I am completely enchanted by this little owl, which was carved from rough marble and granite. Actually, I just wanted to try out a new technique and wasn’t at all sure if it would turn out to be anything worth showing off. In this method, the tesserae are first laid out on a template. Next, apply a thick layer of tile adhesive to a second, identical template covered with plastic sheeting. As a result, the adhesive does not bond to the substrate, and once dry, the finished mosaic can be removed as a single piece and transferred to a permanent backing. Since I deliberately wanted to place the tesserae at an angle to suggest the softness and fluffiness of a bird’s plumage, this technique proved to be ideal. The owl’s head came together surprisingly quickly. Then my gaze wandered to my woodpile. The bark of an olive tree from Ayvalık seemed perfectly suited to capturing the structure of the plumage. In addition, there was a cedar shingle, the kind traditionally used in the United States …