In The Studio - Part One

It's been a busy week so far. I love busy weeks!!

I got all the scrap glass on the custom ordered mosaic vase.

The next step for this beauty is to give it a preventative measure of watered down glue brushed onto it. Although I used MAC Glue to put the pieces of glass on the vase, I used a PVA white glue and water to do this treatment. This watered down glue treatment is so worth the time it takes to wait for the white glue to dry to clear. When using MAC it doesn't take quite as long as it would had I used white glue for the entire vase because the MAC stays dry (dries after a few hours from application). I just added this mixture with a brush and can already see how much grout bleed would have happened had I not done this (see photo below). It's still possible some grout will get through. I use small pieces and all uneven for my scrap glass mosaics. In any case, this step will help the grout from seeping in here and there behind the pieces. Worth the long wait of a week+ for the mixture to dry! The art of making mosaics is patience.

If you look closely you can see milky spots behind some of the pieces. That should, hopefully, be what prevents grout from seeping through those spots. This is not 100% fool proof. There is always the chance that the water from the grout can still bleed through in spots. But this prevents much of it and worth the time and patience it takes to wait for it to dry before grouting.

The memorial plate, "Sammy", was gifted. The new owner held it to her heart when she saw it. It made me very happy to see that reaction. It was what I hoped for.

I've been experimenting with something a little bit unusual. I read recently that someone used a cardboard box and created a mosaic on it. Once treated with the proper things, it became sturdy enough to sit on.

That got me thinking about what I have around me and what I could experiment on to give this theory a try.

I am a big cookie fan. When I was able to handle wheat, it was not uncommon for this Nana to always have cookies. Once I switched over to gluten free products, through trial and error, we found the best cookies I've ever had. Aleia's Love of Artisan Food cookies are the best I've ever had. EVER. Their packaging is quite nice too. The box they package these delicious cookies in is very well made and just basically cool.

I found my substrate! Taking some mesh, I covered up a few spots. And then covered it in plaster cast strips.

Once they were completely cured the box was fairly solid but still slightly flimsy. I decided to cover it in cement, as I normally do when using plaster.

The result is a really cool shape (a house!) to mosaic on. It is sturdy! I'll be working on covering this cool house for the next few days.

And now I'm eyeing all the cool shapes around me both in box form and plastic containers. Oh my goodness ... the possibilities!!

Support Independent Artisans, Designers and Crafters for your gift-giving needs all throughout the year. Thank you!

Stay peaceful,

Cindy