Silent Beauty - Mixed Media Mosaic Butterfly

My butterfly wall mosaic, pieced from stained glass and Mexican smalti glass, is now complete!

"Silent Beauty"

From a photo I took of a Mangrove Buckeye Butterfly at the Manatee Viewing Center, FL

~ 11" x 7" . 

The butterfly portion was pieced from stained glass using a double indirect method.  See previous post for a WIP picture.  After piecing (on sticky paper), I glued paper to the face, flipped the mosaic and peeled off the sticky paper. I then adhered it to a section of concrete board using thin-set mortar. This portion is grouted in mocha brown.

The background was pieced with Mexican smalti laid with the direct method. The flowers and major leaves pieced first, then the accent reeds in tan, and finally the rest of the background. The background is grouted in black. Generally smalti type glass is not grouted, but the Mexican type is smooth on the face (vs the Italian type that is used cut edge up and often will have tiny air bubbles that fill in when grout is used) and I felt the black grout would help the background to recede and the butterfly to 'pop'.  

Finished with an edge of black stained glass. Wired and ready to hang.

New Mosaic Art Butterfly WIP

Butterfly measures about 9" x 5" and is pieced from stained glass. Working title is "Silent Beauty". Finished mosaic will measure about 10 3/4" x 7".  {Odd size, yup. I've a few of these odd sized small boards on hand. Might make a related series with them. And then move on to using standard sizes that can be easily framed!}

I started this project last month and then stalled while I pondered how to approach the background (earlier WIP picture in previous post).

Next up: Transfer this to a piece of concrete board. Right now it is assembled on clear contact paper and you are looking at the right side. I'll glue paper to the face, remove the contact paper from the back, glue the butterfly to the concrete board then remove the glued paper.

The idea is that the butterfly will have a beautiful smooth texture and the background will be more highly textured for contrast.  I've decided to use smalti for the background. That should give it a nicely textured look and the uniform material will not detract too much from the focal. And I get to play with smalti :)