In The Studio - Part One

Inspiration has taken hold and I've been doing some work!

I've gotten a few new supplies in and started work immediately on the custom ordered vase.

Gorgeous colors. Life is easy when there's so much beauty around me!

The vase is sitting, waiting for glue to dry. It will take approximately a week, maybe longer, before it's ready for grout.

So I went next to a square vase because I've got a few designs in my head for vases and need to get it all out!

Two sides are finished so far. This is called "Phases". I have a lot of dark blue scraps in stained glass but not enough to cover an entire vase. So my solution was to use different shades, all in blue for the section above the orange and all dark purple for the bottom section (all the same on each side). I like it so far!

I'm still waiting for information and decisions to start on the switch plate covers for a customer, which means I get to play continuously with other things until those decisions have been made! Yay!

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

Cindy

In The Studio - Part Two

What a great week. Busy!! I love when that happens.

I finished getting all the glass on the vase and I am so happy with how it looks.

The glue will take a little bit of time to dry completely, especially in the center part of the flower but once it's dry I can grout it. I'm excited to see it completely finished. I really love it.

The center light green glass is from an old, chipped Depression glass bread plate in the Rose Cameo pattern. The petals of the flower are in 3 different shades of blue. I put ball chain around the flower to bring a little interest to it. It's surrounded by a really pretty green/blue glass with spots of deep dark purple here and there. As usual when I do a glass-on-glass mosaic vase, I'll use a dark grout to finish it nicely. When it sits in a window or near a light source, the grout color is hard to see if it is a specific color. Dark gray or black work really well.

By the way, this plate is the only green one that was saved from a box filled with Depression glass plates given to me when my Great Aunt passed away many years ago. I have a lot of pink to use and will, one day get them in mosaics. Not much is useable as it is but it still has beauty for future mosaics!

I've completely finished the custom made 8 inch peace sign. It is now sitting in the "to be grouted" pile! Around the outer edge I've put some of the awesome mirror I used in the center of the design. I'll share a photo or two when it's grouted. The customer has seen it and thinks it's beautiful! Yay!

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

Cindy

In The Studio - Part Two

It's almost the weekend and I have some plans all laid out for it! I'll be grouting for one thing.

I have so many things to grout, I put them all in a box a few weeks ago to keep them from getting placed here and there around my room/studio.

I am also going to get started on putting mosaics on a few bras. I'm not the first one to do this. Search for it, you'll see some charities for Breast Cancer Awareness have auctions and fashion shows and all that good stuff that include mosaic bras. I told myself I would get at least two finished before the end of October and hopefully someone will find them just whimsical enough to want to purchase for their home, doctor's office or local hospital. I can keep them here with me too. But I won't be tempted to put them on. I promise you that!

These bras are too small for me, so they will get covered in mosaic magic this month.

When these mosaic bras sell, I will donate 50% towards the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

I also put a lot of the items I want to retake photos of into a box. I had to do some re-painting too, so I put those together as well.

The Fiestaware peace sign and the switchplate and outlet covers (not shown in the photo above) are now properly attended to.

I had trouble yesterday with the Camera Goddess but got out of bed this morning aware that she was ready to get to work. I started by taking the photos of the outlet covers and moved on to the holiday vase.

Not bad!

I had a great surprise yesterday from an online artist buddy I've known for 7 years now, I guess. Wow, time does fly when you have fun talking about mosaics! She sent me a small care package of goodies to use in future mosaics along with one of her trademark Zentangle cards. Everything will be used and I'm so pleased she thought of me enough to send me these awesome goodies!

I especially love those floral tiles in the center of the tray. Yummmmmmy!! There's a lot of sparkle and shine in a few of these bags. A lot of things are iridescent. Gotta love that!! I'm looking forward to using every single bit of it. Maybe some will end up on the mosaic bras! You never know!!

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

Cindy

In The Studio - Part One

Happy First Day of Fall! I love the changes in season here in PA and I'm really excited to watch my favorite tree's leaves change into all the beautiful colors of autumn.

Here are a few photographs I've taken over the years of the maple trees in our courtyard and walking around the apartment complex. I really hope I can do that again this year but right now I can't manage to go down the stairs to get outside. Fingers crossed that will change soon.

Yesterday was my birthday! I turned 61 years old and to celebrate, because I had a quiet apartment all day (grandkids were in school, their parents were at work) I decided to put on some peaceful music and work on the mosaic I've neglected for 3 weeks.

This mosaic is on a 15 inch microwave plate. It's the last plate I have right now, so I wanted to make sure to do something really special on it. Behind the plate I taped about 6 photographs of mine from my favorite trees; one or two are shown above. Using them in an abstract way, I placed glass in sections following the colors of the leaves and the tree branches.

It took about 3 hours, to do that one last small section, but I did it!

Once this is grouted it will get placed in the window so we can see the pretty colors of autumn all year long. Right now this mosaic is for me, but eventually when I'm ready to let it go, I will list it in the new shop I'm working on through Handmade at Amazon.

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

Cindy

Promo Blast!

I'm sharing some pretty glass-on-glass mosaics I have available through Storenvy this morning.

Holiday Mosaic Stained Glass Vase and/or Candle Holder - Green and Red - FREE SHIPPING Within US - $65.00

Hot and Spicy Mosaic Stained Glass Trivet or Candle Holder - Red, Orange, Yellow - FREE SHIPPING Within US - $40.00

Brown Stained Glass Mosaic Candle Holder and/or Vase - FREE SHIPPING Within US - $50.00

Sun Flower Mosaic Stained Glass Trivet or Candle Holder - Orange, Iridescent Amber, Yellow - FREE SHIPPING Within US - $40.00

These mosaics were all made using hand cut stained glass by the artist (that would be me!). Dimensions of each are provided in the descriptions on the site. Click on the links above to take you directly to each mosaic to read all about them.

Any questions please feel free to ask!

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

Cindy

In The Studio - Part One

The studio part of my living quarters has been closed for a while due to illness. I'm getting my sea legs once more and becoming more aware of the fact that I'd like to get back to what I perceive as normal. That's a good sign.

I managed to get a summer cold just before the kidlets started school here. Add to that a very large sebaceous cyst on the back of my neck that I've had for years decided to drain. Gross as it is, after 2 weeks it has reduced in size and is still draining. I'm glad the danged thing is getting smaller and because I've been through this before, I know it takes time. What I didn't anticipate was the effect it had on my immune system which has always been low. Wow. Having a cold and this cyst doing its thing at the same time really took its toll on me. I'm taking good care of myself and resting often spending long hours in front of Netflix. That reflects the healing powers of both.

Before I got sick I started a mosaic on a microwave plate. This plate is 15 inches round. I printed out a few of my favorite autumn photos I've taken over the years and cut them into pieces. Then I taped them all together and placed them on the back of the microwave plate.

Using the new box of scraps, I grabbed as many autumn-inspired colors as I could to use for this mosaic. Following the general design of colors in the photo, I am making an abstract that once finished will have a beautiful array of fall colors.

I'm really hoping to get back to it soon.

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

Cindy