Progress on the 100 Day Collage Challenge

I've almost filled up this book. Once it's last few pages have a square on them, it'll be 80 days worth of collage.

I've learned a few things but still have so much more to learn. I do this by practicing every day. Not just with collage, but also still with mosaic and doodles that I've done for years, watercolor, and the newer fun of learning how to create junk journals, sticker books, art journals and painting/doing collage on cardboard of all kind.

For this 100 Day Collage Challenge, I gather the hand made collage papers I've made and put them together for use to make sure I like them together. These are the ones I am working with now.

 

I have discovered I'm using too many in a small space. So the next group of 5 will be less. I have so many papers I tend to keep grabbing thinking I'll have no problem filling in the 3-1/2 inch space. Even after months of creating them, I finally realized using less would make the small space more cohesive.

I often just rip them if they're not difficult to rip. Sometimes I cut them. I decide that once I start the new first set of 5 and go with that theme until the next set. I have to tape down the page I'm working on now because I'm so close to the end of the book.

As I shared before in a previous post or two, once 5 days are finished I glue the papers onto a separate board. I have almost filled up 3 boards.

I don't have boards in this size now, so the next grouping will be on something that I haven't decided on just yet. I have a lot of wood floating around that I use for mosaics, so it's possible I will use some pieces to add collage to. Actually it's very likely.

Here's a few of my favorites so far from the book.

The big black "O" was painted on paper and cut out, the center part as well, to add here.

An experiment with the wrong kind of paper and coffee produced some crumbled globs that I kinda dig a lot. A piece is along side the 3 black dots, upper right. What a great texture!

All of these papers were one-of-a-kind and I'm mourning them. They were so pretty. Almost all of them came from the rubber roller clean off from Gelli plate prints. Many I've been using come from it, more than the Gelli plate prints because they don't always work out too well but you gotta clean off the roller before the paint dries. The exception is the bottom right which is a piece from a watercolor I did.

I'm really enjoying this path into a new (to me) art form. Please stay with me if it's enjoyable for you as well. And if it's not, thank you for staying so long. I'm very grateful.

Until next time ...

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Oatmeal Box Collage Makeover

Yup, that's right, I put a collage on an oatmeal cylinder box and am now using it to hold my grocery plastic bags and shop cloths.

I covered the entire cylinder with pieces of collage papers randomly, my favorite way to collage, not much thought, just used intuition.

I cut a nice sized slit in the center of the lid to hold both bags and cloths.

One of our cats, Gaara, attempting to get to the art table because he loves the cloths I use (similar to microfiber his all time favorite to steal). What a goofball. And PS: he didn't get one.

The slit is big enough to hold both bags and cloths and easy to refill when they get used.

This is pretty cool!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Mosaic Monday

It's all about dishes this Mosaic Monday!

Over the years I've put hand cut stained glass, mirror and dish tiles on old plates from microwave ones to much beloved but very scratched dinner plates making them mosaic art. 

Just walking around my room I found enough examples to take photos and share here. Check it out!

Dinner plate - I still use the other I was given for daily use.

Salad plate - I still use the other one of this as well.

Glass-on-glass mosaic plate. Really regret the grout choice here. It's actually a very light brown but is too light for the pastel colors I used in glass here. Black would have been the better choice. I might eventually regrout in black.

Same glass-on-glass mosaic plate in the window. The only way to really see the lily and water is in a window or with a strong light behind it.

This is an oldie but goodie. Was retired from Etsy a few years ago and now lives me with.

Same plate as above in the window. I love glass-on-glass mosaics for this very reason.

Tiny bowls with a little mosaic design in them. I have a lot of these little bowls in my stash just waiting for mosaic inspiration.

 

These three plates above (2 microwave and one dinner plate) are all listed on Etsy under Stained Glass Plates. Head over there to see more photos if you're interested.

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Art Tray

In 2024 I purchased a wooden tray I was going to mosaic and send to my family in Norway. Before I got very far in the mosaic process it cracked and split in quite a few places making it impossible to put a mosaic on it. It wouldn't stay in one piece, I knew.

 If you'd like to see the original plan for this tray, you can read the blog post I wrote about it and shared the set up with some of the mosaic tiles I was going to use here and here as well. I ended up purchasing more tiles and still have many of them. They are shared in the second post.

Meanwhile, I repaired the cracks (blessings sent above toward my woodworker Father who taught me how to do these things!), primed it and let it sit for a year unclear on what to do with it. I do that. My projects wait for me, however. They are not in a hurry to be made until I am ready to make them. This is why I love them. They are patient.

Now that I'm discovering my way around collage, I decided to get this tray out of the garage, put some cork pieces on the bottom, paint it and collage it. And even better, use it!

Magenta, turquoise, yellow and black acrylics. The yellow is sponge-painted on the tray creating a green on top of the blue. Love it!

Here's the collage papers ready for ripping up and gluing!

All done! Reminds me of a fancy scarf design. Awesome!

The tray is now sitting on my art work table holding paint, brushes, glue sticks and other assorted supplies.

It may have taken a year or so but I love it's transformation now. 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Making Collage Papers - Embellishments

When I have a good amount of papers that I've pulled from the Gelli plate or painted on junk mail or book pages, I sort them into Warm, Cool and Neutrals. Sometimes I find these papers are a bit boring or aren't really worth even a corner of the paper as they are.

Example:

Not much there I can use as it is. These kind of papers are put into a folder and I'll add something to it in acrylics at some point. 

Once the folder starts getting thick from papers, I sort them. I decide if I want to keep them as they are or paint on them.

Keeping this as it is. Even though it's muddy and a bit dark, I love the squares I did while the paint was still wet using the tip side of a paint brush.

Paint will go on this one. This was a test to see how many colors I could get by using a limited palette.

 

Most will get some kind of embellishments. I do love to grab a brush and some black paint the most and just mindless draw circles or brush strokes to it.

Love these!

 

There is a lot of prep work that goes into creating these papers. I really do enjoy taking part of the day and pulling out the future artwork to see what I can use to make a collage.
 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Collage Paper Art

More collage papers! I'm making them all the time, almost daily, but what I love the most: each collage that comes through is slightly different. That's amazing. None are exactly the same. Similar to my mosaics, which is nice to see the comparison. All are unique!

Some fun papers I've made adding designs on the boring looking papers or ones that I'm not thrilled with as they are from a failed attempt at the Gelli plate. It happens ...

 

Here's some collage I actually did manage to make in between all the painting fun I'm having.

 

I struggled with this one. It's got a collage paper as the base in gold/yellow with a few metallic blue streaks in it, a doodle art sun, acrylic paint pen, mirror and gems. Not sure it's a favorite but they all can't be perfect. Actually none are but some come pretty darned close.

Probably my favorite at the moment. Really loving the colors here. More papers in these colors are definitely going to be made.

"Embrace Potential". Lots of circles in this one!

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

EarthMotherMosaics on Etsy

 This is a brand new listing this morning! Happy Tuesday!!

Mosaic Peace Sign, Retro Mosaic Art, Peace Sign Wall Art, Mid Century Modern, Birthday, New Home, Wedding, Mother's Day, Father's Day 

12 inch peace sign - $110.50

A very retro peace sign created in funky hand cut vintage dish tiles and ceramic half circles. A great representation of Mid Century Modern designs! Perfect for anyone, any room, any time of year, all year long.

A big boomerang shape in the center is the focal point and that's where it started. I filled this peace sign with as much as I could. Many hand cut small pieces of vintage dishes surround this 12 inch peace sign. Grouted in grey. The back is painted in a hand mixed color in brown and grey. A saw tooth hanger on the back makes this mosaic ready to hang.

Signed and dated.

Celebrate the gift of peace!

Indoor use only.

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Mosaic Monday

Happy Mosaic Monday! Usually I share what I've worked on over the weekend, but it is a gift that has not yet been gifted. So, instead, I thought I'd share an old mosaic I've loved for a very long time.

This is one of the mosaic shrines I made. I never wrote the date on it because almost the entire thing is covered in a mosaic. As best as I can tell from photos I have, I created it in 2016. That sounds about right, so I'm going with that.

Taking an old unused jewelry box belonging to a granddaughter, I started adding mosaic to it. I drew out a design I recall but ended up wrapping it all over it entirely, inside, outside, both sides and top and bottom as well.

I call it "Sun Shrine in a Box".

I had put this shrine on Etsy to sell shortly after making it and this was the cool photo collection I made to show all the mosaic on it. It is no longer for sale. It is priceless.

 

Stained glass, mirror, dish shards, tempered glass, ball chain, and lots of pieces of jewelry were added. With a wooden finial at the top.

This shows the mosaic work I did on the back, one side and the bottom.

One of my favorite photos showing the inside with all the jewelry along the top. All this mosaic work is inside and out.

I'm not a fan of flash photography but I like this shot.

 

Hope you enjoyed visiting this mosaic shrine with me. It's one of my all-time favorites I've made over the years. Worth another look!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com