Since then, I made a bit of progress (see at right) although its been pretty slow going. This is, more or less, what you see when you look down as you stand in the front door.
I haven’t finished grouting between the irregular pieces of marble (the background) but the octopus himself (or herself) is complete.
The mosaic is between 5-6 feet wide and 10-12 feet high/deep. The octopus is made of glass mosaic tile (which you can buy by the pound). The border is made from a yellow Italian clay tile (which was rescued from a dumpster) and a cheap marble tile I bought from the Builder’s supply. The background is made from broken and irregular off-white/tan Italian unpolished marble (again, rescued from the dumpster) mixed with blue and tan glass tiles.
Once the floor is completely grouted, it will look much lighter than it does here. It also looks better under daylight; I took this photo by incandescent light.