MosaicSmith

More Shading Grout in a Mosaic

2012-01-16T19:55:00.008-05:00

Revisiting the topic of shading grout in a mosaic. In a previous post I shaded using two grout colors.

For this project, I shaded between four grout colors. The fade from deep black/green to pale green was chosen to enhance the glass shading.

First step was to play with mixes to find the effect I wanted. I used a plastic spoon, leveled off with a wooden stir stick as a measuring device. Stirred well, the dry mix color will be approximately the same as the finished, cured, color.

(Each recipe was written on the cup so it can be duplicated in the future, assuming those grout colors can be obtained. I used the colors black, mallard green, tea green and straw [no, not pear like it says on the cup, oops :] - for those that might have those colors on hand.)

Working from light to dark, I laid in each color. Since my substrate was glass, I marked it off into sections on the reverse using a sharpie marker. You might be able to see that in the first picture- green marks.

Picture on the right shows the grouted project before much 'smooshing' has happened.

In the left picture, you can see the results of careful cleaning. **Note: NO WATER, and no sponge, is used for this cleaning method.

First I removed excess grout. I started from the light end and moved across the piece from side to side just within that color. Then cleaned my tool (my finger!) and moved down a bit and repeated until I removed a lot of the excess from the entire piece.

Still with the grout very wet and soft, I started again at the light end removing a bit more grout but this time made a zig zag line across from side to side. I continued on down toward the dark end in this zigzag manner and this helped to blend each grout section.

At this point, much of the excess grout has been wiped off and I waited a bit for a haze to develop. I then used a soft cloth to remove the haze, again starting from the light end and working across from side to side. I used a clean section of cloth for each pass.

And here is the finished project, a wall clock.

Anatomy of a Glass Mosaic Light Switch Cover

2012-01-11T10:46:00.011-05:00

Click photos to enlarge.

Well, my way of putting switch plates together..

Choose a sturdy, commercially made, base to attach your mosaic too. I now use metal bases. I have used wood in the past but had problems with warping during grouting (yeah, wood and water don't mix), especially for the larger sizes. And I feel the plastic covers have a bit too much flex, at least the ones my sources carry.

Attach your design with your favorite glue- Weldbond, silicone...

Grout! Such a simple, yet critical step.

Color choice is key. If you are going to add a resin coat, like I do for all mine, you need to base your selection on the wet grout color. Photo at left shows the cured grout color. Looks kind of blah and washed out this way but, when covered in resin, it will revert back to the beautiful contrasts of the wet grout color.
If you use glass for your design, use fine grit sandpaper on all exposed edges before grouting.
Use wood toothpick, or similar tool, to gently recess the screw hole and to shape the switch or outlet openings. It's got to fit in its new home!
Properly cure the grout before adding resin.

To protect fingers from sharp edges, and to protect grout from finger oils, all my switch plates receive a top coat of a two part resin epoxy. Quite a messy step, and a bit time consuming, but well worth it.

Read the directions for the resin carefully before you begin and follow them exactly.
Choose all disposable materials for mixing and stirring and be sure you cover your work surface!!
Also, be sure to elevate your project so the excess resin has a place to run off onto. I use a cardboard cylinder or large plastic cups.

Final step- for a complete pulled together look, custom color your screws.

Third Set of Nine Mosaic and Poured Concrete Stepping Stones

2011-06-21T10:44:00.009-04:00

I have completed nine more poured concrete and glass stepping stones for my yard.

This is a very ongoing task with the goal of creating about 50 to aid in walking around our side and back areas where we have river rock in place of grass.

Click image to enlarge.

The top left lighthouse (St Augustine, FL) is pieced out of glow-in-the dark tile sections for light. The bottom middle is showing the rainbow of six smaller poured concrete bubbles from the tropical fish. Many of these designs are inspired by Florida nature. The right middle is brain coral and that rooster was one we saw living in Key West.

Interested in making some stones yourself? I did a blog posting a while back with detailed how-to instructions, plus pictures, for making these poured concrete stepping stones- click here to see.

All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs.

Interested in a custom order 14" diameter stepping stone? Visit this page in my MosaicSmith Artfire shop for ordering information: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=custom_item&seller_id=92567&gid=43795

How To Make Concrete Mosaic Garden Art Ball

2011-01-28T11:05:00.016-05:00

You can make very fun garden art using found objects and scrap glass.

This post details how I made the garden ball pictured above, using a glass globe from an old pendant light fixture. You likely don't have one of those handy :) , but a little thinking outside the box and you can come up with other unique 'molds' to make bases for your own personalized garden art.

First- some general supplies:

Some sort of 'mold'. Ideas- glass bottles, plastic containers such as milk bottles, takeout food containers... IMPORTANT: If you use a plastic form, you must have an opening wide enough for the cured concrete to be removed through. For milk jugs, cut off the entire top before adding concrete mix. The opening needs to be as wide as the widest part of your shape.
concrete mix
eye protection!, hammer, prying tools
glass nippers
scrap stained glass- often local stained glass shops will sell scrap by the pound or ebay and etsy both often will have listings for scrap.
thin set mortar
grout

Before adding concrete mix, I lightly coated the inside of the shape with a mold release- Vaseline but cooking spray will work in a pinch.

Add concrete mix slowly and tap occasionally (with your hand!) to raise air pockets. Don't want to break that glass yet! If your shape includes thinner sections, you will want to reinforce them with hardware cloth sections embedded in the center. See my stepping stone instructions.

If you use a plastic form, you can unmold, carefully, usually after one day.

If you use glass, WAIT a minimum of 10 days for the concrete to cure before breaking glass. Full cure is at 30 days.

Be sure to wear eye protection when breaking the glass off! I used both the hammer and the knob end of a glass scorer to break the glass in sections. Old dental tools and flat blade screwdrivers worked well to pry off sections.

Now that you have your blank concrete 'canvas', have fun creating!! I used the glass I removed to make the white flowers on my garden ball. They were especially pleasing to work with because the glass was curved and fit nicely back on the ball. I used thin set mortar to attach my glass. This is a weather friendly glue though if you live in a freeze zone, mosaic art lasts longer if brought inside in winter.

For adding flat glass to curved sections, smaller pieces fit around the curves better- and are less hazardous! Use extreme care when handling your piece as there will likely be sharp exposed points and edges. Grouting will minimize this.

Mosaic Art Auction to Benefit Doctors Without Borders

2010-12-27T16:24:00.014-05:00

'Dragonfly'
8" x 10" (20 x 25.5cm)
Click image to view larger

Lin Schoor is coordinating, and 126 mosaic artists from around the world have donated pieces for, an on-line auction of mosaic art to benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Above is my mosaic art donation.

About the Show/Auction:
The on-line auction is April 1-27, 2011 at https://www.biddingforgood.com and you can click here to register. You will also be able to view all the mosaic art in person at The Northville Art House 215 West Cady Street, Northville, Michigan, USA April 1-27, 2011.

So, mark your calenders, set a bookmark.. whatever works for you... and check out the fantastic art up for auction. While waiting for the auction to begin, you can pre-view all the art at:
Lin Schoor's Website
Lin Schoor's Facebook Page
Lin Schorr's Flickr Set

About 'Dragonfly':
Dragonfly is from a photo I took of a happy dragonfly visiting my Tangelo tree.

He is a layered 3D mosaic composed of a base layer of leaves created with stained glass, more stained glass create three leaves at the bottom and lower left.

The dragonfly himself is pieced from glass gems and glass found in the cull pile at the old Levay Glass Factory (Old Milton School House in Alton, Il- currently under renovation- see their facebook page.) There is a bit of brown bottle glass in there too. His legs are copper wire coated with grout/weldbond glue and the wings are clear glass etched with an engraving tool .

All exposed glass edges are wet sanded to soften the sharp edges. Frame is painted wood and the back is sealed with paint as well. Wired for hanging with stainless steel wire. Interested in in-progress photos? There are a few in my MosaicSmith flickr account.

Making of my Mosaic 'Journey' Wall Art

2010-11-20T14:35:00.019-05:00

"Journey"
10" x 10"
Click to enlarge

My mosaic, 'Journey', in addition to the obvious, tells the story of my own mosaic journey beginning with the use of glass tile (on reverse), to stained glass (front outer section), to a mix of tessearae and most recently exploring the use of smalti glass (center square).

There is actually a third journey to this piece and that is the transformation of an ordinary IKEA Malma mirror (see second photo below) into the substrate for this mosaic.

Some background: This mosaic began with a call to artists with a stipulation for square mosaic art. Hmm. I remembered the square IKEA mirrors I have. OK, that might work. And the square format seemed like a good fit with a photo of a gorgeous sunset I took this summer (from the passenger seat :). With these two ingredients in mind, I mulled this over and came up with the mosaic journey concept.

The journey begins on the reverse where I reproduced a wall quilt I made years ago. Vitreous tile was used since it was the first material I played with to create a simple mosaic table top. This represents my transition from piecing with fabric to piecing with glass.

I used a border of thick glass to make the surface level. I filled in the center mirror back area to level the surface as well- visible here as the gold in the spaces as this is before grouting.

These IKEA mirrors are very plain and simple ==>

But they have a broad flat border and a recessed mirror that would work here to add depth to the scene.

To further add depth I built up a third level around the perimeter using 2" wide black glass. And to frame that, I used 1/4" thin glass strips on top of the 2" wide glass.
Note- I used mitered corners throughout to add to the one point perspective of the image.

Each section is divided with strips of stained glass, placed on end. (I use wet sanding paper along the long edge corners to reduce sharpness of glass whenever I place it on end like this- people like to touch mosaics!)

Here you can see I chose to color coordinate the frame around the center (smalti on mirror) section but used solid black to divide the outer-most pieced stained glass area from the mixed-media center section.

A note on glue- Most of this mosaic is pieced using Weldbond but the smalti was attached to the mirror using silicone adhesive. To eliminate any reflection in the space between the smalti, I made sure there was silicone glue on all exposed bits of mirror.

The mosaic was finished with more strips of black on the outer edges and grouted in black and natural grey. And not a bit of the original IKEA mirror is visable, front or back.

Spring!! - Adventures with B-cut Smalti

2010-09-05T13:48:00.016-04:00

Spring!!
19" x 16"
Mexican Smalti, Vitreous Tile and Stained Glass
Click image to view larger

Last spring, a lot of happenings came together to result in my newest mosaic wall art piece.

First I started researching smalti. Smalti is a glass material with strong traditional roots in mosaic, and is also traditionally laid in such a way as to eliminate the need for grout. Grout can be a wonderful design element (see my self portrait- upper left corner or here) but sometimes I've not wanted to add to or change the pieced look.

Soooo... I bought a hammer & hardie plus a (large :) variety of smalti and stone.

I initially purchased this cool slab of smalti ==> , a 'B-cut', with the thought of using it as water. But a bit of serendipity happened when I realized it was perfect for the shirt on a boy my daughter photographed in February.

I was loving the boy's personal celebration of a beautiful spring day (after a very cold winter). I was thinking, as adults, we sometimes loose the appreciation of the day like he had.

Plan in hand, what ensued was a lot of fun with the hammer and hardie as I sheered that glass slab into shirt pieces.

Mexican smalti was used to piece the shirt sleeves as well as the rest of the boy.

To emphasize the boy and the shadows, I chose to have a large surround of grassy lawn. And to further add emphasis, I chose nipped up vitreous tile for the grass and I laid the tile very flat. Graduated piece sizes, and shades, helped to add depth to the lawn.

While I was in the midst of piecing, a call for artists arrived for the Member's Show at the Morean Arts Center in St Petersburg, FL. The theme is "The Way Forward: Roads Less Traveled". I felt this piece fit the theme well, so submitted it for the show. And I guess the curator's also felt the piece fit the theme as they have used it in promotional literature for the show!

The show runs through September 26, 2010 at 719 Central Avenue, St Petersburg, FL

Just Ducky - Adventures in Mixed Media Mosaics

2010-08-29T15:15:00.006-04:00

"Just Ducky"

9" x 11.5" (23 x 29.3cm)

Mixed Media Mosaic on Concrete Board

Catching up on my blogging here. I completed "Just Ducky" this past spring but his roots were actually from spring of 2008 when I purchased a cool slice of agate from Mosaic Rocks at the SAMA show in Miami.

The agate slice had me thinking of an animal eye and, eventually, a Mallard duck.

Now using a slice of rock to represent an eye was rather unconventional, so I decided to go unconventional with my mix of materials too. Lots of fun, and mess, ensued while I pulled out anything in Mallard colors from my stash. Stained glass, fused glass, polished stones, glass beads (some iridescent for a bit of that Mallard shine), vitreous tile bits, ... to name a few.

A fun bonus was using my new hammer & hardie to nip up the marble for the background.

Oh, and since this guy is built on top of concrete board, with pieces attached using Thin-set mortar (tinted black) and has stainless steel hanging hardware, he can even live outside and get wet like a duck :)

A Manga Style Mosaic - Fierce Despite the Tears.

2010-05-11T16:27:00.010-04:00

'Fierce Despite the Tears'
10 1/4" x 12 1/2"
Click photo to enlarge

I recently completed this stained glass mosaic of an elf in collaboration with my 14 year old daughter. It is based on one of her original drawings done in the manga style.

<= Her drawing. (This is done in pen by the way.)

To convert for mosaicing, with the aide of tracing paper and a copy machine, we added lines while trying to keep the original spirit.

We also tweaked the background with the addition of falling sakura petals in pale pink.

Although the original was done in just purple pen, she had a definite vision for a full color version and all glass choices, as well as grout color choices, were hers.

We are both pleased with the resulting mosaic and I'll be keeping an eye on her drawings for possible collaborations in the future.

Mosaic Journey - Learning How to Mosaic a Pot

2010-04-24T09:41:00.020-04:00

Spring time brings with it my desire for gardening and this cold, cold winter (yes, even here in Florida!) had me dreaming of mosaicing garden pots.

I did my first pots last December (as gifts) and this was a bit of new territory for me. I did what I usually do and turned to books and the Internet for some how-to. And wow, lots of variations to be found on prepping the terracotta pot: 1.weldbond/water on outside penetrating sealer on inside 2. weldbond/water on outside yacht varnish on inside 3. house paint inside and out 4. weldbond/water inside and out...

I decided to go with variation #2 and to use thin set mortar to attach the ceramic pieces to the pot.

I painted the inside of my terracotta pot with spar varnish. This would seal the interior and prevent water from penetrating and soaking through to the mosaic which would compromise the mosaic's thin set mortar bond to the pot.

The outside of the pot I painted with a mixture of five parts water/one part weldbond glue. This soaked into the terracotta. I chose this method of sealing because it would reduce the water absorption from the thin set mortar. Unsealed terracotta is so porous that it will absorb water from thin set quickly, which weakens the thin set. I also suspect that the weldbond softens a bit from the thin set moisture and then bonds with the thin set resulting in a stronger bond of the mosaic to the pot.

Why thin set mortar? Another common choice would be weldbond. But, I know from experience (glass on glass project) that if moisture gets down to the weldbond- and we are talking about an outdoor pot here! -that the weldbond will go soft and white again. Additionally the weldbond is best for attaching flat surface to flat surface. A silicone type glue would work but I feel the thin set attaches more firmly to porous surfaces. Thin set also excels at bonding irregular tesserae (mugs!) to curved surfaces.

So many choices on what to use to create the mosaic design with. I decided to go with broken plates. (In my location I do not need to worry about freeze/thaw but if you do, look for hardier choices or bring your garden pot inside for the winter.) So I checked my local thrift stores for goodies and also etsy.

These lovely mugs came from ceramic artist Judy B Freeman.

Many ceramic artists on etsy will occasionally offer for sale a box of broken rejects specifically for mosaic use.

To the left you can see that I used thin set under the top brim to even out the surface. And you can see more of Judy's awesome butterflies.

After attaching the design with thin set, I grouted the mosaic as usual (use caution with the ceramic edges- SHARP!) and applied a sealer after the grout cured for three days.

And below are three views of another pot also made with Judy's butterfly mugs as a design inspiration. There is now a tomato plant happily growing in this pot.

Thoughts on how to choose a grout color, or colors

2010-04-16T12:57:00.018-04:00

What color(s) to grout a mosaic is a common dilemma. And a personal decision each artist needs to make based on their vision for the finished piece. This post is just some of my thoughts and by no means comprehensive.

I have a general rule that often helps me make the choice: blend the background, fracture the focal.

But, I break this rule regularly. Usually on realistic pieces when I feel that all the careful shading I have done on a focal will be lost if I choose a grout color that breaks it all apart.

That was the case with this little mosaic I did recently:
I even briefly considered skipping the grout on the kitty herself but rejected that since I could see the substrate through the spaces. Additionally, my glue was weldbond which I don't feel would be lasting in Florida humidity if not protected by grout. As an aside- I am looking into smalti as this material is not traditionally grouted.

So, for kitty herself I actually used three colors of grout. Tea green for the irises, black for the nose and right eye pupil, and a natural grey for the fur areas. The natural grey is in between in tone to the light and dark fur tones and provided subtle contrast so she is still clearly mosaic but the pieces blend.

For the background of kitty, first decision was glass color and flow. I chose the pink as a compliment to her eyes and to emphasis that this sweet kitty is a she. The squares are a contrast to the irregular pieces used in the fur. Because of the blending of kitty with her grout, I felt I needed a grout color in the background that did not completely blend but that provided a very subtle contrast as well. Warm grey was my choice here.

To help with my decisions, there are a couple things I do.

First, I keep a box full of little cups and their wood stirrers that I have used previously to mix up grout. I label both the cups and sticks and use them to do a squint test.
Second, I will sometimes sprinkle a small amount of dry grout in an area to test the effect. The color of the dry powdered grout is about the same as cured grout in a finished project. You just have to remember to use safety precautions as you do not want to in-hail any of the grout powder!

There are a couple of online resources that can help to visualize different grout effects too:

Mosaic Mercantile, http://www.mosaicmercantile.com , has the grouterizer.
Choose the mix of color tiles similar to your mosaic, 16 choices, then choose from ten grout colors to see their effects.

http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk has a Grout Colour Simulator.
This one has seven different mosaic choices including a variety of different mosaic types. Then choose from 20 different grout colors including black to white shading in four different directions, fun!

Hey, I guess I can do whimsy!

2010-03-16T12:55:00.010-04:00

"Why Stars Twinkle"

Stained glass on hardibacker.
10.25" x 12.5"
(Click image to view larger)

A bit of background on this mosaic:

On this mosaic journey of mine I have occasionally flirted with whimsy but more often that style has been just one I admire in others. Quite honestly, I tend to over think the whimsy right out of my ideas.

Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina is a gallery owned by mosaic artist Pam Pardue Goode and she features mosaic artists frequently in her exhibits. She put out a call to artists this winter for a new exhibit, "Flights of Fancy", to be full of whimsical art.

Soooo, this call to artists was in the back of my mind tumbling around with other snippets of ideas. The main spark for the stars dancing is the children's song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", specifically the line- 'how I wonder what you are'. Oh, I did wonder. Mostly wondered what children think of when they see those twinkling stars. Maybe they thought they were dancing up there and that made them twinkle.?

Fun idea, now to try to keep it whimsical.

Well, a zebra cannot change her stripes and I did do plenty of thinking on the details but I reminded myself, often, to keep it light and fun and 'twinkly'.

The dancers were pieced in iridescent glass- for the twinkle factor. Stars are enduring and classic so I chose ball room type clothing but these dancers are swinging to some hip hopping music. I felt the background needed to be very clearly space and chose to add depth with smaller pieces to the center and larger circular flowing pieces to the perimeter. Their dance floor becomes a 'star dust' cloud, as my daughter referred to it, and two more were placed to direct the flow of the piece. And a shooting star in iridescent black/gold glass also directs the flow down to the dancers. Millefiori are sprinkled in the space background, smaller toward the center, of course, to represent stars.

And so, I say that "I guess I can do whimsy.", because you can view this mosaic in person April 2 through May 21, 2010 at Ciel Gallery, 1519 Camden Road, Charlotte, NC. Thank you Pam!

Creating the Straw Hat for Miss Dolphin

2010-02-06T11:13:00.008-05:00

Miss Dolphin is based on a drawing by my then 10 year old daughter and she was my design assistant for the mosaic as well. She had major input, as well as veto power, on the choosing of the materials for this project. We were bringing HER drawing to life, afterall.

The straw hat proved to be a challenge to find a material she would be happy with.

When I broke the lid to a funky corn-on-the-cob themed pot in my kitchen I thought that would be ideal--no. Also rejected was stained glass. (There is a limit to how thin the pieces can be cut so as to mimic straw, plus she didn't like the shininess.) Hmmm. Vitreous glass tiles- not thrilled. Tiny thin long glass beads? Not sure, kind of shiny too.

An internet search was begun and I found TinyTileMosaics! A eureka moment, lol. Sally has a variety of shapes and a rainbow of colors of 'mini, mirco and nano' sized ceramic tiles. The Ovals, 5x2x3mm, proved to be perfect to create the straw hat!

Click image to enlarge-
Micro tiles, 5x5x3mm, were perfect to add a touch of red to the hat. See them also in the red stripe along with a couple nano tiles.

Happy daughter, happy me! Thank you Sally at TinyTileMosaics!

Miss Dolphin and a mosaic lesson learned

2010-01-30T10:23:00.018-05:00

Going back in time a bit here to a project I completed, with the help of my then 10 yr old daughter's design, in October 2009. There are a few WIP pictures on flickr as well.

Miss Dolphin: Click image to view larger:

For this project we spent the summer collecting beads and whatnot's here and there in our travels, and online, particularly in red and white for the shirt.

I made the fortunate decision to grout the sections in different colors and to start with the white stripes. Usually I will tape off the sections before grouting but due to the crazy texture of the striped shirt I decided that I'd just go slow and tidy the edges using a toothpick after. Really glad on this choice because the slop of sanded grout on one particular type of red square bead scrubbed the color off those beads, yikes!! The project was salvaged with a short delay while I sought out replacements in a similar size and color.

Here are the offending beads after removal from the project:
I had to replace one purple bead as well in the beach ball during the grouting process. Not sure which store the problem beads were purchased from. Because of the quantity I have, I think it was a chain big-box store rather than a smaller bead store.

The Lesson- TEST your materials before use. Another mosaic blogger, TileMosaicGirl, had a similar experience with red glass gems and blogged about it here: photo slideshow and her experiment. She tested the materials both by scrubbing with grout and with sandpaper. She found that the sandpaper method was quite effective to test if the color would withstand grouting so in the future I plan to also test my materials this way.

sweet love

2010-01-27T10:15:00.005-05:00

My new mosaic was inspired by my cat, Shadow. She is a very sweet kitty and I have often thought that she not only has a heart shaped face but that her body echoed that heart while laying in this position. Hence the theme. Stained glass on MDF. 10 3/4" x 13 1/2"

And a slide show of the process of creating this mosaic:

Shading Grout in a Mosaic

2009-10-15T12:50:00.022-04:00

A couple weeks ago I finished a project that was quite a while in the making. (Click "egret" in the label cloud <== to see other WIP posts on this mosaic.) A portrait of a fearless Egret who visited breakfast diners while we were on vacation a two years ago- titled "Curious Neighbor".

He is pretty big, 13.5" x 27", at least for me since I often work with small pieces. So many decisions went into the making of this piece but for this post I'm focusing on my grout decisions- and some how to. (To share the info and so I remember myself :)

Sometimes grout can be used to add contrast to a section to bring the eye to that area but for this piece I decided to use the grout to further blend the colors. It also then added to the soft, calm, natural feeling I was going for.

(Though I did include one area of high grout contrast in the mosaiced pot. The egret is directly from my own photograph but the background is a compilation from other photos. The pot was included as a bit of 'man-made', along with the deck, in an otherwise very natural setting. So I added grout contrast here to contrast with the soft grout of the natural areas.)

For the rest of the mosaic I chose grout colors to blend the areas. And for the egret himself I used white, warm grey and a blend of half white and half warm grey. Blending the grout kept the softness of the shading on the bird feathers.

For the sand area I also used a graduated series of grouts from canvas through a light mocha- and I photographed the steps! :

First, have plenty of masking tape on hand! The bird has already been grouted and the tape keeps the bird's grout nice and clean. The geranium plant leaves were grouted in mallard green so they need to be covered as well. I use small bits of tape and very carefully cover just the existing grout so I don't end up with gaps in the joint with the new color.

Click on any picture to see a large version.

Small plastic cups and Popsicle sticks are wonderful for mixing small batches of grout. The left cup is straight 'canvas' color and the right cup is 1/4 canvas 3/4 mocha. The center four cups are graduated amounts of the two colors. Add water slowly when mixing so too much water is not added.

Kind of like playing in the mud!
I started with the canvas color and put that on the lightest sand area then worked my way down. Where I changed color I 'smooshed' the two colors around a bit to further blend as I worked it into the grout spaces. Around the flowers I used a slightly deeper color for more contrast. I actually did not use the darkest blend after all.

In this last picture, much cleanup later, the grout is not fully dried and the variations show a bit more.

More Poured Concrete Stepping Stones

2009-09-20T10:48:00.011-04:00

The second set of nine poured concrete and stained glass stepping stones are finally complete after I took a bit of a break due to summer. Top left jellyfish is created with bits of glow-in-the-dark tile.

I did a posting a while back with detailed how to instructions and pictures for making these poured concrete stepping stones- click here to see.
All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs.

Interested in a custom order 14" diameter stepping stone? Visit this page in my MosaicSmith Artfire shop for ordering information: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=custom_item&seller_id=92567&gid=43795

New (old) tool for breaking curves in stained glass

2009-09-16T12:17:00.012-04:00

Some times the 'old fashioned' way really is easier and better. Case in point the old stand-by (oil less) glass cutter . I have one of these but the constant need to dip the cutter end in oil had it sitting in a drawer as a backup only.

What I had not fully appreciated was the wonderful efficiency of the ball end for breaking out curved score lines. Especially long score lines. So simple, so quick. Just hold a corner of the glass with either fingers or pliers, tap that ball end on the underside of your score line and be sure to have that glass over a table because it will break beautifully along that line most wonderfully and unexpectedly almost every time. Or did everyone know this and I am the last?

I suppose my only excuse is that often I work with tiny pieces and it is not as much use in that case but I can assure you that this simple tool will no longer be relegated to the dark corners of a drawer but will have a home on my work desk.

Just to be fair, I do have another good tool, a type of running plier, for breaking out curves and will still use this on smaller pieces of glass.

Custom Order Wedding Stepping Stone

2009-08-05T09:48:00.014-04:00

Ack, falling behind a bit on the blogging what with kids off for summer vacation.

I teased about this stepping stone way back in June but never showed the finished stone. So here it is finally. Wedding colors are celadon green and chocolate brown.
Pieced in reverse with stained glass. I then used this method to make it into a poured concrete stepping stone. A bit of the detail- bee has iridescent glass for wings and the black body stripes have tiny gold flecks in them to pick up the light too.
Interested in a custom order 14" diameter stepping stone? See this page in my MosaicSmith Artfire shop for ordering information: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=custom_item&seller_id=92567&gid=43795

Sailing Welcome

2009-07-17T15:12:00.009-04:00

Last weekend we took a short trip to St Augustine, Florida. (Just a three hour drive from here but well worth the visit even if you are farther.) So, of course, we had to hunt down a local glass shop- D&L Art Glass. Bought some nice pieces of glass and a whole box of scraps. If you are a mosaic artist you know what I mean when I say I was almost giddy that they sort their scraps by color and had a generous variety.

Back home, I put all my goodies away but didn't have an immediate home for these pretty bits:

Before I knew it they were speaking to me and I had this little sign made:

Piecing a Mosaic Rose

2009-06-16T12:49:00.009-04:00

Who knew, dressmaker's tracing paper can also be used to trace a design on glass. I used this method first when making my self portrait mosaic.

Here I use it to make a rose. Yes, green. This is part of a custom stepping stone for a wedding and it will also have green hydrangeas. Looks pretty combined with the chocolate brown for the writing. Still a WIP so I'll post more pictures later.

First tip is to make sure your glass is very clean.

This method also works best if the sections of your motif can be systematically cut away from the design and still keep the pieces whole. This pattern I made was almost ideal. Piece # 16 ended up in three pieces.

I also numbered the pattern and glass pieces to make putting it back together so much easier.

First Nine Poured Concrete Stepping Stones

2009-05-19T15:34:00.008-04:00

Here are the first nine poured concrete stepping stones in my very ongoing project to make pathways around our yard. But, yay!, I am keeping all these, lol.

Wondering how to make stepping stones like this for your yard? I blogged about the how-to here.
All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs.

Interested in a custom order 14" diameter stepping stone? See this page in my MosaicSmith Artfire shop for ordering information: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=custom_item&seller_id=92567&gid=43795

Self Portrait in Black and White

2009-05-09T15:42:00.016-04:00

A social networking site for Mosaicists that I belong to had a challenge contest recently to create a mosaic using only black and white. I took up the challenge and tried something else new in the process- a portrait. Never having done one before, I figured I start with me.

Thank you so much to the members for voting my self portrait Members Choice!

A slide show- black and white movie style- of a bit of the process of putting this mosaic together:

All materials are stained glass - pure white for the face/neck area, three other whites for the hair, a textured black for the shirt and two little triangular pieces above the right side shoulder.

How to Make a Poured Concrete Stepping Stone

2009-03-22T19:21:00.046-04:00

Half of our yard is covered in river rock. Not easy to walk on. I've decided the solution is MANY stepping stones- guessing about 50. I could just buy a bunch at the home center, but what fun is that?? Instead I'm making poured concrete stepping stones with a different mosaic design in each. I have a few already made and thought I'd share the process I've been using. You can make these mosaics as simple or as detailed as you desire. I'm planning on using up a whole lot of bits and veering toward the simple end.

Some supplies you'll need or just find handy:

Portland cement type I
Sand
Dish pan (dedicated) for mixing in
Some sort of trowel or small hoe as a mixing tool
Some sort of disposable, or never to be used again for food, cup for scooping sand and cement.
Clean water for mixing (or admix of some type if you live in a frost zone- read labels at your home center to find an appropriate admix).
Disposable dust mask. Very important to wear this while working with the dry cement!!
Hardware cloth
Wire cutters or similar for cutting hardware cloth
Gloves- heavy duty for use when cutting hardware cloth and vinyl disposable for when mixing concrete.
Mold. For this project I use a 14" diameter commercially made stepping stone form.
Clear contact paper
Some sort of tesserrae for piecing a mosaic design. I use stained glass frequently.
Mold release of some sort. I use petroleum jelly- cheap and easy to find.
Newspapers for work area
Plastic to cover concrete after unmolding.
Sturdy board larger than the mold to use when flipping the mold in step 6.

1. The mosaic design is pieced in reverse on the contact paper. Place the mold on the paper side and trace it then cut the shape out 1/4" inside the line so it will fit inside the mold. You can sketch out a design on the paper portion. Peel off paper, and place sticky side up on your work surface with the design underneath. Remember to reverse words/letters/numbers so they are mirror image while piecing.

2. Figure out how much sand and Portland cement you need. For this project I use recipe #3 in the book Making Concrete Garden Ornaments by Sherri Warner Hunter. One great tip, among many, from this book is to fill your mold with sand and measure the volume. This will be how much you use for the project and 1/3 of this volume is how much Portland cement you will need. Use approximately half as much water/admix as cement by volume. I have a wonderful old clear plastic pitcher with very straight sides that I have marked this ratio on for each mold size I use.

3. Smear a thin coating of petroleum jelly on the inside of the mold. Place the contact paper/pieced design into the bottom of the mold with the pieced design sticky side up. Use the wire cutters to cut a circle of hardware cloth about 2" less in diameter than your mold (one inch smaller each side).

4. Add the sand to your plastic bin. Put on your mask and measure out the Portland cement and add it to the sand. Stir in well and slowly add in water/admix in increments. Be real careful that you do not add too much liquid. I aim for a very soft cookie dough consistency. Not crumbly but never runny.

5. Go slowly adding the cement mix to your mold. You need to press the concrete into all your spaces but carefully so you do not dislodge your pieces from the contact paper. Fill the mold half way then place in the hardware cloth piece. Raise slightly and tap the mold down to the ground repeatedly to raise any air bubbles. Fill the mold the rest of the way and repeat the tapping to again remove air bubbles. Smooth the surface. Clean up plastic pan and tools OUTSIDE. Cement/concrete washed down a drain will harden in the drain!

6. The filled mold needs to sit undisturbed until the surface is firm and no indent is made when touched. I found the amount of time this takes depends very much on the air temperature. In the summer here (90's day 70's night) it required only six hours but in our current temps (70's day, 50's night) it takes 12 hours. When firm enough, gently pull mold away from sides very slightly. Place a stiff board (I use a leftover large floor tile) on the stepping stone surface and carefully flip the board and the mold. Slowly pull the mold straight up to remove. Remove the contact paper slowly. The surface can be gently cleaned using a paper towel or a piece of newspaper. Cover in plastic and leave undisturbed for at least three days. After seven days it will be cured enough for walking on and the color will lighten to about its final color.

Interested to see what else I've done with stepping stones? Click here to go to all posts tagged with 'stepping stone'. All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs. Have fun!

Interested in a custom order 14" diameter stepping stone? See this page in my MosaicSmith Artfire shop for ordering information: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=custom_item&seller_id=92567&gid=43795

Glow in the Dark Tiles

2009-03-09T13:44:00.014-04:00

I recently purchased some glow in the dark tiles from Maryland Mosaics. These are the coolest tiles! Not only do they glow but the glow is through the tile. The tiles are thicker than most stained glass- about 3/16" thick- with a very flat bottom. So far I have been using them like mini smalti pizzas and cutting slivers off with my wheeled cutters to place on end in my mosaics.

Closeup of a light switch cover in progress showing the cut tile placed with the riven edge up:

For the moon in the above picture, the 'hair' was pieced using the smooth, shiny tile surface and the remainder was pieced with bits of riven tile for a highly textured look. (Mouth is a piece of white iridescent glass.)

Mosaic Geranium Leaves

2009-02-21T19:50:00.014-05:00

Before I forget, and in case anyone else wants to make a mosaic geranium plant :)), I'd better write out the how to on the geranium leaves, so here goes:

1. Start with a strip of tone on tone variegated green about 1 1/4 inched wide. Use the glass scorer to section this into triangles. *Be sure to place all the triangles back in order.

2. Pull out eight triangles from the top of the strip and arrange in a circle shape.

3. Use a real leaf, or a photo, as guidelines and mark (sharpie marker) additional sections and refine the outer leaf shape.

4. Use wheeled nippers to cut sections and nip the leaf shape. Again- be very careful to keep the leaf sections together in order.

5. Tape sections together from the front.

For this plant I made eight leaves using this method. Then arranged them and cut away, using wheeled nippers, the under laying portions of the leaves. After gluing with thin-set mortar the masking tape is removed.

WIP Egret Mosaic (Curious Neighbor)

2009-02-04T12:43:00.011-05:00

Waaaay back in May 2008 I posted my first WIP picture for this guy. I have finally in the last few weeks made some much awaited progress on him. The orange glass worked out perfectly for his beak and I found a way to incorporate shells that I picked up at the beach by where I photographed him.

Click the picture for a larger view.

My Method for How to Make Numbers to Mosaic

2009-01-04T12:15:00.011-05:00

My approach to making numbers for mosaicing is a bit different than the norm and my quilting background shows up here. I think it is a bit like paper piecing in reverse.

I like to piece numbers like this since I think with the minimal grout lines they are more clearly visable to do their job in the finished piece.

Click on any picture to see a large version.

First I use a metallic marker to trace the right side of the number on the right side of the glass.

Then begin systematically making cuts and breaking out pieces.

For the #1, I started by scoring and breaking the base from the number then did the same with the angled top portion. Use either the wheeled cutter or score/break to finish the shape.

For the #8, first step was to score the drawn line completely with the glass cutter and continue the score line through the center forming an 'x'. I extended some score lines to the edge of the glass and added some more lines radiating from the center to break up the sharp curves.

All the tools I used are shown- glass cutter, running pliers, breaking pliers, grozier pliers and wheeled cutters.

Poured Concrete House Number Mosaics

2008-12-26T11:25:00.012-05:00

Who knew: playing with concrete is like a grown up version of playing with mud pies. Just more durable and prettier too.

First I custom designed and built the mold. It is sized so the finished house number 'brick' will fit in a flat rate mailing box. I used double ended screws and wing nuts for easy assembly/disassembly. Varnished well with spar varnish.

Then the design was pieced, in reverse, on contact paper and placed in the mold. For this one I continued the design around the edge.

A few additional designs:

-----

Usually my work is one-of-a-kind but for these I created reproducible patterns that can be used for 1-4 numbers.

Southern Comfort Cake Recipe - Mmmm

2008-12-22T08:32:00.014-05:00

Years ago my Dad tried, we loved, he perfected and then I tweaked a recipe for Southern Comfort Cake. You can find the original recipe on Cooks.com but here is my own tweaked version:

CAKE

1/2 cup Southern Comfort

1 box (18 1/4 oz) yellow cake mix

1 small package french vanilla (or vanilla, white chocolate or cheesecake) instant pudding mix

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 Tblsp butter, softened

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup ground pecans

1/8 tsp almond extract

Mix all of the above following the directions on the box. Pour into one 10" tube pan or one 12 cup bunt pan. Bake 325 F for 1 hour. OR Pour into 3 - 8" x 3 7/8" x 4" (2 lb) loaf pans. Bake 325 F for 50-55 minutes.

GLAZE

1/4 cup Southern Comfort

4 tbsp butter

1/8 cup water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Melt butter in saucepan and add water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture is just slightly browned. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add Southern Comfort. Spoon 1/2 over cakes. Let remainder cool until thick and spread evenly over cakes.

This is a very versatile recipe. The original called for chopped nuts but Dad has always used home ground nuts. He likes using a meat grinder (dedicated) and I used a blender. Before finding ground pecans ===>, I used a mix of walnuts, pecans and almonds. Commercially packaged ground pecans are drier than homemade so I added butter and extra water to the original recipe along with almond extract for additional flavor. Rum can be used in place of Southern Comfort for a different flavor altogether.

How to Hang a Mosaic Made on Concrete Board

2008-10-27T13:52:00.020-04:00

I was reminded today that some details on how to mosaic are quite elusive in books.

What follows is the method I use for hanging my smaller mosaics that I've created on concrete board (Hardibacker). The largest size I've used this on is about 12" x 12". (See comments for some ideas on hanging larger work.)

The hardware must be installed BEFORE beginning your mosaic. I usually obtain the hardware from the specialty drawers at the big-box home improvement stores. I have read lots of mosaic books but only saw this method mentioned on this site.

This is what you need to purchase:

#6-32 size Tee Nuts in 1/4"
#6-32 size 3/8" brass screws
#6 or #8 stainless steel washers
Stainless Steel picture wire

And this is what the Tee Nuts look like. You can get pronged or un-pronged. I get pronged since then they will grip your concrete board and not slip.

Other tools:
Drill with a bit sized for the Tee-nut
Hammer

Drill a hole in the board and, FROM THE FRONT, hammer in the Tee nut.

Picture on the far left is the front of the mosaic surface and the right picture shows the resulting threaded hole on the back. I use thin-set mortar for glue and that helps even out the raised surface of the Tee-nut.

From the back, add the screw and washer. Repeat for the second hanging spot and you are ready to wrap your picture wire around the screws. The washers help keep the picture wire in place and not slip off the screws.

To see the finished back of a mosaic hung with this method, click on the last picture of my Welcome Sign listing .

Mosaic Fact: Bits Multiply

2008-10-13T13:33:00.006-04:00

I, and I suspect every mosaic artist, have an bottomless collection of glass bits.

My thrifty nature compels me to save them. Larger bits get tossed in labeled plastic containers by color and small, even tiny, bits get tossed in a shoebox lid. I've had that lid on my work table for a while and have mentioned it before. Still looks much the same even a year later. Weird.

Occasionally I'll set out to use as many of this bits as I can in a mosaic and my 'River Sunset' clock is the result of my latest effort:

That largest red boulder was the inspiration for this entire piece. I found it just the way you see it in the shoebox lid - don't recall what project I nipped it roundish for then rejected it but I think it worked perfectly here. Just was waiting for its time. Ha, lol, didn't intend the pun :)

Mosaic Welcome Sign

2008-09-24T18:40:00.008-04:00

A little bit of the process of making a mosaic:

This time I just started with an idea in my head- no picture or sketch- just "Hmm, I haven't made a welcome sign in a while." So I pulled out a piece of concrete board (already prepped with Tee Nuts for hanging) and pulled down some bits to play. I have PLENTY of bits, lol. I save even little teeny bits. See that colorful section in the first picture? I also have a LOT of plastic containers with color sorted pieces leftover from other projects. That's where the glass for the letters came from. See the second photo. Lots of nice long skinny pieces there already. Perfect for lettering.

I penciled in letters based on the size of the glass and sketched on the board until it looked right. Yellow came in from pieces I cut but didn't use for my Interloper Clock . Then I guess I had my previous welcome sign in my head because I pulled out leftover bits saved from that project. Add in a few more colors of glass for shading to white plus little black freshwater pearl beads and I was on my way.

Last picture shows finished mosaic grouted in warm grey. I also painted the edge and back with a deep green exterior paint. I like to work on concrete board since it is so weather friendly compared to wood.

Deck the Halls Musical Mosaic

2008-09-23T10:22:00.004-04:00

I purchased a few little wind up music boxes quite a while ago and have finally figured out a plan for them. This is the first and the others will also be botanical little scenes that hopefully can be displayed year round and not just during the holidays (music is mostly holiday themed).

5" x 8" stained glass on concrete board.

Interloper WIP

2008-09-16T13:02:00.011-04:00

This morning I finally got a chance to play with an idea I've been working on for a little clock. It is loosely based on the bouquet in the photo.

The clock will be in the large pink flower and I plan on attaching a sweet little bee bead to the minute hand- so that's where the title of this clock comes from.

At the moment I think I'll fill the background with a deep green tone on tone look of leaves and random shapes. Because I want the clock hands (black) to be visible, the grout for the pink flower will be a light green and then deepen to darker green going toward the perimeter. I shaded the grout once before and was pleased with the result.

Autumn Dance

2008-09-04T09:14:00.005-04:00

Doing a bit of a happy dance for the completion of 'Autumn Dance'. Scroll down for WIP pictures of this mosaic- plus the story behind it.

One more WIP to finish ( http://mosaicsmith.blogspot.com/2008/05/egret-wip.html ) but I will be working on some small fun projects at the same time. I have a few mosaic light switch covers in the works and plans for some more mosaic clocks.

Autumn Dance WIP

2008-08-01T14:37:00.008-04:00

Well, Autumn Dance is my working title. Kicking around others like "May I have this dance?"

Where we lived in New York, the property had a magnificent Maple tree on one side of the yard and a stately Oak on the other. So all spring and summer they stood over their corners of the yard looking out at each other. With autumn and the breeze they had a chance to meet and have fun together.

Of course this story brings to mind how people can behave. Such as sticking to their own neighborhoods and occasionally circumstances will bring them together and they get along and have fun.

Maple Leaf WIP

2008-07-26T22:48:00.012-04:00

My Egret Mosaic is on the back burner for the moment waiting for my mosaic muse to be inspired again for that project.

Meanwhile, I have begun a project I've had kicking around in my head- working title is "Autumn Dance". A portion of this mosaic features a maple leaf and the following is a series of pictures showing the piecing of the glass in a portion of the leaf. Click on the small pics to view them larger.

Tiki Hut Birdhouse

2008-07-12T09:44:00.009-04:00

The summer challenge for the Etsy Mosaic Artists Team is to mosaic a birdhouse. My daughter (she's nine) was my design assistant for this. We have done two other birdhouses together- painted though.

We had a pre-made house and she made this sketch:

As designs do, this one evolved.

This is the result of our collaboration:

There are 24 entries in our challenge. View them all on Etsy .

Egret WIP

2008-05-28T16:26:00.015-04:00

This is the first official WIP post for my egret mosaic. He is moving along slowly because, well, I must be a bit insane to use such tiny pieces. I find at this stage I can only work on him for an hour at a time.

Click on the picture for enlarged view.

The feathers are made from hand-nipped bits of vitreous glass in five shades from white through grey- I blogged about them earlier. The tiles in the photo are unglazed porcelain and I plan at the moment to use them for the beach background. The orange stained glass is for his beak- thanks Judy, that is a good match to his real color!

R Cubed

2008-05-19T11:09:00.022-04:00

As in reduce, reuse and recycle.

My studio is in our garage due to space and safety issues (flying glass bits from nipping shapes) and shares space with normal garage items (also due to space issues), including our recycling bins. So that visual inspiration, combined with my innate thriftiness, combined with my brain still kicking around an exact plan for my egret (see previous post), brought my mosaic muse to create this little mosaic.

I took step by step photos:

All the tesserae for this mosaic are recycled.

I used an aluminum can bottom for the flower center and folded strips of aluminum can for the flower stem (Any guesses on what was originally in that can?).

The aluminum rectangle is a castoff from my husband's project and the '3' is made from leftover stainless steel picture wire.

The white glass for the flower and blue/plum glass are leftover bits saved from other mosaics.

The green glass was a wine bottle and the brown glass in the flower center was previously a beer bottle neck. I like the way the tight curve adds dimension.

Neighbors added contributions also by donating mirror and the textured amber background glass after remodeling projects.

The first step in grouting is always a bit of a concern, but after a bit of sponging comes the big reveal.

Whirl

2008-05-05T11:23:00.017-04:00

Last month I went to the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) Annual Conference in Miami. I had a bit of fun with the raffle and won 25 pounds of mixed vitreous glass tile- thanks WitsEnd Mosaic!! Now I did not take a picture, but let me assure you that this is a LOT of tile- especially when it is spread out on my dining room table to organize ('mixed' is code for 'you sort') .

I've mostly used stained glass for my mosaics to this point but the thrifty in me MUST find a creative way to use this tile. And it is beautiful. Lots of shades of white through grey/black, lots of shades of blue and green and browns. And really cool iridescent and metallic flecked tiles.

I have decided to mosaic the egret I took a picture of last fall:

Here is the frame I made ready to begin. I gridded a print out of my photo, and also the board so I can get an accurate sketch to start. I've been playing with different background ideas in my little sketchbook.

But before I start on this project, I wanted to play a bit with the tile to see how it cuts. I found this sketch I had done.

I used a piece of hardibacker board and thin-set mortar for glue. The red and plum colors are stained glass and the remainder is vitreous glass tiles.

I titled this "Whirl'. I made the sketch when I was extremely angry- we won't go into why. But the title is simply Whirl. Could be a whirl of emotions or a whirl wind or...

Grouted in white. I think the white grout makes it look less angry than my sketch. I wonder if I would have made a different choice in whirl colors and grout color if I had been angry when I pieced the mosaic? Hmm. Mosaicing makes me happy so that one will remain unanswered. I'll wait a couple days for the grout to cure. Then seal the grout and paint the edges and back white.

Making a Critter with a Pattern

2008-03-11T16:34:00.018-04:00

Sometimes in my mosaics, I use a pattern to make a critter or other motif. This time I actually had a camera handy and I remembered to use it!

1. I do a little research to find a photo or drawing of what I'm interested in making. Then I will make my own sketch- this time I sketched it straight onto the hardibacker cement board I'm creating the mosaic on. The advantage of sketching here is that I can be sure my scale works. The eye location is marked with a black bead.

2. Tracing paper - cool low tech tool. Here I traced my sketch and cut it out. Next, not shown, I cut it apart on the inside of the lines to leave a bit of space for grout. I cut away the inside of the eye location.

3. All the little pieces then traced, using permanent marker, onto the selected piece of stained glass. Leave spaces for cutting/breaking. Carefully cut and break one line at a time. Here I made a long score first along the left of the head all the way from bottom to top of glass piece. Again, be sure to cut just to the inside of the marker lines.

4. I use a grinder for making holes for eyes. And sometimes for tweaking the shape of a piece. Here the bunny is dry fitted. Stained glass does not always cooperate and break precisely. Re-cutting a piece is often necessary, but sometimes you can work around the oops. Here, at the bunnies neck the glass did not want to make that full curve break. I dry fitted in clover and decided that actually added to the look of the bunny hiding in a clover patch. To further add to that effect, I nipped out a bit from the back of his leg.

And here is the completed picture:

This mosaic was made for the Etsy Mosaic Artists Spring Challenge. The theme is "On the Wings of Spring". My kids collaborated with me to come up with this fanciful interpretation of the theme.

In addition to the main rose, there is a tiny flock of roses and three more just about to join the fun from the field.

Click on the picture to view it full screen size.

Horse Scene Complete!

2008-02-01T16:34:00.008-05:00

And... it's done:
Some of the simplest looking areas were actually quite fussy to do- for example, the grass. The foreground grass is darker, with thinner and narrower pieces. As the grass goes toward the horizon, the pieces got lighter, thicker and wider. And always, the curve shape had to be evaluated and matched for even grout lines.

The horses were relatively simple in comparison. I made paper templates from copys of photographs enlarged/reduced to the correct scale.

Grouted in two colors- white for the sky and tea green for the remainder. The tea green had the desired effect of blending the background and fracturing the focal objects so they are more prominent.

Horse Scene WIP

2008-01-25T16:15:00.005-05:00

Update time.

November and December I devoted to making more clocks and mini ornaments for etsy, and to Christmas with my family.

Currently, I am working on a horse scene mosaic wall hanging for my mother-in-law's lanai.

This is about 24" x 36" on hardibacker board with an oak frame stained dark brown. I found a green with tan that worked nicely for the grass, especially since we have drought happening here in Florida. The front horse is a chestnut brown and the rear is soft grey. All the trees are intending to be live oaks. And this is a Florida scene so the barn has a nice tile roof. I just have to add in a blue sky and a cupola for the roof.

My Mosaic Challenge Entry

2007-10-29T16:51:00.007-04:00

The Etsy Mosaic Artists (ema) street team is having their first mosaic challenge- "Make your Kitchen Bitchen".

I went to the thrift store for inspiration and found this cool escargot plate. Now, this is something that is normally not in my kitchen (tried escargot once and they were just way too salty for me) but now that it is mosaiced, you can only use this for decoration anyway.

As usual, I used stained glass to piece the design. Each of the 12 circles has a different pattern- two are almost identical, but not quite. The plate diameter is 8" and each circle is a bit over an inch wide- lots of tiny pieces! Today was such a grey, windy day. I'm hoping for a bit more sun tomorrow to take some brighter pictures before listing on etsy.

Rainbow Fish is done!

2007-10-23T18:23:00.003-04:00

Took me a while, but Rainbow Fish Clock is now complete. Inspiration for the background was a little slow in coming. I had been thinking of adding more detail- like swimming through sea grass or swirling water. I played with glass for a bunch of days but every time I added that detail, it seemed to take away from the fish. So, sweet and simple, I used that blue/white streaky glass I had (previous post) and did a random placement of triangles. I also did a subtle frame. The framing has the added benefit of no tiny pieces of glass at the vulnerable edge.

At the moment this guy is living on my lanai and I just might keep him.

Ornaments

2007-10-10T09:08:00.002-04:00

I finished up a new batch of mini mosaic ornaments Monday.

These look great in a garden (protect from freezing, please), in a window as a suncatcher or, of course, on a Christmas tree.

When I make a large mosaic, I always have bits left over. Sometimes these bits are shaped pieces like flower petals, or circles and are just too cool not to do something with.

So, I came up with this idea of mini mosaics. The pieces are glued to a square glass background. I ground the background edges smooth, ground little grooves in the side and formed a hanger with copper wire.

WIP- Rainbow Fish Clock

2007-10-08T11:19:00.006-04:00

I've been working on this fish all weekend and he is coming out so fun and funky I wanted to share.

At this stage he is all pieced and glued down with thin-set.

And now I'm waiting for inspiration for how to piece the background. I have a nice piece of streaky blue/white that might work. My first thought had been a dark watery blue but it just seemed too dark and dreary for this fun guy.

A while back I was playing with shapes in my sketch book and doodled this fish looking at the clock in his belly. Fish are just such a classic thing to mosaic but I put off doing this one because I try to make my work unique and different.

He just kept calling to me so, with a few design tweaks inspired by a photo of Pumpkinseed fish (who knew there was such a cool looking fish in nature??), he is now coming to be.

He has great over sized eyes made from glass glob squiggles and 300+ 1/4 inch scales in a rainbow of colors. My favorite are the iridescent turquoise ones sprinkled in the top half. His face is pieced from scrap multicolor glass I had that went just right.

Workshop Kitties

2007-10-06T19:48:00.002-04:00

Every time I turn around, there is at least one cat hanging out with me wherever I am. And in my shop is no exception. They both kindly posed for me this week while I was working, so I thought I'd share.

To the left is Max. He came to us via animal rescue folks. He is at least 10 years old but we've had him for about 5 1/2 years. He is a mellow sweetheart. He yearns to go outside. But he managed to get himself lost once or we wouldn't have him, so we keep him in. He loves to be on the lanai and sometimes my kids will take him out on a leash. That's fine with him.

And that is Shadow curled up on the cushion. She came to us three years ago as a stray kitten. She can be very sweet also, but she terrorized poor Max like you wouldn't believe at first. And mellow Mr. Max would just put up with it. She still will tackle him, but I think they have come to an understanding about it. Now this one has absolutely no interest in the great outdoors. I like to think it is because she knows a good thing when she found it. She is quite content to hang out with us inside, thank you very much.

New Clock Stands

2007-09-14T11:51:00.004-04:00

I am really excited about this project I've been working on this week. For one thing, I get to play with the compound miter saw. I love this saw!

I have two octagonal wall clocks in my Etsy shop, and about a dozen more octagonal glass pieces in my workshop that I want to turn into clocks. To make them more versatile, I am making solid poplar stands so they can sit on a table or a shelf as well.

These stands are my own design. The clock hangs from a dowel at the top of a cantilevered arm and then rests on a little triangle piece on the base. That is a ready to be mosaiced clock modeling the new stand in the picture (of course).

I matched the shape of the base to the clock shape. I want these to be sturdy so I used two 1-1/2" brass screws and wood glue to attach the cantilevered arm from underneath. I'll add felt pieces to the underside of the base to protect furniture. I used a little dowel to secure the little triangles to the base.

I'll do a custom finish on each to match it's clock. For the flower clock, I'll use clear varnish and for the citrus clock, look for it for sale with a white stand. I should be able to get these listed by Monday. (But, if you like one as a wall clock, feel free to purchase now :) through Etsy.)

Rainbow Tree Mosaic

2007-09-01T12:07:00.004-04:00

I have this shoebox lid that I throw bitty scraps into as I go. Crazy, but I can't seem to throw them away. It was getting out of hand. What to do?

Inspiration came from this little scene I sketched while in the car

rider line at my

daughter's school.

I whimsically called it Rainbow Tree but...it's not.

I just couldn't put the blue and purple bits in. I very much appreciate whimsy in other artists work, but have such a hard time straying from realism in my own. Hmmmm.

The thrifty in me was pleased anyway that the white bits left from the Dahlia Star clock worked nicely here as well as that I used up a variety of dark green scraps.

New WIP- Dahlia Star Mosaic Clock

2007-08-25T07:37:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd start off my blog with work in progress (WIP) pictures of my latest mosaic clock.

This mosaic is a bit of a departure for me since pink is usually NOT on my favorites list. Not that I hate it or anything but if you check my other work you see that I have a strong affinity for orange. So, because I know orange is a color that people have strong feelings about, I pulled out some other colors to play with. This came together from an inspiring magazine photo of a Dahlia, a clock works I had with great scroll hands and nice deep brown pieces I had left from another project. I just started playing. The color pieces are stained glass. The substrate is a 12" x 12" piece of concrete board attached with brass screws to a solid pine support frame.

The rest of the design evolved to solve the problem of how to indicate time- this is a clock after all. I hate clocks that make you guess too much. I always indicate at least where the hour numbers are in a creative way. My quilting background is showing here- I used a 12 point star of my own design and cut out little graph paper patterns. A sharpie is essential for marking glass- quilting rulers are fantastic with glass too.

Looks like I'm nearing the end now that the top glass is all laid out? Not quite. Next up is a date with a cup, or two, of thin-set mortar. Each piece is now individually back buttered with thin-set and put back into place. Popsicle sticks are wonderful. So are tweezers and dental probes. And that ruler was handy again to make sure the clock hour indicators were where they belong. The whole gluing process took about two hours. Well, that did include time using the grinder to fit the inner white triangles around the flower petals.

The clock hands are just laying on top to approximate the finished look. I'll grout this in white most likely. But first I need to add glass to the edges. I also need to paint the back of the mosaic to seal it and add the clock works and hanging wire. After it is grouted, I'll seal the grout as well. Then look for it for sale on etsy.