In The Studio - Wednesday

I'm enjoying working on the candle holders this week. I hope the momentum continues because right now I'm going at a pace I like.

So far I've gotten 1 candle holder in the grout pile but by days end today, there will be a new one added!

snowflake candle holder waiting in the "to be grouted" pile

wip - snowman candle holder

one more side to finish

As I was working on the snowman candle holder, filling in around him with this awesome glass, it occurred to me that it looked like an "Ugly Christmas Sweater". The colors remind me of knitted material. And so it has been named!

soon to be tree ornaments

A few years ago I made ornaments for the kids in my family with their first initial on one side and a tree or star on the other. After that I offered them up as a custom made item but no one was interested in purchasing them. Meanwhile I decided I do enjoy making them, so instead of a made to order item, I'm going to make up a bunch of ornaments using some of the materials you see here and offer them on Etsy.

We'll be celebrating my birthday, another family member's birthday AND the Autumnal Equinox this coming weekend! It's an exciting thing for me to share my birthday with the first day of Autumn.

About a month ago I was given some dishes to use in my mosaics that belonged to her mother by the family member I mentioned above. I thanked her for them and asked her if she'd like a mosaic ring and/or pendant with some of the dish pieces. She thought that would be awesome! Although it won't be a complete surprise, she doesn't know I've already made her a ring which means I can give it to her when we have our gathering this weekend! Yay!

The color of the flowers are steel blue. I can see a lot of uses for dishes like these in mosaics of all kinds, so I'm very happy to have them! They will definitely get used!!


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



Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Moments.
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

In The Studio - Friday

It's been a really fun week here at the mosaic table!

The coffeepot now has beautiful dish shards, millefiori and 1/2 glass circles on it. I'm considering making it into an incense holder and putting a candle inside when it's not used for incense.

Moving on to the actual coffeemaker now. Again it might have a design on it or I might just continue with the fun randomness of the project.

This pot is now in the "to be grouted" pile.

Hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July!

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



Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Moments.
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

In The Studio - Wednesday

I've been standing at the table a lot this week, nipping up dish tiles for the next project.

A few weeks ago, my coffeemaker stopped working. I was very sad and told it how much I appreciated all it's hard work as I unplugged it for the last time. RIP coffeemaker. But now ... it's too large to just toss and as always I like to find new ways to use old items, so why not do something with these pieces?

I haven't yet started on the actual coffeemaker, but I am planning on putting some mosaic magic all over it soon enough!

Right now, I'm working on the aluminum pot. Gotta say, what I see in my head for this when it's finished getting some mosaic goodness, is kind of cool. Sometimes the muse takes me in a different direction from where I start out, so we'll see how it goes.

I drew a simple design on this but might just ignore it and go for it, glue and slap any old which way!

As you can see at the top, in the background, 2 candle holders and a switch plate are resting/drying, waiting for grout. Meanwhile, I'm nipping up all kinds of dish pieces. Fun stuff!

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



Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Moments.
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

In The Studio - Wednesday

Busy at work this week and I love it!

I made one of my favorites, a lotus mandala for the final mosaic relating to the fund raiser. This is the one that has been generously donated back to me to list on Etsy and sell. It should be noted that the person who offered that to me also donated more money to the fund raiser around the same time.

I decided to use spring colors for this one. At first, I wasn't sure I liked it very much.

Using jewel tones was something I hadn't done in a long time. But as I filled in the petals, I knew it was the right choice.

Iridescent glass in pink was used and I put ball chain in the middle (not easy to see in this photo) as well as mirror in the center and within the petals.

Deep purple and more ball chain was added. As I was filling in the purple, I knew it was coming along nicely.

All filled in and ready for the grout pile!

I'm hoping to grout all 3 pieces I did for the fund raiser this coming weekend. Here are the other two:

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

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

In The Studio - Wednesday

Can you believe it?! I am all caught up with grouting my mosaics! Yay!! That hardly ever happens!!

The glass vase is filled with purple, pink, green, white and black glass. The tree pot looks awesome and I'm so happy with how they both turned out. Both will get listed soon.

So now I had a little time to start a few small projects and start a fresh "to be grouted" pile.

The top is a small piece of holiday art. A silver mirrored star with red glass around it. There's a hanger on it which means it can be added to a wall or a door for decoration purposes.

The blue and white piece is more challenging to figure out, isn't it? The circle in blue (painters tape) is a mirror and the cup at the center of the base is for a tapered candle. I would like to add a hanger to this as well. Still not sure. I have 2 more of these wooden candle holders to play with. Each will probably be different.

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

 

In The Studio - Wednesday

As the weeks gets closer to the crazy holiday season, I keep telling myself it's time to figure out what I'm going to make. Those I gift each year with a handmade item often don't receive their gift before Christmas. Honestly, each year it becomes harder and harder to figure out. Once I do, it's close to the time to actually give the gift.

As I push things around and look at what I have available In The Studio each day, I am not coming any closer to many decisions yet. I will keep updating the blog about this subject once I get it figured out. IF I do! Wish me luck!

The gift I mentioned last week was finally given over the weekend, so I can share it here. It's Mickey and Minnie! It's functional and wall art, always a bonus when it can be useful. I used mirror in silver and a few colors to make it look like confetti, stained glass and dish tiles too. The sides were covered in blue glass tiles. It measures 5 x 6 inches.

If you look closely you can see I added a hook in the center for a backpack, lightweight jacket, etc. Both Mom and child loved it. That makes me very happy!

I'm back to work in the studio, thank goodness, after a long rest. I'm making a gift for my daughter's friend. She recently moved and gave me some dishes she no longer needed. We're going to give one of them back, in the form of a mosaic.

A 3 hook wall rail is getting some pretty blue flowered dish pieces placed on it. My daughter's friend loves shabby chic, so we'll probably go with white grout to finish it off.

I have a vase I've been staring at for quite some time and started nipping up the glass for it. Lots to be cut yet, so I do a little at a time while watching a show on Netflix or one of the many DVD's I have.

Purple, pink, white with green streaks, light green and burgundy glass are the colors I've chosen. Aren't they a pretty combination? If all goes well with this, I'll probably list it.

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

 

In The Studio - Wednesday

Grouting happened this weekend! Yay!

Mandala Plate - 10 inches

White Moon Plate - 7 inches

Really happy with how the mandala turned out. Unfortunately a chunk of white grout came off of the moon plate, so I'll have to re-grout that over the weekend.

I am going to list these both soon. The moon later than the mandala.

And finally these great plates have gotten some cool photos taken and edited. These too will go in the shops.

I've named this one "Evening Moon Over Water" - 10 inch plate

Mr. Owl - 6.5 inches

Peace Sign - 6.5 inches

Pink Flower - 6.5 inches

For those interested, the 10 inch plates are $60. The 7 inch plates are $45 and the 6.5 inch plates are $38. If you're interested in purchasing them now before they are listed, comment below or send me an email any time.

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

In The Studio - Wednesday

I'm fairly certain I'm seeing a marked improvement in the studio this week. Lots of things still to do, goodness knows I'll never be bored!!

Here are some progress shots from "reclaiming my space" so far. I set a goal to get to the green shelves physically because I piled a good amount of stuff and things in front of them over the past 2 years. This area is far from ready for use but going at this speed (slow and steady) has given me the chance to see how to do what I want/need to do.

Improvement from what it was ... much still to do!

How blessed am I to have so much to create with?!

I found more sorting to be done of glass and dishes hiding in that corner!

And the sorting of glass continues. I've got all the colors of the rainbow!!

One of the photos above shows the Meditation Shrine I started working on. One day I moved a few pieces of glass around and the muse poked me and said: "use THAT!!". I had no idea what I was going to make or how to use it, but I put the jar aside when I was finished sorting. A few days later I found an old clock housing that I'd been moving from side-to-side for at least 3 years now. Again the muse poked me and said: "use THAT!!". Alrighty then.

Here are a few work-in-progress photos. I have a complete set of photos on my EMM Facebook Page and on my flickr photostream. Check them out!

Meditate

Meditate, Breath, Mind-Matter-Spirit, Give Thanks, Awareness

The inside is all covered in glass and fun odds and ends.

Love begins here.

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

In The Studio - Part One

I finished getting all the glass and dish tiles on the custom ordered peace signs! Yay!

Here's the last 10 inch peace sign - ready for grout. I used stained glass and mirror.

The very last 8 inch one has a wonderful array of tess. Millefiori, glass rods, polka dot glass half circles, broken ceramic dishes, stained glass and mirror. Ready for grout!

I probably won't get to the grouting of these until the weekend. Rain is headed our way and I'm in a tremendous amount of pain physically thanks to the low pressure system coming through. The fun thing about it is that we are supposed to have thunderstorms, which I love, so I'm positive once they head on out of our area I will be feeling rejuvenated and ready to grout both these and the cat clock that's waiting.

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy