Reaching Mosaic Wall Art - Adventures with Pennyround Tiles and Shading

Reaching   28.5" x 11.5"
(Click photo to view larger image.)

Several years ago, out of the blue, during a time when I was struggling, as a Mom, with my oldest child growing into an adult, I had a strong vision: a gloriously colored piece of fabric stretching and reaching towards brightness....My daughter.


I got busy sourcing glass and tile to match my vision. Many sheets of stained glass in an array of colors. Matte black (and a bit of grey) unglazed porcelain tile for the background. 

Detail: uncut penny round tiles

Black glass pennyround tiles with an iridescent finish that varied from plain black to silver, to gold and multicolor.
  
These I nipped so as to use just the curved edge.  

Left: sorted pennyround tile bits. Right: sorted glass rectangles.

I created, from wood and hardibacker concrete board plus mesh and thin-set mortar, a 3D substrate on which to piece the colorful 'fabric'.
 
Finally, I hand cut many, many tiny rectangles in a rainbow of colors and shades from black to bright from the sheets of stained glass.

 

 

The beginning!

The process of gathering and figuring took three years.

During that time, my daughter continued to grow towards her bright light and she shines!!

The background I pieced with the unglazed porcelain tile and added subtle depth through use of smaller piece sizes along the center left, as well as a couple of perspective lines in the grout. 

I also added in very thin pieces of dark grey tile- the light source.

The last piece!  

I grouted the background with black and did a shaded grout on the woven section with pale grey at the top through black at the bottom.

This mosaic hangs in a special space in my home!

I create original design silver jewelry too!! 
https://www.mosaicsmith.com/collections/all   or
https://mosaicsmith.etsy.com