Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 243

I made the decision to make the piece for the hospital. So...I had to put all my other projects on hold. I drew up a sketch based on Klimt's "Farm Garden". This will definitely be a challenge because of the size and the time limit. I already put 12 hours into it.
















The substrate is birch plywood
The size is 12" high x 30" wide, the reason for the size is that it will be going over a hospital bed.
The materials I'm using are stained glass, vitreous glass, crystalline glass, Karma tile, beads, and millifiori.
It's due on May 7th and then it goes through jurors to see if they will even choose my piece for the hospital.

I figure if they don't choose it for the hospital I can always put it in a show or hang it on our wall at home-I really like the bright colors.

Also to get ideas for this project I made a trip out to the landscape arboretum. It was such a beautiful day! I loved walking around and taking pictures. It was such a great way to do some "research". The tulips were so beautiful!


Plan for the week
Tuesday-Wednesday-Work on hospital project
Thursday-Errand day and work on counter
Friday-Saturday-work on hospital project
Sunday-day off
Monday-Work on hospital project

Quote for the week
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar". -Helen Keller

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 236

Well my plan for the week did not work out as planned, since we only have one week left of our smalti class , I ended up bringing home my bleeding hearts to work on-I ran out of a few reds that I need so I started on the background. Connie suggested a dark blue background and I do like how it is looking so far against the light pink flowers.

I have been wanting to start my small peacock feather piece. I love working with the bright colors-I just started laying tesserae down today and I'm thinking of using tesserae that I already have that would work for the color scheme. So I have decided to use vitreous, crystalline and karma tiles.

I still have not been settled with the design for the bathroom piece-I don't know why I am having such a difficult time with it-I did find something I liked and may use this idea from a Van Gogh painting-sorry about the fuzzy picture. I think it has been a color issue and I do like the colors in this painting

Also another thing to add to my list (not sure if I will or not) is our local hospital is wanting to buy some art from local artists. They want it to be a 30"wide x 12" high piece. The theme is nature/landscape. Jurors from out area will decide which piece they will choose. I did cut out a piece of birch plywood and sealed it to have it ready if I do decide on adding this to my list. The only thing is that there is a deadline of May 7th! One of my thoughts is to do a Klimt landscape after his "Farm Garden" piece. I love the colors of all the flowers and the variety of greens in the background. I'll see how it goes this week sketching something up.

Plan for the week

Monday night-Art Guild meeting

Tuesday-Last smalti class (I'm going to miss those gals!)

Wednesday-work on peacock feather, sketch for hospital piece

Thursday-work on the counter (I would love to get a lot of this done)

Friday-peacock feather/plan colors and tesserae for hospital piece

Saturday-work on peacock feather

Sunday-day off

Monday-finish peacock feather? (I am crazy,ha)

Quote for the week
"Gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you."
- Eileen Caddy

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 229

The weather this week has been so nice, it's been hard to be inside working the last few days.

I had my local mosaic group together on Friday. One gal finished adhering her piece and it looks so nice, I'll take a picture of it next time when she grouts it. The other two ladies are doing such a nice job also-it's fun to see how different each piece is and what colors they like to use in thier pieces.

I took my Smalti piece home from my Tuesday class so I could make a little more progress. It seems to be taking me a while to get used to cutting the smalti and making the pieces fit together closely. Also it takes awhile to figure out the different shades and where to place them. I am enjoying it though and learning a lot. I just would like to finish it before the class is done in a few weeks.

Today I finished sketching the peacock feather design and decided to go with a black background. I think I am going to use a lot of Karma tile and might even bring in some metal that I received from the tesserae exchange at SAMA. Not sure yet on all the materials until I get going on it. This will just be a small piece

8 x 13-3/4".

Plan for the week

Tuesday-Smalti class

Wednesday-Work on sketch for bathroomand start to figure out materials for peacock feather, Mosaic Guild meeting at night.

Thursday-Work on counter

Friday-Work on bathroom piece

Saturday-work on peacock feather

Sunday-Day off

Monday-Work on bathroom piece

Quote for the week

"The divine is there for all of us to see, reflected in the world's beauty, like clouds in the stillness of a lake." -Jonathan Borges

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 222

I feel like it has been awhile since I have been able to really focus my time in the studio. With my time at SAMA and having my girls home for Spring Break life has not been very structured the last few weeks (which is nice to take a break now and then). Today was nice to get back to the swing of things. I was able to get out in the studio for about 3 hours. I started working on the side border of my Zen project, it looks a bit messy right now. I'm trying to utilize some of the glass tile from thier border in thier bathroom. I'm also using Mexican Smalti.

I also wanted to give my neck a break from looking down and start sketching a mosaic idea for a smaller project. This idea came from the beautiful carpets at the Palmer House Hilton at the SAMA convention. I'm not sure what I'll do with the background (dark or light). This will probably be a 9 x 12 or 10 x 17. I bought some predone mosaic frames from Matteo Randi and it would be nice to use one. I love the bright colors and the flow of the piece-this will be fun to do!

I found a little time to fit in to work on the counter/bar. I only have two sections left! It's all crazy paving in those areas though and I find that takes a lot of time to do. I would really like to set a goal to get this done by the end of April , grout and all!

Plan for the week

Tuesday-Smalti class

Wednesday-Finish the side border of Zen piece and lay out peacock feather sketch onto the substrate.

Thursday-Work on counter/bar

Friday-Work on counter/bar, may have local mosaic group get together at night

Saturday-Organize notes from SAMA

Sunday-Day off

Monday-Zen project start other border, start peacock feather design

Quote of the week

"The most perfect guide is nature. Continue without fail to draw something everyday."

-Irving Stone