I have a weakness for dishes, and on each trip I take, I usually find a potter who makes colorful pots and bring some home. I also collect old dishes in pretty colors and patterns from flea markets and yard sales. When they break, I cannot bear to throw them out. I began saving them at least a decade ago, stashing them in the basement in the hopes of using them for mosaic work. I have been intrigued by the pique assiette technique, which uses shards of broken dishes to make new things—whether they’re new vases or pots, walls, or buildings. To find out more about the art of mosaics, do some Web searches using these key words: Maison Picassiette, Antoni Gaudí mosaic, Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, the Little Chapel, Guernsey. You, too, will be inspired to save your broken dishes! Making a mosaic-covered flowerpot is a messy project best done outside or in a space that can get wet and dirty. Give yourself several days to complete this project. First you will break your dishes into small pieces called shards. With a gluelike substance called mastic, you will attach them to the pot. Finally, you will fill the empty spaces with grout, which will hold them onto the pot.