Monthly Mosaic Blog

I have had a wonderfully productive month in April.  I finished 3 smaller mosaics and started a 24" x 24" music themed mosaic to enter into the CMA competition.  

Also thanks to my friend Dawn Elliott I was able to have some beautiful business cards made along with a classy looking website.  She did an amazing job! 

The reason for the push to get all this done is that I am going to be selling my work in our local art gallery.  I start this Thursday and I am looking forward to displaying and selling my work in an environment with such wonderful artists.

Here is the 1st mosaic.  I was able to get it completed except for the grouting which I will do tomorrow, in 7 hours. I bought a few canvas boards at Dick Blick and thought I would try mosaicing on them.  It is a nice substrate to try out and they were on sale.  I just used stained glass.  What drew me to this mosaic is that I love the blue and green colors and just wanted to use them to make a samller mosaic to sell at the Gallery

Here is another Torii Gate mirror I finished to sell at the gallery.  I will be grouting this one tomorrow also.  I guess it will be a grout day tomorrow.

Now onto my 24"x24" music mosaic that I am working on.  I have had this sketched for a few months and finally figured out a plan for colors.  I am using different tones of each color so it looks like a spotlight is shining down on the instruments.  Once again I hope this turns out, but I guess its the journey of each piece that we make that helps us continue to develop our technique.  I am using wedi board as a substrate and for materials-stained glass, karma glass, beads, vitreous tiles and sunshine tiles.

I am looking forward to another productive month learning and growing in mosaics.

Plan for the month:

-Get my space at the gallery all set up

-Work a few times in the gallery

-Finish Music piece and enter it into CMA

-Finish a fish mosaic

Quote of the month:

"What is passion?  Passion is surely the becoming of a person."

-John Boorman

Monthly Mosaic Blog

With missing a month of blogging I have a lot to share this month. First I'll share the latest mosaics I have finished.

This one is a study I did for a larger piece I would like to do for our bedroom-I love the style of the prints I have seen for the Jacobean flower so thought I would of course try it in a mosaic. I love blue and green together and I pulled in colors from a rug we have. As far as the process of this, I thought I would break free from my glass grinder and not use it at all! (how scary-since I love to have my shapes perfectly round,ha) I think the overall look is just fine, a good lesson. Also I was not real hip on using just white grout but since most of the mosaic is white it pulls together nicely.

This was another 8 x 8 study I did-which is a nice tip to try a mosaic idea on a small scale first.
I love circles and thought this composition pulled together nicely. The substrate is plywood and I framed it with 1/4" x 1" tiles I get from Wits End. I like doing this so that the tesserae have something to butt up to. Now deciding colors (which I have the hardest time with) I drew up many different color ideas and this was the winning decision. I like the double complementary colors and the warm/cool together. I also like the flow of the andemento I used. I would like to try this larger now with a different color theme. I used black grout , my favorite with bright colors!

Now for a 12 x 12 study for the CMA music competittion. I wanted to bring in nature and music together. Within the piece I wanted a harp, guitar and piano along with the moon, tree and water. I tried a complementary color theme with orange/blue. I like how the tree is the harp and cirles around to keep your eye moving around the piece. I used many different materials. I think if I do attempt this larger I will just use one type of material. The grout color I decided what natural gray. I was a little nervous how it would turn out with the white moon, but once again I find I do like one color of grout throughout a piece-I feel it gives it a cleaner look. It's also less of a hassle. I am calling this piece "Acoustic Moonlight".

Well, another new event is coming up. I decided to have some of my mosaics for sale at a local gallery. I start May 1! So...needless to say I have been wanting to figure out how to work a little faster and make some small mosaics to sell there for a reasonable cost. I am really looking forward to it.

Goals for the month

-Start next music mosaic piece

-Finish two small mirrors to sell

-Get new business cards made

-Get larger photos printed and put into a portfolio

-Go to MMG meeting

Quote of the month

"There is nothing better than being yourself" -Christina Fernandez de Kirchner

Monthly Mosaic Blog

First off, yesterday I spent my morning grouting. I have had three smaller mosaics sitting in my studio. So...thought I should finally get to them. I have had fun with the IKEA frames and these are three more that I have finished.

The first one is called "morning cup" I have been wanting to do a larger version of this one so thought it would be nice to start small and get a feel for colors.

The 2nd one is called "fairy tale" mirror. I love swirls and so this one I had a lot of fun with. I happened to open up a drawer of colors I don't use a lot (pinks and purples) and thought it would be nice to have a change of colors. This would be cute in a little girls room.


The 3rd one is "Tori gate" mirror. I had fun using more of a analogous color theme, this is my favorite way to do mosaics lately, with the rectangles and squares.



Besides finishing these I started an 8 x8 which I will post next month. It is for our mosaic guild meeting. Each member was asked to bring an 8 x 8 to display when we have group shows. Its nice to do since it gives a sample of our work.

Next projects are a triptych for the Hospital. I was thrilled to be asked to do another comission for Allina and have been busy sketching many different water scenes for the project. It will be a challenge as always but not due until June.

Another mosaic I would like to make is for the CMA competition. It has to be a music theme, I may do a scene with my piano in it or one based off of a picture I took at the MacPhail center for music.

Next month I may not be blogging since I will be soaking up some sun on vacation! I plan on bringing my camera and playing around with different shots. I also will be doing a lot of drawing-looking forward to filling up my sketchpad more!

Goals for the next two months

-Get started on Hospital mosaic

-Sketch a music themed mosaic and get started on that

-attend the MMG meeting

-Finish my 8 x 8

-Finish my last small IKEA mirror

-Figure out how to do a website inexpensively

-sketching like crazy

Quote for the month

"There are only two ways to live your life.

One is as though nothing is a miracle.

The other is as if everything is a miracle."

-Albert Einstein

Look for my next blog on April 1st!

Monthly Mosaic Blog

Another interesting month in the world of mosaics. I finished my 5th mini mosaic thanks in part to those wonderful IKEA frames. Some of the the pieces were so small that it was tricky to adhere and get them to lay correctly. I just need to grout this one and it is done! This one is based off of a drawing i made which I would like to make on a larger scale at some point. I love to listen to music in the morning with my cup of coffee and read. I call this "morning fill".




Here is a new one I am working on. I decided to mosaic the outside of the IKEA mirror. I played around with a few ideas and these colors were calling to me since I have been working in earthtones the last few projects. I could see this one going in a little girls room. It will have a fairy tale feel to it.

I finished my "African Sun" Piece and just need to get it framed. I entered this one along with my "Dancing Birch" piece in the Arts in Harmony Show at the Sherburne Government Center. I hope they get into the show.

Well, I finally made it to the Chicago Mosaic School this month for 2 workshops. I have never been at the school and I was thrilled to be there. The first workshop I took was a color theory with mosaics by Rochelle Borrett. I also took an installation workshop with Joseph Guyer. Both intructors were outstanding and I took a lot of info home along with my head swimming with ideas (as if it is not already filled with the wide array of projects I would like to do). Of course it was fun picking up a few purchases at Tiny Pieces. It was nice meeting Andrea who runs the store, she also had info on framing-cool!

Here's the fireplace our class was working on for the installation piece-we also worked on the floor of the fireplace and a bathroom floor within the school.

My next big project is one that has been swimming in my head for awhile. I want to make a larger mosaic for our bedroom using the Jacobean textile idea. I am drawn to textiles, patterns, nature and texture which is all part of that era. I have done a few sketches but wanted to more about the history of the Jacobean era, So... I have been doing a little research in that subject.

The Jacobean Era was a period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI (1567-1625) who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan era and preceeds the Caroline era and specifically denotes a style of architectural, visual arts, decorative arts and literature that is predominate of that era.

I am going to the Textile Center today to pick up a book that I found and I am searching fabric designs. I will put all this together for my own version of the Jacobean feel. I would like it to be a blue and white theme which would go well in our bedroom. It is always so fun starting a new project!

Plan for the month

Finish Fairy Tale Mirror

Attend MMG Holiday Party (yeah! Tesserae exchange!)

Start Jacobean Floral Mosaic
Oh Yah, I need to fit Christmas in there somewhere-ha :)

Quote of the month

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today" -Indian Proverb

Monthly Mosaic Blog

What a wonderfully productive month! It does help to make a scheduled time to be in the studio (along with getting ready for a show helps :) I did finish my Dancing Birch piece along with a few mini's. I was able to have enough for any area at the Art Harvest Festival in our local area. Finally I feel I am making some progress with building up a "stock" of finished mosaics. The day of the Festival was beautiful and we had a wonderful turn out. What talent in our area!



Here is a new piece that I started this week, it is going a totally different direction then what I had orginally planned. I was thinking when I first had this design to do a white monochromatic piece until I found some beads that were given to me through the tesserae exchange at the Austin Convention. Now it has become more of an African piece. I really enjoy letting the tesserae help inspire the direction to go. I finished adhering the "sun" portion now I am playing around with different ideas for the "rays".


This morning was very fun. There is a local lady who just finished her first mosaic and wanted to come over to my studio to learn how to grout. I love to help people learn this wonderful art. But, I thought I should have something of my own to grout and show her the process. So...I found a piece that had been sitting around for about 3 years that I had never grouted. What a wonderful reason to finally finish it. It's called "Play the Blues" and was one of my first few mosaics. It did not look so bad after I grouted. The edges are a little raw since they are odd shapes and that. I was glad to finish my piece and help her along the way. Her's turned out beautifully and she did an outstanding job for her first mosaic. I wish I would have taken a picture of it to post.

Well instead of a gallery to visit this month I was up in Duluth, MN and finally saw Laura Stone's mosaics in the Whole Foods up there. They are absolutely stunning and I was thrilled to see them in person! Very inspiring!

Goals for the month

Finish African Sun piece

Take a couple workshops at the Chicago mosaic school

Finish another mini mosaic

Quote of the month

"Those who dwell...among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."

-Rachel Carson

Monthly mosaic blog

This month was somewhat productive. I decided to figure out a way to get more hours to work in my studio. I wrote down everything I do on a normal day and how long each of them took. This came up to 8-1/2 hours and DID NOT include my studio time! Wow that was very eye opening for me, so I thought something had to give. I bought a planner and wrote out my plan for the week including everyone else's schedule along with a meal plan for dinners. I just started it last week and it worked wonders! I was able to get in the studio by 9:00am and take a break for lunch, then back in the studio until 2:00-How cool was that! I lessened the time on some things and moved my laundry days to just the weekends along with groceries etc. I also decided not to check emails until the afternoon-which worked sooo well!

Sooo....now that I have been spending more time in the studio I am pumped to get some work done and can't stop thinking about it. 1st I have been making a few mini mosaics which I still need to grout but this is one of them. I'm calling it night on the thames-it just reminds me of the row houses in London. It's obviously more of a whimsical piece.


I am almost done with the birch tree piece-I did not realize how long it takes and there has been a lot of cutting and grinding involved.

I also decided to go to one new art gallery a month. This last month I went to the gallery 360 in Edina and they had such wonderful local art there-I absolutley loved it. I also got a nice tip on framing.

Goals for the month

-Be part of the art harvest festival in town and display some of my art.

-keep working on the planning and getting more studio time

-make a couple more mini's

-get started on friends mosaic of her springer spaniel-I did get some nice photos last month

Quote of the month

"Like a tree I stand, reaching for the light, gaining strength from the darkness at my roots. My body is twisted by the storms of life, yet in my uniqueness I am beautiful."

-Modern Affirmation

Monthly Mosaic Blog

August was a busy month. I did make it up north by Lake of the Woods area with a few friends and of course I had to make them stop in Bemiji to take a look at some mosaic work. I thought since we were passing through it would be nice to take a look at the new Bemiji Regional Event Center and see Barbara Keiths designs. They are beautiful and it goes through the whole center! It is a design for the 15,000 sq ft epoxy terrazzo floor. It was well worth the stop to see!


I did not get time last month to finish my birch tree piece, but I have been trying to get a 1/2 hr to a couple hours a day to work on it. I just finished all the leaves today-A LOT of cutting and grinding so far. Hopefully it all works out, and I finish it within a week and a half! The background is going to be mostly blues so the yellow, orange and reds will really stand out. Not sure on grout color yet.

Here is a design that I am looking forward to working on soon. I am thinking it would be interesting as a monochromatic piece-in white. The idea came from a pottery piece I have.

My next big challenge is a piece I am making for a friend. She wants me to do a mosaic (2D) of her springer spaniel. I have been looking at different artists works and the artist I liked the most was Donna Van Hooser. She has done quite a few dogs and they are absolutely beautiful! I love her color choices along with the andemento. I have been in touch with her through CMA and she was nice enough to give me advice on how to go about this project.

Just an FYI-I have been listening to different podcasts once in awhile on my walks. One that I really enjoyed lately and found very inspirational is "Art and Soul radio". The host interviewed Pam Carriker who recently wrote a book called Art at the speed of Life. I found her very motivating to listen to and her interview gave me a few things to think about and stay motivated with my artwork.

Plan for the month

-FINISH birch tree piece

-clean up space inside my house to have for my drawing supplies

-Take pictures of friends springer spaniel and get that ready to start on the mosaic

-still would like to do a couple more mini mosaics

-go visit a few galleries/museums

Quote for the month

"There is no greater harm then that of wasted time". -Michelangelo