I’m pleased to say that my butterfly mosaic on a tree stump is now finished! 🙌

The mosaic itself was created on tile-backer board rather than directly onto the wood — and there’s an important reason for that: durability.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know I’m all about making mosaics that last!

And when it comes to an outdoor mosaic, wood is a definite no-no as a substrate. It naturally expands, contracts and moves with changes in moisture and temperature, which isn’t a good combination with a rigid mosaic surface.

For this project, creating the mosaic separately on tile-backer board and then securely attaching that to the tree stump gave me a workable solution — while still allowing me to keep all that lovely natural, weathered wood around the outside. 😉

Attaching the mosaic to the tree stump

Once the main mosaic was complete, it was time to bring the two parts together and give this old tree stump its rather colourful new life!

The first job was to position the tile-backer board and screw it securely onto the wooden stump.

Of course, that left me with visible screws and a few gaps that needed dealing with before I could call it finished.

So, I filled the gaps, covered the screw areas and added the final pieces of mosaic, allowing the fixings to disappear into the design.

Grouting the final areas

Once everything had set, I grouted the newly tiled areas.

I used the same dark grout so that the new sections blended into the original mosaic and the whole surface felt like one finished piece.

Then came one of the most satisfying parts of any mosaic project…

The final clean!

Gradually all those lovely greens, purples and shimmering pieces of glass emerged again — along with the finished butterfly. 🦋✨

From old tree stump to garden art

And here it is… finished!

I love the contrast between the rough, weathered bark and the delicate butterfly amongst all that green and purple mosaic.

The irregular shape of the stump, the cracks and texture of the bark and the uneven natural edge haven’t been hidden away. They’re all still very much part of the finished piece.

It’s still unmistakably an old tree stump, but now it’s also a little piece of garden art. 🌿

And I rather like that.

There’s just one job left to do…

Get it back into the garden! 🦋🌿

P.S. If you’d like a simple project to help you build your confidence making outdoor mosaics, my Mosaic A Garden Bird course is available now and is suitable for beginners.