Bits of This and That

 Bits of this and that are happening in the Purple Palace right now.

I got a nice wooden tray last week and have plans to gift it to my daughter and son-in-law who live in Norway. Their color scheme is all neutral and mostly grey. It's clean and functional, easy on the eyes and I suppose very soothing for those who need to relax when not active.

Here's the tray after I used a little sand paper on the inside to help grip the tesserae I'll be using.

I like the way it's made; sturdy enough to hold a mosaic and solid as wood pieces should be.

I thought I had enough tiles and glass to cover it in a neutral color but the actual color of the wood took over and I ended up with something very pretty but not "right".

After trying a few different combinations of tiles and glass, I thought this was really pretty but not at all grey or neutral enough for them. I want them to use it or at least display it once it's gifted. That means a trip to the online mosaic supply shops I like to go to. I'm still hunting for the perfect colors and have narrowed it down a bit. Within the next few weeks I should be able to order what I need and try again.

Meanwhile, I have done a few doodles and some painting. I'm using big canvases (12 x 15 inches) for painting practice at the moment. I need to hone my dot painting skills a little more. I did the background on this canvas using acrylics and a large brush. There emerged, intuitively, Sedona type rocks maybe at sunrise and in the foreground some trees still in the darkness. If you're able to enlarge this photo, look at the painting closely. This was not planned and as I studied it after doing the practice pieces on it, I realized it makes a really nice painting all on its own. I think I've got the hang of acrylics on canvas more now. I'm entitling this "Sedona at Sunrise" because that's how it started.

The heart is from a piece of a doodle that I decided to cut into shapes (I shared that in a previous post), there's a tarot card, "The Moon" with wonky dots around it ... my eyes and brain fought at the angle on this and neither won so it is crooked. I like the idea of using the old tarot cards. I lost quite a few of them over the years as they got shuffled from box to box while moving more than a few times. What I have left will be used in my art. A few dots using stencils as the original design and then filling them in weren't all that wonderful. Still not 100% sure I have that technique. More practice is needed for sure. And then I grabbed the letter stamps I have for clay and stuck them in paint. "Peace" was born.

I also found some old clay pieces I did about 10 years ago and pulled one out that works well on this dot painting on 5 x 7 inch canvas.

The background has about 15 layers of paint on it, well maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it started as one thing and ended as a pretty background. There were clouds on the left side and a few are still visible. I think the white is great for doing dots. I will get more adventurous with other colors as I learn what tools I like to use. Meanwhile, this is a friendly reminder to "DO YOGA".

Here are a few doodles using water color, markers and ink. The top photo isn't finished yet.

And that's about all I have to show for this week.

Next week there should be some small mosaic beauties as I pull the little white dishes out, grout the switch plate covers and ?? I never know where the muses will take me.

Enjoy the journey.

 Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

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