Monthly Mosaic Blog-September

I'm starting a new chapter in blogging. I'll be blogging once a month. This will help me stay focused on my goals along with letting others know what I have been up to in the "mosaic world". I'll blog the 1st of every month.

My latest project is going okay so far-still getting used to using/cutting the Mexican Smalti. I absolutely love the texture and variety of each of the colors. I have been trying to use the hammer and hardie along with the wheeled nippers. My goals for this piece is to make it all with Mexican Smalti, which is not a normal way I work since I love using all different kinds of materials but thought this would be something to try out. I found out as I was laying the Smalti down to intermix the different shades so the areas do not look so "flat". It helped give each area more dimension.

I'm thinking of calling this piece "guitar meditation". I love listening to Govi's guitar music which was an inspiration for the piece, along with an artist whose work I liked.

It is an abstract with several hints of guitar shapes. I'm using earth tone colors because I'm making it for an entryway which these colors would fit in well. The size of the piece is 24"x 24".

My Mosaic/Art Goals for the month are:

Finish "Guitar Meditations"

Sketch my next piece

Attend the MMG opening/meeting

Attend the BCA meeting

Quote for the month

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." -Gladys Bronwyn Stern

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 362!

I have been blogging just a few days shy of a year!

It has been a challenge to blog each Monday. But for the most part have
been able to do that (except this month).


I have to say that blogging has helped me stay focused on continuing to educate myself with mosaic art. I have completed several mosaics, tried some new techniques, learned how to work with Smalti, how to use a hammer and hardie, understand value when using smalti, had four of my pieces in a Gallery, completed a larger "Call to Art" challenge, along with getting my first commissioned piece in a hospital!



So...on to this next year. My plan is to blog the 1st of each month, continue with ending my blog with a "plan for the month" along with a "quote of the month". This will start September 1st.





On to my next piece-
I heard some good advice awhile ago and will always remember it.


"Treat each mosaic as a commissioned piece even if it is for yourself."


so, I have started a new piece with that thought in mind.
I've had a sketch for awhile and took it out the other day while listening to beautiful guitar music and sitting out by the lake decided to play around with changing some things on it.
This is an abstract using shapes/constrasting color/different values/hints of music within.
I'm planning on using just Mexican Smalti. This will be my challenge for the month of September. I normally don't use one material and this is more straight lines/abstract compared to my other work. I would love to complete this in time for a show coming up.

I made a "key" to help with what colors of Smalti to use in the different areas.

I also made a sketch drawing out different andemento to help with the shapes and direction I want the Smalti to flow.

My Plan until September 1st

-get the Smalti colors that I need on order

-Prepare the 24" x 24" substrate and get the design drawn on

-Start adhering

Last Quote of the week

"With education and hard work it really does not matter where you came from; it matters only where you are going." -Condolezza Rice

Day 334-Monday Mosaic Blog

My family and I have been having a "brilliant" time in London-so much that I did not get time to blog the last two Mondays. I would highly recommend a holiday here it is lovely!

We did see many sites that had mosaics but they would not allow picture taking. The National Museum and St Paul Cathedral to name a few. The Mosaics at St Paul Cathedral were amazing! I did take a few pictures of other mosaics. Here is one from our boat cruise through the canals. The picture of course does not do it justice since it is very sparkly from the mirror that was used.

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Here are some pictures of Emma Biggs Mosaics in the Canary Wharf area it was so nice to see them in person-If you read about them on her site she explains her process-which I would like to try sometime. There were 13 different squares that were along the walk. This is one of the mosaics that I loved. The other ones were in a passage way near the Jubilee Mall.

Her mosaics are very inspiring-tried to get into a workshop with her but for some reason she never responded-oh well.

I'm looking forward to getting back home and into my studio now that I'm done with some of my big projects and filled with ideas from all our travels.

Plan for the week (back to work again-ha)

• Tuesday-Wednesday-Still in London and traveling home
• Thursday-Sleep and laundry
• Friday-Get back to studio and figure what to work on next
• Saturday-Opening event at the hospital where commission piece is located.
• Sunday-Monday-Hopefully start adhering , drawing and blogging!

Instead of a quote for the week I'm putting down a book for the week (I've been enjoying reading this during our stay here)

"The Razor's Edge" by W Somerset Maugham

Day 313-Monday Mosaic Blog

I'm done with the hospital project! I learned a lot by doing this.

-how to bid a mosaic

-how to manage my time

-how to decide on grout when not sure

-backgrounds and what to do with them

Here's a write up that the hospital wanted to have next to the piece,

(I found this a little difficult to do

"Sweet Child of Ours"

This piece of mosaic art represents the positive energy within a family.

The "baby" flower has colors (DNA) from both parents and just a bud ready to bloom

The "mother" flower is grouwing from the "v" shape between the hills and that is to represent the female form. Also notice that I gave her a pearl necklace, since most mom's love pearls.

The "father" flower is standing tall and proud protecting his family

The dragonfly represents the positive force in life.

The title came from the thought that these lowers also looked like lollipops which then led to a candy like feel thus the word "sweet".

My hope for this piece is to remind us to keep the energy positive within our families and that we live life together to the fullest and be proud of who we are.

I thoroughly enjoy working with such a textural medium. It's fun to bring "life" to so many different materials and have them work together in harmony.

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So now that I'm done with some big projects, I'm taking 3 weeks off of working on mosaics. My family and I have decided to go to London for 3 weeks!!! We are very excited and I will still be blogging on Mondays about differents mosaics I've encountered on our trip. I did ask Martin Cheek and Oliver Budd where some mosaics to see in London. Also I'll blog on some other interesting things we see along the way.

I'm sure when I get back at the end of July I'll be wanting to get back to the studio again to finish some mosaics that have put on hold.

Quote of the week

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the places and moments that take our breath away." -anonymous

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 299

I have been slowly plugging away at my project. I'm finding I only have a few hours a day to dedicate to this. I am starting the background around the flowers. I'm certain of the andemento of the rest but not sure on the colors. I found it a nice touch to bring in the mirror to help with the flow of direction (following the dragonfly). I think I'm going to intermix pale yellow, white and blue together. I wish I would have put mirror on the "hills" to follow the direction. What I am going to try is using apoxy sculpt to adhere the mirror to the top of the tiles since they are different heights-hopefully this will work

Anyways...I need to start putting more time into this so I can complete it this week!

Plan for the week

Tuesday-purchase some pale yellow glass for background.

Adhere some of the extra tiles to small boards for a grout study, I am not sure what color to use yet.

Wed-Saturday-Work on finishing project.

Sunday or Monday-GROUT!!!

Quote for the week

"Believe that you can, but plan. It will not fall in your lap."

-Antonia Novella

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 292

I'm back in the studio after being pulled away for about 4 days with getting things put together for our daughter's graduation and graduation party, also entertaining family. It was so much fun and we are very proud of her!!!




I'm excited to get the three large flowers done with so I can now concentrate on the background of my project for the hospital. I like how it's looking so far, I'm still trying to balance the colors so it's not too dark in some places or too much of one color other places. I'm using a lot of different materials and andemento. I'm thinking of doing the "grass" area with blocks of green materials and the background around the large flowers more flowing with larger pieces. Also I am going to be putting letters making the words of the title "Sweet Child of Ours" in the piece. I've never done that before and think it would be a nice touch.





I'm thinking it would be great to get the piece done by next Monday so then I can grout it next week!! (Ahead of schedule!)

Plan for the week

Everyday work on the piece with Sunday off hopefully with have it finished by next Monday!

Quote for the week
"There are no miracles to the man/woman who does not believe in them."
-French Proverb

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 285

Well it was bound to happen at some point-I forgot to blog last Monday.

I was still in vacation mode with memorial weekend and it was my daughter's 19th birthday.

So...a lot has happened since the last time I blogged.

We had our mosaic guild opening last Friday. It was so much fun to be a part of and we had a lot of people that were coming through to view the pieces. I can't get over the talent within our group and everyone definitely has thier own style.

I said yes to doing another mosiac for our local hospital! It is quite an honor to be asked to do another mosaic for thier labor and delivery area. I made up some sketches and one was approved so I am already working on it. They wanted a piece that was pastel and light in color. So I went with the light purples, greens, pinks and blues. The piece will be called "Sweet Child of Ours" since after I drew the sketch the flowers reminded me of lollipops. I thought it would be nice to have a mother and father flower with a baby flower, since it is in the maternity wing.

The materials I'm using are vitreous tile, beads, marbles, buttons, metal charms, pearls, mirror, karma tile and stained glass. It is a 20" x 30". I'm having fun with the colors and the cute theme! I have a due date of July 1st. So my goal this week is to complete the flowers, so that next week I can get to the background.

Also I finished my smalti piece with bleeding hearts! I am done now with the smalti class that Connie Cohen taught-Thanks to Connie I now feel more comfortable cutting smalti-I still can't get over how long this took to complete. Overall I am happy with the piece it was nice to know how to use the gray scale to choose color and to lay it out with that process in mind.

Plan for the week

Tuesday-Thursday-work on Hospital piece and try to get all the flowers completed.
Friday-Saturday-Get ready for my daughter's graduation party (I still can't believe I will have one graduating!)
Sunday-day off
Monday-start on background. Still not sure what I am going to do yet. (and remember to blog)

Quote for the week

"Treat each day together as a gift and an adventure."