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.

Portia & Luna get a New Look

This grout color, I feel, is a better fit for the mosaic. It is still a little lighter than what I would like but it is much better than the white-looking grout from before. I can live with this grout color. Life is good. Now on to the next!

If At First You Don't Succeed, Regrout!

Portia, the mermaid mosaic, looked off to me with the light-colored grout. Sometimes a light grout can make a mosaic look broken up, but I wanted a more harmonious look. Re-grouting a piece is a bit tricky. It can cause a piece to break loose, glass can be broken, but sometimes it is the only choice. So, here is Portia and Luna covered in the new grout & grout glitter. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new grout will take & harmony will be restored.

Portia, the Mermaid and Her Friend, Luna the Fish are Ready for Their Debut

My class has started, so I had a hard time finding an hour to grout this mosaic, but I finally found some time today. When I first found this tiny (approx. 2 1/2" x 3 1/2") picture frame, I thought it would be fun to put a bunch of mosaic fish in his belly, but then Portia, the mermaid, wanted to come along for a swim. I thought I better put a fish that had an appendage that held a light, so that they could see inside the whale, and Luna came swimming along. There is a pink starfish in the lower left hand corner and some beads thrown in for a touch of sparkle. Of course, I added grout glitter to glam it up more (it shows up better in person).

I have the tiny whale mosaic next to a plaque that says, "Always be yourself unless you can be a mermaid then always be a mermaid" That always makes me smile, like I get a choice. I would love to live in a world where I could choose to be a mermaid. Easy...I would always be a mermaid. I have listed this mosaic on my Etsy store, so it is for sale.

I have completed the doorway design and have started drawing another design for the other mosaic (Red mosaic), and will be starting that in a day or so, along with a new mosaic of a seahorse. I'll post pictures of the mosaic templates in a few days.

Okay, so I have finally finished the key and have moved on to the next design. I have found that I really like to do two mosaics at a time. The pressure of this mosaic is lessened by working on a mosaic that has a template and all I have to do is cut glass. After I finish this design, I only have to come up with two more (one at a time) designs and execute them. Then all that is left is the background, right...that's all. And I haven't a clue what I am going to do.

Usually, from the beginning I can see the mosaic and what I want to do, then I start drawing and making changes to the original idea as I create a template to mosaic. This idea of creating as we go along and seeing where we end up is very scary to me. I am afraid I am going to screw up Big Time. After this last design made it onto the board, I saw that it had no cohesion with the other designs, but I wanted badly to place it there and mosaic it. So, whatever I thought this board was supposed to be, it is now some thing else.

After I grout the mermaid mosaic, I will be starting another small mosaic of a Seahorse. I created a template for it, so it will go pretty quickly. I'll post a picture soon.

Tiny New Unfinished Mosaic

Here is my latest, completed mosaic. The frame is covered with tape because I want to protect it while I grout. It's always so interesting to see the mosaic before it is grouted. Grouting unifies and changes the mosaic a great deal. There is a fish in the foreground with a light hanging from an appendage with a mermaid in the background. It is a very tiny mosaic made on the glass of this picture frame. I will have better pictures and explanations after it is grouted.

Bella, the Pink Elephant, makes her Debut

This sparkly, sweet little picture frame attracted my attention, and I knew right away that I wanted to put a mosaic instead of a picture on her. The mosaic is 2 5/8" x 2 5/8" and the picture frame is approximately 6 3/8" x 5 2/8". I used a piece from a former bracelet in the center, blue glass tile, wavy glass tile, different types of millefiori, and grout glitter. When I grouted this piece, I tried to protect the picture frame, but right around the mosaic there was some bleaching of the area. She is able to sit on a tabletop, but does not have hardware attached for hanging on the wall.