Who Recycled, a Glass Mosaic Owl Portrait

'Who Recycled'
Scroll down to see construction slide-show

I recently completed this 6" x 6" framed glass mosaic for Lin Schorr's Sept 2012 Auction benefiting Doctor's Without Border's.
www.flickr.com/photos/linlee8/6260969290/in/set-721576279...

The frame inspired this piece and was found at a local fundraising sale. It likely was a sample frame for a frame shop.

The owl is from a photo I took of the one who lives at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The pose and texture went nicely with the frame.

Continuing the recycled theme, the substrate is from a piece of scrap hardibacker concrete board that otherwise might have been thrown away. The owl glass is all from little scrap bits and the background is nipped from wine bottles.

To see slideshows from other mosaic projects, click 'Slideshow' in label cloud in right margin.

Although the original "Who Recycled" has sold, a print is available on my page at Fine Art America:
http://fineartamerica.com/artists/19+linda+smith

All available mosaic art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MosaicSmith?search_query=mosaic+art

I make sterling silver jewelry too!!  http://MosaicSmith.com https://mosaicsmith.etsy.com

Just Ducky - Adventures in Mixed Media Mosaics

"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 a vendor 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 :)

"Just Ducky" has sold.
See my available mosaic art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MosaicSmith?search_query=mosaic+art

I create original design silver jewelry too!! http://MosaicSmith.com

A Manga Style Mosaic - Fierce Despite the Tears.

'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.

This mosaic is in my daughter's collection.

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

Thoughts on how to choose a grout color, or colors

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:

"My Shadow" (Print available)

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!

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"My Shadow" is in my private collection but a print is available on my page at Fine Art America:

 http://fineartamerica.com/artists/19+linda+smith

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

sweet love

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

A couple weeks ago I finished a project that was quite a while in the making. (Click "bird" 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 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.

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"Curious Neighbor" is in my personal collection. 
A print is available on my page at Fine Art America:
http://fineartamerica.com/artists/19+linda+smith

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

Stained Glass Mosaic Self Portrait in Black and White

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!

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.

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This mosaic is part of my personal collection.

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