And So the Sea Horse Mosaic Begins

I started this mosaic yesterday after having completed 64 questions on Chapter 1 of my Federal Taxation- Individual class. The crown, fin on the back, and the midsection are all done in dichroic glass.

Today after completing five homework questions, I did the face in lavender stained glass, and the jaw- highlighting in a dark bluish-purple mirrored glass. I had to let it set up before continuing. The waiting for the glue to dry and hold the glass in place is important and necessary on such a small mosaic area. Then I added the bluish purple glass to the outside curve of the stomach and continued using the lavender glass to create the neck.

I wanted to put the eye on the sea horse, so I took a container of tiny beads and chose the one I wanted. While choosing; of course, I knocked over the container and that is why you see the green spoon in the photo. That spoon saved me a great deal of time and effort. When you think about what your life would be like without something as simple as a spoon, it makes you appreciate the small things that we take for granted. And then we go on to be grateful for all the cool stuff, oh yeah.

At this point the sea horse looks kinda weird, It doen't look very cohesive and it will be my job to pull it all together or else it will just be a freaky mosaic. Here's hoping for a miracle.

I have started choosing glass for the Sea Horse mosaic since I am now done with the little dolphin mosaic :)

Sorry about the shadow; it really hinders the effect of the glass. So these are my first choices but not necessarily my last. The pink assortment under the dolphin is the glass I am thinking of using for the sea shell behind the sea horse. The lavender and purple glass is what I am considering for the sea horse, and the blue glass is background and possibly foreground choices.
 I will continue to take pictures as I create this mosaic. Since it is so small, it will be easy to show my process of choosing glass that brings my idea of what I want this mosaic to be into being. I can start out with one idea but then ZAP! I see something completely different and it takes over and the mosaic becomes something else. For example, the dolphin mosaic started with the bead work and then the blue belly, but then instead of doing light grey fins and tail, and a dark grey body then ZAP!
This sparkly lighter blue glass went on the tail, fins and nose while the rest was a sparkly white glass. And just now the dolphin's name came to me, "Sky". Definitely a summer sky. See what I mean. You never know when inspiration is going to hit and I have learned to just go with it and no regrets.

Side-tracked by a Dolphin

Seriously, I really believed that I was going to choose glass and start on the Sea Horse mosaic. But there was the dolphin substrate and all this glass left over from the last mosaic that was perfect for it, so I jumped in and now it's done except for grouting.

I bought the little dolphin substrate at the craft store at the beginning of the summer because I thought it would be the perfect addition to the "Beach Daze" mosaic that I did back in April 2017. I will place it on the upper right-hand corner of the mosaic, and will post a picture of it when it is finished. The dolphin is made with glass tiles and beads.

Grouted & Hung on the Wall!

I started this mosaic about November of 2016 and got stuck for awhile. I picked it back up last summer and continued to struggle with the design and glass choices. Now it is done; grouted &
hung on my wall. Of course, I feel a sense of accomplishment, but mostly relief that the difficult decisions are behind me. This is not the first time that I have chosen to do a mosaic without a template and got lost in its creation. I think like a lot of artists it takes struggle to define who you are and accept it. I have come to understand what mosaics make me happy creating and be okay with that.

The mosaic is approximately 23 1/2" x 3 1/2". It is on a wood board with  wall hanging hardware on the back. It is made with mirrored glass of different colors, stained glass, many different types of glass and beads. It will be listed in my Etsy store with a great deal more detail.

I have yet to name this mosaic, perhaps "Elusive".

Next Up!

I love, love, love doing beach themed mosaics. This is another smallish picture frame and I am going to mosaic a Sea Horse with a Sea Shell behind it. In the picture, it is sitting on the table that I create all my mosaics on. It is ready to go! Now I will choose the glass and then I will start.

Mosaic Epiphany

Yes, the mosaic is finished and only needs to be grouted!!!

Presenting the almost finished mosaic. I will be grouting later this week and then I will post a much better picture of the mosaic. This will go above a doorway in my home for awhile until I put it up for sale in my Etsy store.
 I have several mosaics that have been waiting patiently to be created, so I will be starting one soon. Since I now know what happens to my ability to work quickly when I do not have a completed template that will not be the case for awhile (hopefully, never again).
 In the background, you can see the doorway substrate that I will be mosaicing eventually. I am still waiting for inspiration to strike and solidify into a definite color scheme and approach. Sometimes this is immediate, but usually I will be working on another piece and choosing glass for it when ideas will present themselves for another mosaic. I usually ponder color choices for awhile before I commit. When I purchased it I wanted to create a fairy door, and that is still my intention. There are some challenges because of the look of the substrate, and I will have to make additions to it that are not a part of the substrate design to add more whimsy and fantasy.
 Now that I am finished with this last mosaic that sucked my time and inspiration out of me; I feel a sense of exhilaration and lightness to start creating new mosaics. I talk with other artists that feel blocked and have trouble completing a project or starting another after having created their last effort, it is the same as anything in life; if you are on a difficult path and one that has made you feel that you are used up and the outcome was not what you were hoping for, well these things can bring down your self confidence, but you have to remember that whether it is a good result or not, you learned something about your work. I have learned that while I am intrigued by the look of Moroccan designs; expressing this in mosaic is not my comfort zone. I have attacked it and am moving on to work that flows more easily from my heart.
This project I saw through to its completion, so I am thankful for that. To me my work is an expression of how I see the world translated into glass with an emphasis usually on fantasy and whimsy. It's time to get back to that and do what I love.

Jack's Whale Mosaic

I sent Kali her mosaic with her initial in it for her birthday. Her brother, Jackson, wants one with his initial. So, I have just finished Jack's mosaic.

I made it with beads except for his initial which is a charm. This picture frame is a miniature 3 1/2" x 2 1/2". I have the most adorable grand kids in the world (yes, I know every grandmother says this, but in this case it's true). I will be creating mosaics with glass & grout for them with their names in them to give them when their father feel they are old enough to be careful and not cut their fingers on the glass. The names will be worked into the mosaics in some interesting way, but I haven't gotten that far into their creation since there are other mosaics waiting to be made first.

Over the Hump!

One-half is completed and the other is only a few weeks away from being done. I am so glad because my mind has started to move onto the next mosaic. I cannot wait to be working in pastels again, because I have decided to mosaic the butterfly substrate in light blues, pinks, lavenders, and whites. Oh, I just remembered I have to go all around the sides of this mosaic with glass before I am done. Then I will grout it.

This picture of the mosaic is very muddy, but I will take a much clearer photo when I am done. The mosaic is disjointed looking now, but after it is grouted it will look more cohesive. At least that is the hope.

Beads are the Best!

Okay. to be quite clear: beads are the best when time is an issue. This only took a few minutes to make. Whereas, a mosaic takes a longer time to make, and then there is the grouting and the cleaning to take into consideration.

 I promised my granddaughter I would make her a mosaic-type beaded piece with her name in it. This is my first try and I only was able to fit her first initial "K" on the piece. This felt very crafty, and I learned a lot with this effort. Now I need to find a larger frame that her name will fit on and one that her favorite colors will work with. There are so many adorable frames for sale that this will not be a hard task.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to the mosaic I was working on. Well, I am still working on the background. First, I decided to do it all in different shades of gold and cream, but that bored me to distraction. Now I have decided to have different sections with different colored glass. Yes, I have decided on chaos. I am not bored, so it will be moving along at a faster pace. Hopefully, in a week or so I'll have something to post.

I thought you might need a close-up. The frame is 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" from tip of petal to tip of petal. Yes, it is very tiny and very sweet. In person, the colors are much more vivid, especially the red on the millefiori which is the only glass I used in creating this piece.