As promised there are pictures of the grouting. I start with a picture of the completed tile work. Notice the white between the tiles. That while is almost gone, as I pen this missive.

The grouting begins with mixing the dry grout with water. Floyd has decided to go "dryer" for this project, as he doesn't want to loosen too many tiles. I have done art mosaics for three years and even on a flat piece it is virtually impossible to avoid losing a few tiles. I had a nightmare last night that we grouted today and came in the next day to sheets of grouted tiles lying on the table. It wasn't pretty. So, Floyd is being really conservative in how wet the grout is. It has a tendency to migrate beneath the glass and could dislodge poorly adhered tiles. The picture is Ron mixing up a small batch of grout. The guys are working in small sections

The heat isn't helping. We have air conditioners and fans going as it is 95 + outside with wretched humidity. Dryer grout and fans blowing. Needless to say, the guys are working quickly.

The next step is applying the grout. The picture shows Floyd in our all time favorite posture doing this project. . .upside down under the edge of the onion. Ron, Lori, Floyd and Nancy all took that pose to adhere the tiles and now for the grouting. Tall Ron is doing the top and Floyd drew the short straw and is doing the underbelly of the onion.

After using a kitchen spatula to apply the grout, it has to be sponged off. There is a hazy quality to the glass because of left over grout, but it will wash off tomorrow when the grout has hardened a bit. Floyd will then polish with soft towels. A tedious job as best, but that is a way off as the soldering is the next step.

To show you the dramatic effective of the difference in grout and no grout, I managed to get a picture of a section where the grouted side is on the left and the non-grout is on the right. Even with the hazy film of the left over grout it is a pretty dramatic difference. The onion just gets prettier and prettier by the minute. I think I may have to visit her for a while after she is gone from the studio.

The next step is the decorative soldering and painting the base. This is a concern as the onion needs to be manhandled, literally, by Floyd while Ron applies hot solder to the top and the base. We are all nervous about knocking out tiles, getting burned, melting the fiberglass, and a zillion other things that can go wrong. As usual, I do the worrying for all three of us. The guys just seem to take one step at a time.

We are also trying to figure out how to weigh the thing. Everyone asks how much it weighs and we thought people might be interested in how many tiles. NOT! At the moment however, the guys are focusing on making the grout look spectacular! And a fine job they are doing.