Broken Dishes Mosaic

A visit to Goodwill recently provided most of what I needed to create another mosaic. A wooden crate and several plates. The cashier was a bit taken back when I said don't bother wrapping the plates. I plan on smashing them with a hammer.

The inside of the crate is painted gold, but the outside bare. Appearing to be pressed wood but sturdy enough to handle what I had in mind I taped off the inside; lightly sanded the outside, and sprayed it with white primer.

The solid color plates were wrapped in an old towel and smashed with a hammer on the driveway to break into small pieces.  Because the pattern plates would be the focal point I used my craft club teacher's tile nipper tool. It provides more control than a hammer.

Once I had a variety of pieces I decided to use the pattern pieces as flower petals and surround them with dark blue pieces.  I did have some solid light blue and yellow pieces but they didn't provide the contrast I was after.

As with my previous mosaic, I used a premixed combination adhesive/grout. It was like frosting cookies and worked great to adhere each piece to the crate.

An acrylic paint "Payne's Grey" provided a pretty blue to tint the white adhesive/grout before grouting.

The final touch is a border painted with the "Payne's Grey"  on the handle inserts and the top edge.

Now - what should I use it for...yarn, magazines, or gift it back to Goodwill?