Switching Gears Due to Excessive Heat!

The most interesting thing about working in an unfamiliar space is learning it's nuances and how to navigate around it. Heat and no doubt, cold, will play a big part in working in the garage art studio. Whenever possible, during the heat, we've been opening the garage door, giving me a cross breeze and allowing extra light in (love that!). When it's cold, I might have to use a heater to keep me warm while working, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I promised a few in-progress shots of the garage after my grandson put the bottles up on the very top of the cabinets. Here are a few photos to show how it was going before I had to stop working in the garage due to heat.

 

I love how the bottles are placed up there, labels out, so I can see them from a distance.

 The rug the old lady cat tried to destroy is fine and living here. It helps with catching glass pieces really well.

 A decent sized container holds odds and ends, bits and pieces of mostly WediBoard.

 More decor for the top of the cabinets by the dish collection.

 This is the mixed media cabinet that I showed last time much more organized by using old bowls and containers.

And here is the grouting station, ready for the next go-round of mosaic magic!

Since we've had a bit of "weather" and the temperatures are way too high to do much in it, I've been focusing on taking photos of the mosaics I'll be putting back into Etsy when it reopens in September. This can be done from my room using the light from the window and the coolness from the central air. Ahhh.

Here are a few edited photos of a few favorite mosaics, showing the lighting and how well mosaics hold up over time. Even being jostled around during the move plus climate changes now that they live in the garage art studio, they are protected and should not show any damage.

Using a white MDF shelf, I get some great shots. Hanging things on the wall gives me some good shots as well.

 

 There you have it! Some glam shots of mosaics headed back into the shop very soon!

 

 

 

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

Garage Art Studio - Progress

The progress in the garage art studio is slow but steady. I've washed all the dusty, mouse icky dishes for mosaics thanks to the fancy kitchen automatic dishwasher and my own two little hands.

I drew this design a long time ago and was happy to see, even after going through the cycle in the washer it stayed put.

Too delicate for the dishwasher, these got washed by hand.

Using old table runners and doilies, I put the dishes on them to keep the bottoms from possibly getting greasy from the people before me who used this space. Eventually I'll be painting all the counters, perhaps the cabinets will get a mosaic or two and paint as well.

Slowly putting things up and out of the way but within reach.

The cabinets with the yellow bowl shown will have more bowls in there holding all those little bags of stuff and things such as polymer clay and whatnots. The photo above of the things to be washed, holds the bowls that will go into the cabinets and filled.

Top photo shows the grouting station, middle shows the stained glass (gotta get going on sorting by color again!) and the last photo is where I'll actually be working once the rest of what's out is in the cabinets or along the furthest right side of this counter.

This is one of those plates I will not smash or use in a mosaic. I love it. It's hanging in my room.

Also in my room is a desk that took me 6 hours to build. I'm tired ...

The rug on the wall is due to a very old kitty who may be leaving me sooner than I'd like her to. However, she was using all the new rugs as her litter box, so I removed them, washed them and hung up two, put one on top of the blanket chest and took the rope rug into the garage which will be used to wipe glass and dust off the shoes before I come into the house.

 This is Baby. We think she's about 18-19 years old. Very frail but still eating, drinking water and using her litter box. Here, she has a little food on her nose. Aww.

This shows where the other rug was placed.

Here's the blanket chest with the rug on it as well as The Tower of Now. I like it there and it's safe from the kitty because she can no longer jump.

My grandson is going to help get bottles and a few other cool things all the way up onto the cabinets. I tried to do it myself and almost fell off the sturdy step stool because I still had to go up on tiptoe to reach the area. He's a little taller than I am, lighter as well so if he has to climb onto the counters he can do that as long as he has a few spotters. I'll share photos of that next time.

 

 

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