Monthly Mosaic Blog

I will be away from my computor for about a week and did not want to miss mentioning on my blog everything that has been taking place in July.  I did finish my "Orange Wave" triptych.  This was done on those little mirrors from IKEA.  I am selling this in the gallery as a set.  Each one took about 2-1/2 hours including the grouting.

I had an interesting change in my monthly goals.  We were doing some changes in our backyard and came across some free stone slabs.  What else is there to do with free material but make a mosaic!  My husband and I were quite the team.  He framed in the stairs, tamped down the sand, layed the large square stones and I broke up and placed the rest.  Some were pretty heavy and large.  I came up with a way to break them using a medium stones edge as an "anvil".  I would then throw down a large piece and they broke pretty nice that way.  It was hot, heavy and tiring work and I can't beleive how much fun I had doing it!

Yay!-the finished product after 4 days of work

Here's a small mosaic that I started, it will be interesting with figuring out colors on this one.

Another challenge and exciting project I will be working on is a grid project.  I am part of the Buffalo Art Guild and there are 18 of us each doing an 11" x 11" square of part of the picture below.  We get to choose which medium to work with, of course my square will be a mosaic.  This project is not due until November so hopefully plenty of time.   I am looking forward to seeing all the squares come together then.  This will eventually be a community piece of art that will be displayed locally.

I will be taking a class with Yulia Hanansen on mosaicing flowers.  I am excited to meet and work with her at the Cape Cod Mosaic School.  She is a second generation mosaicist and has won many awards for her beautiful work.  This is a picture of a rosebud I took a few years ago and thought it would be interesting to do a mosaic with it for the class.

One more thing (I unfortunately did not take a picture) I am part of our Minnesota Mosaic Guild's group show in Stillwater, MN.  It is at the 310 Gallery.  We had our opening last weekend and it is an amazing show.  I feel very proud to display my mosaic art among so many talented artists.

 

Well...lots of challenges behind me and more to come my way in August.  That is why mosaics are such an exciting medium to work with! 

Goals for the month of August
-Finish rosebud-hopefully in the workshop
-finish small mosaic for the gallery
-Head up our mosaic guild's field trip to St Michael church-there are bueatiful mosaics by Christine Carlisle there.
-Start my large sunflower piece

Quote of  the month
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."       -Helen Keller

Monthly Mosaic Blog

Happy July!  I am amazed how quickly these months go by.  I was able to meet my goals I set for myself for the month!  I finally finished my Koi mosaic.  This is a 12 x 12 on Wedi board.  I used stained glass and vitrious glass for the body and the water in the background was vitreous glass.  I used Karma for the swirls-thought that would help them stand out more.  This is obviously a complementary color theme-I seem to be using a lot of blue and orange in my work lately.  I did frame it in a floating frame.  The adhesive I used was gorillas glue to adhere into the frame but I would NEVER use that product again for that purpose.  When it dried it foamed up and I had to go in with my tools and scrape it all out of the inside of the frame along with scraping it off the back.  I will definitely use liquid nails next time.  This one will be going in the Buffalo Art Gallery for a few weeks, then if it does not sell I may put it in the Stillwater show July 20th.

This next one is going to be a tryptich and will hang the long way. I still have the one square left to finish.  This will be sold as a set at the Buffalo Art Gallery also.  I thought it would be fun to do a small monochromatic piece again.  The squares are only 3" x 3".  I have the wave pattern running through the tryptich.

This is a sketch of a larger piece that I have been wanting to do.  I drew it up a few years ago and found it again.  This was a study about Picasso's cubism and I thought instead of straight lines I would use rounded ones.  I would love to give "birth" to it as a mosaic.  I am still figuring out colors and what type of materials I would like to use.  Not sure where I want this to go yet.  I apologize for the direction of this picture it is meant to have the birch tree off to the left.

Another thing I have been doing this month is listening to my Podcasts when I go for my walk.  It is a great way to learn and get motivated creatively.  My favorite art blog right now is called Art and Soul radio.  It is such a nice way to listen to what other artists are doing and what keeps them inspired and motivated.  I usually pick up a few good tips each time I listen to it. 

Goals for this month

-finish tryptich

-change out pieces in the gallery

-get items ready for the stillwater show

-start on my new design

-finish another smaller mosaic for the gallery

-Attend a mosaic workshop at the Cape Cod Mosaic school with Julia Hananson!  (I am all signed up and can't wait to work with her)  We are working on flower mosaics.

Quote of the month

"All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself.  All you have to do is be still and take time to seek for what is within, and you will surely find it."

-Eileen Caddy

Monthly Mosaic Blog

This month went by very quickly!  I finished my mosaic for the CMA competition in the nick of time (a day before it was due).  The theme was music and I based my mosaic off a sketch I completed this winter.  I wanted to make it a lively piece with different angles and shapes of the instruments.  Also to play around with different shades of color to create a spotlight shining down through the piece, thus the title "In the Spotlight".  I was THRILLED to find out the within a few days I had won the members choice award!!  I was so honored to receive that from my mosaic peers on CMA :)

Also this month I now have a space in our local gallery.  I am excited to be a part of a gallery that has so many accomplished artisits in it.  I decided to hang some of my smaller pieces.  I found that I want to work faster and more often now that I do have a space to display and sell my work. I am finding on a normal week I can get in at least 4 hours a day of work in.  Like always, many ideas swimming in my head and not enough time.

Speaking of swimming this is a Koi fish mosaic I was trying to get done by the end of the month, but as you can see it is "a fish out of water".  I had other committments that came up.  I looked online to see what coloring the koi fish had and did some freehand drawings based on that and came up with this sketch.  The scales took awhile to complete, I spent about 5 hours on them, since I of course wanted smooth edeges  (love my glass grinder). I am not quite sure how I am going to do the water yet but it is obviously going to be a complementary color theme.  This is a 12 x 12 on wedi board.

Goals for the month
-Finish Koi Fish
-Attend MMG Meeting
-Figure out which sketch to start another larger piece for MMG show in July
-Organize my digital pictures of my mosaics (I feel like they are everywhere on the computor)

Quote of the Month
"Life is whatever we choose to make of it."    

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