Snipper Nippers

The glass tile nippers/wheel cutters I ordered off ebay ($11, incl. shipping) just arrived. I bought them to try cutting china dishes up into mosaic tiles.
I found the info here:
"How to Make Broken-China Mosaics"

OOOoooh---fun! and super easy to snip the ceramic.

This is (was) a cracked willow-ware saucer ^ made by the Société Céramique, Maastrich, Holland, once (1850s–1969) one of the big potters in the ceramics town of Maastrich.
(Note to self: check the maker's mark before you clip the plate.)

See, I've been saving old china plates at the thrift store--ones that are cracked, chipped, or outright broken.
(You might be surprised at the way donations arrive--plates stacked with no wrapping in a plastic bag is not unusual.) 

SVDP used to save them for a mosaic-maker, who'd pick them up. But now this person has more than enough china, so workers have simply been throwing it out---the m.o. at all 3 thrift stores I've worked at. 

I'm pretty blasé about throwing stuff out (SO MUCH STUFF), but last week I couldn't bring myself to toss a cracked Limoges porcelain* platter with gold rim (real gold) into the gray plastic 32-gallon trash can. 
I suppose I heard my mother's voice--she loved that sort of antique dishware. Personally I prefer space-age design, but still, it makes me cringe to throw out something so beautiful and old--something other people took a lot of care to make.

I asked the manager if we could start saving china again, and he said of course––if I'd take responsibility for it. 

I'm going to tape plates together in batches of 5 and price each batch a dollar. Labelled "for mosaic-making or fairy gardens", they'll sell I bet. (Almost all the 25 packets of sewing notions I'd put together last week sold in three days.)
And my favorites, I'll turn into my own tiles. I do like blue-and-white ware.

*Limoges porcelain: "The essential ingredients used in creating Limoges porcelain are all local natural ingredients [in Limoges, France]: kaolin [a clay mineral] is combined with pulverized feldspar and quartz. Then begins the process of milling, pulverizing, heating, molding, and firing. It is porcelain only if it retains a translucent quality."