Elephant Decorative Tile Mosaic on Sandstone

Many years ago, whilst residing in Singapore, we purchased several ceramic elephants from “The Dragon’s Kiln”.

These ceramic elephants, intended as pot plant stands, are rather “thin skinned” and fragile. Several have “broken legs” and one, totally shattered.

These broken pieces have been laying around the garden for years.

I had the idea of using these broken pieces to create a mosaic of an elephant, on sandstone, as an outdoor garden decoration. I like the concept of mosaic art to create something beautiful from broken fragments of tiles, ceramics, stained glass etc.

I love the natural patterns and colour tones that appear in cut sandstone slabs and often these can form an integral part of the mosaic and background to form a complete scene, or tell a story. In this case, the lower section formed a natural dirt track, leading downhill from left to right; perfect for the elephant to be walking down the track. I added some ceramic tile rocks and boulders to the mosaic to further define the track and add some more points of interest to compliment the elephant and to fill out the scene.

After carefully cutting pieces to shape and glueing to the sandstone with Thinset adhesive it was then time to grout. The colour of the grout can “make or break” a mosaic. Initially, I tried a blue coloured grout as it looked good on another elephant mosaic I created earlier out of grey coloured tiles. That looked nice. However, it just didn’t work for these creamy coloured ceramic pieces so I changed the grout to a pinkish colour. That looks a lot better. Even our dog, Nala, approves. I think that is a look of approval!

I placed the completed piece at the end of the pool, flanked by two intact ceramic elephants. 

If you would love a mosaic on sandstone piece for your garden, contact me to find out more. I can create a design to suit your needs for your garden. These also make the perfect gift for the garden and outdoor person in your life.