From The Studio - Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day! Appropriately, I started working on the first heart I'll be donating to Florida. I'm very messy with thinset and get frustrated because of that, so it's taking me a little time to get through it. However, I'm positive once it's entirely filled in, I'll be very happy with it.

Here's the progress photos from the beginning to where I left off yesterday afternoon.

Because I have trouble cutting a straight line freehand, I use a white tealight candle to draw the lines before cutting.

The wax is easy to clean up and off of the glass and the scored lines are much straighter.

Hearts and flowers.

Mesh is cut to fit and taped down over a piece of plastic and the drawing.

Placement of the glass gems was done first.

The flowers start to form.

Messy thinset but once completely filled in, I'm hoping I can clean it up a bit.

Next Wednesday I'll share the progress and hopefully it will be finished!

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

 

Stay Peaceful and Let The Sun Shine In.

In The Studio - Friday

It's been so much fun being as busy as I've been these past few months. The momentum should continue as I gear up for items to get listed in the Etsy shop as the months go on.

I had the great fortune to discover a "Call to Artists" recently on Facebook. A long time online friend who shares the love of mosaics is putting together a large mural for a wall in her area of AZ. She was looking for donations and I jumped at the opportunity to contribute! It's been a very long time since I've had the funds to do things like this. I'm thrilled!!

Mosaic sun design

I knew I'd make a sun; it is one of my favorite things to make. But recently when I draw them, they have the lotus flower leaves in them too. I seem to feel these designs take on a mind of their own. After all the sun would have been fine without the lotus leaves added. But I felt I should follow the muse and so together, we created this:

The arrow shown in the drawing was how I saw it when I first did it. But as things progressed, I saw the design was forming in a different way and felt this way was better. In the end, the trusted artist receiving this mosaic will know in which direction she should place it depending on where it goes on her wall.

While I was waiting for glue to arrive to do the sun, I did a quick switch plate cover.

I love these dish tiles so much that I decided once the sun was finished, I'd have to make a moon to go with it.

This too will be heading to AZ soon.

The best part of this whole experience is coming together with like-minded artists all over the world to help fill up that wall mural. I'll post some info later on as the wall begins to come together.


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

As promised on Wednesday, here is the next project I'm working on.

This is a 3 inch candle holder. I'm gifting this to my daughter's friend who is hosting an event very soon. This will be grouted only days before her event. It'll be a close one, but I can do it!

Once this butterfly is finished, I have one of two custom ordered crosses to start on. This one is going to be done in whites, silvers and golds.

I haven't decided what the other one will look like yet. Be sure to check back to see the progress of all of the mosaics I've been working on lately.

Have a great weekend!

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

Announcement - I've found a new online site

I am very pleased to announce my association with a new online shop called Our Village™. I'm so excited!

It's very new but I hope to have a good long relationship with this one. Please take a look around and see what an awesome site this is.

Our Village™ is more than just a place for artisans, crafters, makers, and small shop owners to sell their products to support themselves and their families. The mission behind Our Village is to provide support to organizations that are dedicated to making the world a better place.

Twenty percent of their gross revenues are donated to support family service, transformational organizations throughout our country. Based on the African proverb “It takes a village…”, as Our Village grows, so will the charitable efforts as worthy organizations across America are selected to receive financial support. To start, they thoughtfully chose an organization from Our Village’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

To learn more, please go to the website and read the "About Us" section and watch the video.

Below is the link for my shop. Please consider shopping here, not just at my new shop but on the site's other shops too and helping a good cause at the same time. There is no downside. Everybody wins!


 https://www.ourvillage.com/index.php/marketplace/seller/collection/earthmothermosaics

My banner at the moment.

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

In The Studio - Wednesday

Wow has the muse been keeping me busy!! I finished getting glass on the donation piece, which I'll share more about in a separate post once it's grouted and ready to go. Number 25 of 25 crosses got some mosaic bling and I've started working on a large glass vase that has etched fish in it. This was gifted to me by someone we consider extended family. She is always thinking about how I can take what she no longer wants and turn it into a mosaic or use for my art in some way. Gotta love it!

The donation piece is an 8 inch piece of MDF. This is similar in design to "A New Horizon" a glass-on-glass mosaic I made a few years ago. "From A Distance" is ready for grout and finishing touches.

The last cross was a difficult one. I originally used dish tiles and stones on this and the grout cracked and chipped off the tiles. I thought I had a photo of the damage it did, but I can't locate it. Trust me, it wasn't pretty. I hadn't primed the cross before putting the tiles on it for some reason; had to have been when I wasn't feeling well because this is a no-brainer when it comes to mosaic substrates --- ALWAYS prime wood or MDF and even some glass pieces before putting tesserae down on the substrate. It caused water to seep through the grout into the MDF and cracked the grout. Luckily, the cross did not warp. Whew. I painstakingly chopped up the stones with a hammer, dug out all the grout and tiles and let it sit for a while before I decided to prime it and try again. As I was moving things around during the cleaning frenzy (which has stopped for the moment because the muse wanted to play with all the fun things I found while cleaning) I saw a box with tiles in it that would be perfect for cross #25.

This vase stands 10 inches high. I tried to get some photos showing the fish. As often is the case, I started with a plan which quickly faded with the sunset. The only thing I knew was the colors I wanted would be in blues, purple and greens. We'll see what happens once it's covered with glass. As usual, grout will do wonders for this one. My nipping skills are just so-so these days. I have limited mobility with my hands some days and the tools I have are old and have been lovingly used for years. But, I will still keep going because I know at some point new tools will be purchased, more space for cutting and setting up the grinder will appear when it is supposed to. Meanwhile, here is this awesome vase so far.

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

In The Studio

Welcome to my studio!

This week, I thought I'd try to catch up on the donation pieces that are now either delivered or on their way out the door. Yay!

First, the "Q" for Quilt has been delivered and will go on a wall as part of the ABC Mosaic Mural for the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, ME. Head on over to Mandolin Mosaics' blog to read all about it after you finish reading this post, of course.

The Mosaic Star Box for the DWB-MSF 2014 International Mosaic Auction is heading out tomorrow towards Michigan. I'll share more info about this auction as it gets closer to it, because it is an online auction and all you have to do is sign up to start making bids! I've also included a pendant, which I believe I neglected to take a photo of grouted (how unlike me!) but I'm hoping I will be able to share a photo after the multi-talented Lin Schorr takes a few photos of everything before the auction.

The window is coming along really well, however my body gave out way before it was finished and I'm giving myself the rest of the week off from working on it. My neck, shoulders and back are in bad shape right now, stiff and sore from lifting the window which is ever getting heavier as I keep adding glass to it.

I place it on a makeshift table each time I work on it and put it aside along a wall in my room when I'm finished for the day.

Lifting it each time and moving it around has caused my body to groan with the movements. But it looks so pretty in the window already!

Of course each time I take photos of it in the window, it is me who is lifting it up onto the windowsill and then back down again. Really not helping myself one bit by doing that too but as they say, we suffer for our art!

Only 2 more panes to go before it can sit and rest until all glue is dry (I'm guessing about 2-3 weeks).

Once all the glue is dry, this awesome window will be grouted and placed in my window. And if it needs to be moved, someone else will move it for me. Because I'm positive it will be a struggle to get it lifted once all glass is on and it's grouted.

Isn't it cool?!

The sphere, which I've dubbed "My World" is waiting for grout. The glue is almost dry enough to do it!

I had a grouting weekend as I anticipated, and got all 3 mosaics finished up.

I love how this trivet turned out. Even though I went from one design to another, the grout sort of molded it altogether nicely and it looks great. It's on a beveled mirror with felt feet and I'm considering adding it to the online shops next month. :)

I really do love to grout. I love to see the results of my labor as I'm cleaning off the sanded grout. It's like unearthing a treasure deep under muddy ground.

The GOG Nugget Challenge! piece turned out to be a bit of a problem because I dropped it after I got the nuggets glued on the glass. It stayed together, though, so I continued on with it. It came out really nicely. I hope to frame this at some point. It's 13 x 9 inches on one of the donated glass window panes given to me recently.

Black grout rocks!

Lo and behold ... it's a turtle!! I didn't even know!! Honest. I had it horizontal for most of the time, even when I made it, and I didn't see the turtle until I turned the glass vertically. Coolio!

I also played with paint over the weekend and used the last ATC sized piece I had (2.5 x 3.5 inches) to create a "Meditation Flower". Groovy.

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy

In The Studio

The fun continues this week! All the mosaics I made last week are now grouted!

Two are gifts.

Peace Ornament - Birthday Gift for Rowan who turned 8 years old yesterday but who is having a party this weekend. She loves peace signs and the color purple. I think I've got it covered.

This shoe is for Maddyson who is turning 5 in March. While this might look a tad too sophisticated for a five year old, Maddy is quite an unusual little girl. She drinks coffee (decafe) and prefers zombies over cheerleaders. Starfish is the pet name her grandfather gave her.

One I'm keeping but using as a prototype for made to order items once I can hone my Wediboard cutting skills a little more. Anyone interested in ordering one similar to this, let me know. This was a wooden cheese board my Dad made, probably in the 1960's, and passed down to me to use when I moved back east in the 1990's. I used it quite a bit but the small wooden dowels for feet fell off and I put it aside to do something with some day. I love what I've created with it. The retro feel to it is soooo "me". Recycling something my father made and making it a piece of art has given it even more meaning to me. I'm very happy with it.

One I'm listing next month. Another cutting board my Dad gave me; not sure he made this one, but I used it for years, then put it aside thinking I'd do this with it when I was ready. It took many years to decide what to do and how to do it, but I'm happy with the results. It's solid wood too. Really heavy!!

One is a donation. The iridescent Q's have not yet been added to the quilt. I'm considering adding resin to them, although I've only used it once before and covering them to give them a more solid foundation. On mesh and grouted, they are still too flexible and the mesh is still visible on the sides. It needs a more polished look and resin will give me that. And if they come out looking really bad, I have time (this is due before June 1st) to make another set of Q's and adding resin to those. I'll share a finished photo once I've got it.

And finally one still needs some TLC but will get listed AND offered as a made to order item. I'm not thrilled with my paint job on this - some of the paint bled into the grout on the sides and the hand mixed acrylics color is bit off too. I've decided to get some Washi tape when I can afford it and cover the sides with it. This too, will be shared once it's really finished.

Bohemian Morning

Today I am working on the next donation piece which is a mosaic star box. Inside and out, this box will be covered with stained glass and mirror.

A lot of work-in-progress photos will be shared as I continue. This is due before August 1st.

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy