Once you start looking you'll be amazed at the places you will find china shards. You'll stop for tag sales, yard sales, and flea markets with a newfound purpose, and you won't be as upset when a favorite dish crashes to the floor, since it will no longer be destined for the garbage can.
Begin at Home
You will most certainly find sufficient materials to begin a project just from everyday mishaps in your own household. Get your friends and neighbors in on the act as well by asking them to save their accidents and castaways I've found that most people are dedicated savers because they do not like to see good things go to waste and they will welcome the chance to clear out their odds and ends. A dealer in vintage china called me once because she had a box of plates that had arrived broken. She said, "It would make me feel better to see these wonderful pieces recycled into something meaningful that someone could enjoy." I have even come home to find boxes of china on my porch; I often never find out who the donor is, but their shards have yielded treasures.
Frequent Flea Markets,
Thrift Stores, and Tag Sales
No Matter what part of the country you live in, there will always be a flea market, thrift shop, or depending on the weather and time of year, a good selection of tag sales where you can go hunting for materials for your work. Keep your eyes open for a single chipped dish, a box full of broken dishes, tins of old buttons, or some wonderful costume jewelry. If you buy in multiples, then you'll have enough to design borders for large pieces.
If you really want to amass a large collection of dishes for your palette, put together a flyer and pass it out to dealers of fine china and porcelain to let them know that you are interested in using breakage for art projects. Some dealers may want to charge a small fee for their broken dreams; others will give the shards to you for free.
Explore Beaches and
Abandoned Ocean Dump Sites
Beaches have always been a source of shells and pieces of worn bottle glass. Before laws were passed to prevent environmental damage, the ocean was used as a dump site. Now discarded bits of china, glass, and metal wash up along the coastline.
Excerpted from Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics © 1998 by Marlene Hurley Marshall with permission from Storey Books, Pownal, Vermont 05761
Collecting Shards