This week and up until Christmas, the studio has been dubbed the "Super Secret Mosaic Lab". The reason? I'm creating gifts for the fam. I'm fairly sure no one in my family ever reads my blog (should I be insulted?) so that means I can share work-in-progress photos of gifts as I get them made and hope they don't see it as I share the blog here, there and every where.
The first thing I decided to work on was a gift for my oldest daughter and her boyfriend. These are the wonderful people who took me into their home and feed me happily, keep me warm and put up with my grumpy ways. I love them all dearly.
We are all big Doctor Who fans and when the news of the 50th Anniversary special was in full swing (for us, it was a big deal) talk of the show, the Doctor and all the fan art came streaming through our daily life. Because of this, I decided to make a Tardis for them in mosaic. Those of you who don't know anything about Doctor Who won't get much from these photos but you can still, I hope, appreciate the steps I took to get from a photo to a mosaic.
Doing a mosaic that is actually of something especially beloved, can be a bit daunting and I was quite sure I wouldn't be able to convey what I saw in my head. I'm so glad I was wrong! I want to share more than a few photos here of the process I used to create the Tardis. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I'm thrilled with the results.
I started by printing a photo I found online that I loved as inspiration and knew I could adapt for my needs. I placed a piece of plastic over it, then applied the mesh on top of that and started adding glass. The result looked like this.
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| Tardis on mesh |
Once the glue was dry on the mesh (it took 24 hours) I had the substrate ready to glue the Tardis down.
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| Tardis in the sky |
The substrate has acrylics and lots of glitter in all kinds of colors and gold micro beads to give the look of movement.
The next step was to add tempered glass.
The sign on the front door and "Police Box" across the top are getting cut out from the photo I used as my guide and glued down where they belong once it's been grouted. I've never done that and have no clue if it'll work, but as they say: nothing ventured, nothing gained!
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| Glitter goodness under glass |
It's now waiting for grout. I love it and I know they will love it too!
I have also done some mosaic magic on a glass trivet and candle holder all in blues. Gosh I love this glass. I'm very sad I used just about all of the scraps I had to make these which were gifted to me but that is what stained glass is for and I use every piece I have to create with. Nothing gets tossed out! I call these "blue ice" mosaics.
I also put some holiday themed dish shards on a discarded Starbucks iced coffee bottle. I have the hardest time trying to keep patient while doing round mosaics. It is a talent I no longer possess. What used to work when I had the room to spread out a bit was to do a small section, prop it so it would sit without movement and then put it aside and work on something else. Because I'm in cramped quarters now, I can't really do that, although as I grumpily said just the other day if I had continued with my plans this past Spring to completely clean and organize my space, I'd have the room now. Well, I didn't and I don't so instead I sit and watch glue dry. It's not easy and I often end up with shards that slide a bit and the glue dries before I realize they've slid. Such was the case of this mosaic, however, once grout is applied, it should look fine.
Then I started in on the next gift for my grandson's other grandparents, his Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop. Wonderful, spiritual people, peaceful and kind. They are very supportive towards my art and like me, enjoy wine. I thought maybe they'd enjoy a mosaic on an empty wine bottle.
It is rainy today, so the colors aren't coming out too well in these photos but we've got stained glass and china in yellow, amber and a soft moss green with mirror and ball chain on here. A few pieces of dish shards with green, white and yellow are added around the tree of life ceramic charm I placed in the center. Hopefully better photos will be shared next week. The back looks like this so far:
So that's what's happening in the "Super Secret Mosaic Lab". I have more gifts to make so I'll be sharing more photos in the weeks to come.
As a final note here, I'd like to remind those who like to shop after Thanksgiving, I have a BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY coupon code on EarthMotherMosaics for you all to use.
From November 29th-December 2nd, use BLACKFRIDAYBONUS2013 coupon code at checkout and get 15% off any mosaic item (does not include tote bags, mugs, pillow covers or note cards).
Support Independent Artisans, Designers and Crafters this holiday season and all year long. Thank you!
Stay peaceful,
