Additions to day 215

Oops! I accidently pressed publish post-Here are the pictures I meant to put on my Day 215 blog.



This is a picture of the peacock feather design I'd love to do a mosaic of.

Here's Matteo Randi's piece from the Mosaic Arts International Show at Navy Pier. This piece was my favorite!

This is the piece I just grouted- "Winter Moon", Stained glass, Cinca tile, beads, pearls, crystalline tiles and mesh mounted on wedi board which then was mounted on birch plywood.

Plan for the Week (still spring break)

Tuesday-Work on counter , go to MIA with daughter

Wednesday-Work on sketching new small piece, work on Zen border

Thursday-Work on counter

Friday-work on counter

Saturday/Sunday-Family time

Monday-Work on Zen piece

Quote of the Week

"If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you have not been enough of a poet to call forth lifes' riches." -Rainer Maria Rilke

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 215

Well it is back to mosaics! I have had some days off with visiting family which was very enjoyable, always nice to connect with relatives. Also starting to do the college tours-I can't believe I have kids old enough to go to college soon-I think that when it starts to hit you how fast the years can really go.

I actually started adhering my Zen piece after a lot of decisions I thought I would start on the side borders, which represent a Japanese screen. I am using leftover glass tiles from thier bathroom , brown and dark red Mexican Smalti and small pieces of shell. I highly suggest to see the space when considering a commission piece. You definitely get more of a sense of the space and feel of the piece-I also took more pictures of the area it will go in. Now I'm excited to get going on it!

Today I also finished my grouting my "Winter moon" piece-It turned out so nice-I was not planning on grouting but thought it would look nicer with grout. I'd like to start another small piece, possibly a peacock feather with inspiration from the Plaza Hotel in Chicago. They had the most beautiful carpeting in the hallways with colorful peacock feathers.

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 208

Well I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the SAMA Conference! I came home exhausted but head filled with all the wonderful education that was offered. I enjoyed working with and meeting all my instructors, Matteo Randi, Ollie Budd, Gary Drostle and Martin Cheek (I guess I liked working with the "Brits" this year). It was also a lot of fun spending time with the MMG pals-we had a lot of laughs!!!

My piece that I had in the Salon sold! Very exciting! I hope she enjoys the piece.

Today I spent organizing all my tesserae from the classes and vender's market. I'm looking forward to finishing some of my pieces that I started along with sketching some new ideas. One idea will be from the beautiful designs that were in the Hotel hallways. It was colorful swirls with peacock feathers in them-very cool!

Sorry about the no pictures this week-my computor is not letting me put them on! Hopefully next week I'll be able to.

Plan for the week:
Tuesday-Smalti class
Wednesday-Work on "Zen Moon" piece
Thursday-work on Counter/Bar
Friday-Monday -Traveling again (Spring Break Starts)

Quote for the week:
"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."
-Ursula K. LeQuin

Monday Mosaic Blog

Day 201

Well this week I was busy doing non mosaic things. I was able to fit in a little time to get a few things done though. Since I went back to the "drawing" board for the Zen project, I decided to make up an inspiration board to keep me on track with colors and the feeling I wanted to portray in this piece. I also received my Smalti and can't wait to get started on this!






This is my "Winter Moon" piece. It has been challenging working around curves and the splits between the Wedi board pieces. Not sure if I am going to grout this or not since it would be a challenge to not get grout in between-I would have to tape off each piece. I am working through a lot of issues by doing a sample before jumping into a larger version of this.

Here's the latest version of my tropical fish-I like the swirls and the brighter colors. This is what I will be mosaicing in Martin Cheek's class at SAMA (Which I can't believe I leave tomorrow!!) He made the eye and small fin in fused glass-It will be very fun to use fused glass in this piece.

Plan for the week

Tuesday-TRAVEL TO CHICAGO TO ATTEND THE SAMA CONFERENCE!!!

Wednesday-Attending 3 workshops! Hammer & Hardie w/Matteo Randi, Replicating Reality in Mosaics w/Oliver Budd, The Secrets of the Romans w/Gary Drostle

Thursday-Glass Fusion & Smalti w/ Martin Cheek

Friday-Vender's Market, Presentations and Arist Reception at Navy Pier

Saturday-Tesserae Exchange, Presentations, and Mosaic Art Salon and Auction, and Celebration Dinner/closing party

Sunday-Head home with head full of ideas!!!

Monday-Recover (ha)

Quote of the week

"Every moment of our life can be the beginning of great things.

-Juan Mascare

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 194

This is a new project that I have been working on. I've had this idea of combining different shapes of wedi board and doing a monochromatic abstract theme on it. This is a sample one I want to complete before actually making a large one. I thought I'd test it out on a smaller scale first. The pieces are attched to plywood that I painted black and used T nuts and a long screw to attach each section to the plywood-I wanted to find a way to make it more secure. I'm obviously not done laying all the tesserae on. So far it has been a fun little challenge. Well it was back to the drawing board for the Zen project, I was laying glass out and deciding on colors and andamento and it just was not feeling right. So...I thought I would change the layout a little and change the colors. I did not like the blue in the piece and I thought it needed something else besides the bamboo and moon so I added the Torii Gate which is a symbol of religion faith and peace. I am thinking about using all Smalti in this piece.

I was able to get about 5 hours on Thursday to work on the countertop. I can't get over how long it takes to do the "crazy paving". I decided not to bother with brown tiles since I had so much of the other colors left, I'm just going to stick to these colors. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am starting to think about how to attempt grouting and dealing with the clean up along with the biggest grouting project I have ever done.

Plan for the week

Tuesday-Smalti class, order Smalti for Zen Project

Wednesday-finish white abstract and layout new design of Zen project

Thursday - Organize studio/errands/do some sketching

Friday-Work on counter

Saturday-Work on counter

Sunday-Pack for SAMA!

Monday-Hopefully will have smalti to start on project and Art Guild meeting

Quote of the week

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -Anais Nin

Monday Mosaic Blog

Day 187

Another busy week with mosaics, including a lot of decisions. I finally came up with a quick sketch to send to Martin Cheek. I am taking a Glass fusion workshop with him at SAMA and he needed to know what size substrate and what we wanted to make. I was not sure what I wanted to do so I thought since we are using fused glass it would be fun to do a tropical fish. Here is my "quick" sketch of it. I think I am going to change the fish to be more whimsical and the weeds to be more circular and flowing.

I started my "commission" piece for the Zen bathroom project.

I did not adhere any pieces yet since I am still deciding on colors, andemento and tesserae.

Hopefully by Wednesday I'll get going on it.

This is my Smalti piece I am making in the Tuesday Smalti class with Connie Cohen. It is still slow going. I do like working with Smalti but like any new thing it is taking some getting used to. I find that cutting the smalti with the wheeled nippers is working just fine. We are starting another 8 week session-I assume I will have it done by then??? The different sections are where different values of the smalti go-As Connie says "it's like painting by numbers"

PLAN FOR THE WEEK

Tuesday-Smalti class (and John Mayer concert at night!)

Wednesday-Work on Bamboo Zen Project and redesign fish

Thursday-Work on Counter installation

Friday-Work on counter in the morning

Saturday-Pick out what I want to bring for the tesserae exchange for SAMA and what tesserae I want to bring to add to my tropical fish

Sunday-day off

Quote for the week
"This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do, and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy."
-S.P. Schultz