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.

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.

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.