value. I almost pried them off but then decided to finish the table instead.
• The pieces between the outer border and the leaf wreath were super fussy to cut, and are a bit wonky. They only work because they're close to the color of the grout, which hides a multitude of issues. I'm happy with the result but the implementation is in response to bad design choices.
• If probably could have mixed the background color (going from light to dark) a little better.
• The background should have ended in an uninterrupted grout against the wreath. It's not bad, but it's not right.

And what pleases me about the piece?

• I really love the flowers, more so than before they were grouted. The dark grout ("Espresso") really makes them pop.  They're happy, they read to me as my beloved poppies.
• The wreath makes me happy. It gives motion to the piece, and frames the flowers nicely. 
• The dark brown border looks nice while not competing with the anything else. Instead of being a lame attempt to fill an awkward space, I think it's a nice finish.
• It's a lovely counterpart to the other table in the vicinity; different size and style but much of the same glass, and the same grout. 

The other poppy table