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."

Monday Mosaic Blog

The peacock feather project was put on hold this weekend. I'm finding it hard to get into the studio these past few days since we have had some summer like weather. I love being outside when it's nice out. I was trying to get this done before Thursday or Friday this week since I wanted this to be one of my pieces for a mosaic show in June . Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

I have a few smaller pieces that I have had hanging in my studio to put in the show, here's the few I'm thinking of. The MMG show kind of snuck up on me to have a bigger piece ready. We have so many wonderful mosaic artists in the mosaic guild that will fill the show with beautiful artwork-it will be a nice event for our group!

I finally ordered my gryphon saw-It will be so fun to use. I first saw it at the SAMA show and was able to try it out there. It's easy to use and clean. I still need to set it up I just took it out of the box today. I'll be able to cut all sorts of shapes in glass and ceramic it will be fun to play around with it this summer.

Plan for the week

Tuesday-smalti class -hopefully will finish my bleeding heart project

Wednesday-finish adhering peacock feather

Thursday-grout peacock feather

Friday-Monday-hang out with family and friends since it is memorial weekend and my daughters birthday

Quote for the week

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

-Lena Horne

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 264

I found out a few days ago that "summer symphony" was accepted to be one of the pieces that was chosen for the hospital! Very exciting! Sounds like after seeing my work they definitely want me to do a piece for a stairway at the hospital. I'll find out soon how large and what theme, colors, design they are looking for. I'll have to go through with a sketch and submission process first. All in all I am very excited but a little nervous also.

In the meantime I have been working on my small peacock feather project. I love all the bright colors. I have done needlepoint in the past and thought I would try to use some of the pattern techniques I've learned from that with the glass. I'm using materials I already have-vitreous glass, karma tile, colorfusion tile and a marble. This piece was inspired from the carpeting at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago where SAMA was held this year.

I finally ordered my tile I won at the raffle held at SAMA from Mosaic tile. I won 195.00 worth of tile. It is mostly vitreous tile along with some colorfusion tiles. It's always nice to get some free materials! I'll probably have my girls help this summer getting the paper backing off and organizing them.

Plan for the week

Tuesday-Smalti class

Wednesday-work on the background of the peacock feather

Thursday-work on counter project (I'm getting very close to being done and I'll post pictures next monday)

Friday-Finish adhering the peacock feather

Saturday-Grout

Sunday-Day off (I need to wash windows!)

Monday-Start sketching for the hospital project.

Quote for the week

"Excude happiness and you will feel it back a thousand times." -Joan Lunden

Monday Mosaic Blog-day 257

I met one of my biggest challenges yet since I have started blogging. I made one of my biggest mosaics (12" x 30") and it was due in 2-1/2 weeks! This piece taught me a lot, a few important things are having patience and enjoying the process. I also learned that I love being in the creative moment when you are asking yourself what if? I did that a lot. What if I put these beads here, what if I put this color there, what if I layer these textures etc... And it is in these moments we can create and loose track of time, which is a wonderful place to be! I used stained glass, millifiori, beads, vitreous tile, karma tile, colorfusion crystal and one pearl (ha). I had all this on hand and did not have to buy anything extra, which was very nice to save some time running errands for extra materials.

I decided on the title after it was done-I usually don't title a piece until I get to know it as I am working with the piece-this may sound a little weird but it's true. I gave it the title "Summer Symphony". The flowers are the beautiful instruments that come together and the background are the beautiful sounds that move and vibrate around.

I brought "Summer Symphony" into our local art gallery Saturday morning to go through the juried process. The hospital plans on putting these in each of the new maternity rooms and they are only choosing fourteen local artists. So far it sounds like mine is accepted!!! They really liked it and may even put it in a common area instead of one room! The offer was put out there to me to do a larger piece for a stairway in the new hospital wing! The deadline is July 1st when they have the grand opening.

Here's a picture of the after effects of working for over two weeks on a project and no time to clean up in between-I guess I have some cleaning up to do (ha)

Plan for this week

Monday-clean up studio and start working on peacock feather piece

Tuesday-back to smalti class again

Wednesday-work on peacock feather

Thursday-work on counter (and my birthday!)

Friday-work on peacock feather

Saturday-day off mosaics-I have a piano recital! along with family in town

Sunday-sketch some new designs for ideas for hospital

Quote of the week

"There is a need to find and sing our own song, to stretch our limbs and shake them in a dance so wild that nothing can roost there, that stirs the yearning for solitary voyage."

-Babara Lazear Ascher

Monday Mosaic Blog-Day 250

I have been continuing to try to get the hospital mosaic done in time. I've only had about 3 hours a day to dedicate to this. I still don't know how this will turn out. I started out wanting to give it a more painterly look but I did not like how the flowers were looking. I ended up giving the flowers more detail. I love the bright colors. I started to do the background today and that is really helping pull the piece together. I'm just free forming it, I didn't have a plan I'm just letting the tesserae "talk" to me as I place them down. I really enjoy working in this way.

I have been using materials that I already have. It's a little challenging but fun!

I also had a few hours to work on the counter installation and finished another section. I only have one more section and some touch up areas. I figure another 5 hours before grouting.

Plan for the week

Monday Night-Wednesday-finish adhering background for flower piece

Thursday-Grout piece and work on counter

Friday-Bring in flower piece to be jured.

Saturday and Sunday clean up studio

Monday-Work on peacock feather piece

Quote of the week

"Every time you don't follow you inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness."

-Shakti Gawain