Burning Midnight Oil

Technically it was midnight electricity but I did have a small burst of activity late in the day that didn't exhaust itself until close to 4:30 AM this morning (Wednesday). My grandson woke me close to 8:30 AM, so I am slightly blurry-eyed this morning as I write this post.

I do have a few photos to share, although taking them before coffee, with no sunlight and very little sleep makes them slightly boring, the good news is I have something to show.

I thought I would go into full blown creative mode. I was surprised to find that although the spirit was willing to try to get some work accomplished instead of sleeping, my brain was not quite as cooperative.

Way before the sleepless frenzy began, late in the afternoon, I worked on the 6th cross. This one has some pretty colors in glass and mirror on it and will have that heart piece of jewelry shown in the photo (it had a clip on the back before I removed it) placed on top once grouted.

The plan was to work on at least 2 more in the wee hours and I had the mdf shapes sitting next to me, ready to go but the muse was not willing, so instead, I grabbed some paints and decided to continue with some dot painting.

Before I share the dot painting work, I should explain a little about the substrate I used to paint on. A few years ago, I had been given 3 boxes of unglazed ceramic tiles by a dear friend. Her husband had redone their kitchen and had many leftover tiles. With his blessing, she sent me what she could find, knowing I'd use them for mosaics. I did use them but they are solid and require a wet saw to cut. I don't have that kind of tool and found it too difficult to come up with new ideas on how to use them in my mosaics. I pushed the boxes into a corner and left them alone.

Unfortunately after the last move, I seemed to have misplaced all 3 boxes (hoping they are in our storage unit) but found a small amount recently in a baggy and decided to keep them visible. I thought perhaps I could use them in a different way then I had been using them now that I had discovered dot painting.

Not knowing the gift of jewelry supplies was headed my way, I thought I could use them as pendants, putting maybe a piece of glass on them, dot painting a few, add bails to them and there ya have it! A pendant!

After I put glass on the cross above, I grabbed a few tiles and tried dot painting on them. I only made a few but I found I liked the idea.

2 inch by 1 inch unglazed ceramic tile and acrylics

Within 24 hours of that thought about what to do with these tiles, I had more jewelry making supplies than I ever imagined I'd have sitting very near me, I still had these tiles and the thought to do dot painting stayed with me.

Out of 10 tiles I made in total between the afternoon and in the wee hours, I like 5 enough to share. The 3rd photo below was actually started in the afternoon but I finished it when I worked on the rest shown here.

I'll have to add the glue/water combo to protect them and I can sign the backs after I add the bails. And now I have a lot of neck chains to use for these, so that's a wonderful thing!

I do think I'll have to try to convince my daughter to go with me to the storage unit soon to look for the boxes of tiles I know I still have somewhere in there because I think I have stumbled upon a pretty cool idea and want to experiment a lot more. And of course, if I like them enough to sell them, they'll get listed soon.

I'm really not sure how productive I will be today or if I'll rest all day and work again tonight to have another late night jam session with my muse but I am pleased to see that I'm still thinking of ways to use what I have in a new and creative way. No matter the time of day.

My motto will always be: recycle, re-purpose, reuse, restore.

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics