In The Studio - Part Two

The week has proven to be a productive one. All the materials arrived for the custom ordered peace sign, so I set to work!

10 inch peace sign covered in bright and beautiful Fiestaware

The outer edge will get dish tiles on them very soon. Lovely black grout will be added to get it all finished up and beautiful. It's gonna POP with color! The customers, a high school classmate and his wife, are putting this in their kitchen. That's so awesome and I'm thrilled to work with yet another classmate! I've done custom work for 5 other classmates and they've all been a joy to work with.

I found a photo Wednesday evening while looking through a computer file that I thought would work for the #TBT (Throw Back Thursday) fun done on Facebook, etc. I thought some of you newer folks who follow the blog might find it of interest.

Here's what I posted on FB along with this photo: "I don't usually do the #TBT thing but I found something that would fit and thought I'd share. This photo was taken in 2010, probably in October or November. My first time teaching a class on basic/intermediate mosaics was at Keith Valley Middle School! Funny to look back on it and think I actually had confidence enough to do them. Not sure I could do them now. Shortly after providing basics/intermediate classes for a year and a half, someone I admire greatly told me I shouldn't teach anything without proper education myself and to stop. I am self-taught in all the art I do. I thought about it for a few months, doing classes in between, finding them harder to do, less people signing up, etc. I believed the person who told me to stop was right but felt maybe some day I could take a few classes myself and get the education part that this person felt I needed. That never happened and I lost my energy for sharing the love of the craft. As things worked out, stopping classes was the right move for me. So please no pity or sympathy --- the Universe is taking good care of me and I know it always will. I still believe I'll have a big room of my own, a warehouse kind of deal - locally would be awesome, with tons of tables all around, different mosaic goodies on the walls for everybody from 1 to 100 to come in and play. Classes could be given by those who had a proper education if they would like to give them but those of us who have a love for what we do enough to learn all we can (and I'm still learning!) and then share it with like minded peeps can do them too! Note to self: gotta get the sciatica and muscle spasm taken care of first so I can walk and move around better! In any case, here I am in this photo, longish hair, looking over my glasses talking about how to make a mosaic mirror (intermediate class) for the very first time. Awww - what a sweet memory!!"

On Father's Day, I talked to my 83 year old, Dad. Almost always he asks me if I've been busy; meaning paid artistic work. And almost always I am. He really loves my mosaics and told me I should be in high demand! What a great Dad, eh? However, he mentioned the portraits I've done in the past; only a few, and how much he loves those particularly. He suggested I share them often and let people know I can do one for them taken from a favorite photograph. Many do portraits and traditionally thinking, I can see why he'd want me to share what I do when I make a portrait because I use all kinds of tesserae and interesting bits and bobs in my mosaics. In honor of his pride in me, I gathered together the few mosaics I've done over the past 2 years that were taken from photos for people I care about.

Wedding Day - A Christmas gift - Capturing a moment in mosaic between my daughter and her new husband at their reception - 12/20/2013

Discovery - A Birthday gift for my daughter - Little Dude's first experience with the vastness of the ocean - 04/21/2014

Mark and Tara - A mosaic taken from computer generated characters my daughter made - A Christmas gift for them both - 12/24/2014

Sammy - A memorial mosaic plate for a family member - 01/10/2015

If anyone would like to have a mosaic portrait made like these shown above, contact me to discuss sizing, pricing, etc. They take approximately a month to complete from start to finish. These make an excellent gift. My Dad thinks so, anyway.

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy