In The Studio - Friday

I did some grouting this week, sitting outside on the deck. Enjoying the sounds of birds and although it was a bit windy, it was a beautiful day. Well worth the occasional gusts of wind moving things around.

Star wall hanging and switch plate cover/outlet set ready for white grout.

Earth tones abstract wall art (rewards gift) and a 3 inch candle holder ready for light brown grout.

All of the mosaics had only a first wipe down when I took these photos. All have been cleaned much more thoroughly now.

The star wall art, candle holder and switch plate cover set will be listed on Etsy next week.

I have one more thing to grout before the pile is empty and I can start filling it up once more!

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

The kitty and I have moved to another room within the house and are settling in slowly but surely. My sciatica had been giving me a lot of trouble, although I did very little during the move. Until I feel a little more "sturdy", I'm not doing much organizing just yet. But I AM planning how I'll decorate, where the work table will go, how many containers I need and new supplies are necessary to get the muse back to her happiest place of all time: creating mosaic magic!

Hummer and Groovy Flowers looks pretty awesome hanging in this window.

I got myself an IKEA floor lamp recently. The shade is made of paper! How awesome is that?!

Not really focused but conveys enough to share anyway as Baby my sweet kitty looks on. That is my coffee station surrounded by lights and a small dorm fridge/freezer. Since this photo, I've added some mosaics on the pegs and around the mugs. I'll do my best to get a better photo and share it soon. :)

I am fortunate enough to have some beautiful scenery to work around and am using the deck when weather allows to grout what needs to be grouted this week. I'm sharing a photo of the view from my window which is where I'll be sitting when I do get a work table. Lots of inspiration here!

Room with a fantastic view!

Here is a photo of all that's waiting in the "to be grouted" pile.

Small candle holder, switch plate covers, star wall art and lotus wall art will all head to Etsy this month. The abstract wall art is a reward gift going to someone who donated money for my fundraiser last year. (NOTE: ONE more payment to make and the debt is completely paid!)

The next post will have some great photos from the deck as I grout the above (weather permitting). Exciting 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

I've been slightly less active this week due to a cold bug going around in our home, but before I got hit with it, I managed to get the first of three mosaics grouted!

I mixed black and white grouts together and got a nice dark grey color for the beach themed palm tree.

I really love the way it looked almost immediately. That's always a good thing!

A few more cleanings and it will be ready to send next month!

The sides are tinted in a burnt sienna water wash mixture I made myself. I finished it off adding hanging hardware and signing it!

Until I feel better, I won't do the rest of what needs to be grouted. But hopefully I'll get to it soon enough!

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

I zipped through the 2nd mosaic I needed to do for the fund raiser donation reward this past week. It took 2 days!

End of day 1.

Working on an abstract this time was really easy for me. I am most comfortable using these colors and doing abstract designs, for sure.

End of day 2.

I'm probably going to grout both the beach scene and this one at the end of the week. I'll share photos when I do!

After I moved, some of my online friends reached out and asked if I needed anything, supplies wise, to get me back on my feet. Such sweet gestures and really appreciated, the first person said they had a few things in their garage they wanted to share with me and sent me a nice box filled with goodies. Some of which I used in the mosaics I just made.

It's always fun to get surprise packages in the mail!

Everything will get used eventually. Shortly after this one arrived, another online friend reminded me she owed me an exchange gift from many years ago and wanted to know if I needed anything in particular or if I wanted her to make me something? I told her honestly, I needed glue! I was finding some of my glass and dish shard stash, I found substrates and my tools. But I never found the glue! Somewhere there is a bottle floating around either in storage or is now long gone but it's not with me. After chatting with her for a bit through messages on Facebook, she sent me a message saying a box was on it's way. She lives in Canada. It took no time at all to get to me!

She handmade a cowl scarf in a favorite color for me last year when I was wearing a lot of scarves (it feels so good against my neck, I love it!), she sent me a mosaic she made, coloring book and pencils, note pads, a journal, small tags to use for gifts after coloring them and FOUR bottles of glue!!

I just can't tell you how blessed I feel. I am one lucky ducky to have online friends this giving. I've never, ever come across a sweeter bunch of people as the artists who create mosaics.

I'll share another post when I do some grouting!

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

It's been a semi-lazy week so far. I have bursts of energy but they quickly leave. I am assuming that is due to the changes in our PA weather. The cooler temps are rolling in slowly. The afternoons are still toasty and I will admit to putting the a/c on some days. But only for an hour or two. Way different than a month ago!

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share this awesome artists painter box my Dad gave me recently. I'm not sure where it came from; it might have been a garage sale find of his. He asked me some time ago if I could use some brushes and maybe, if the paint was still good, would I be interested in it as well. I'm always looking for both and with no real budget, free supplies are always welcome!

Imagine my surprise when I saw this beautiful box. It's weathered and worn. Definitely well-loved. And it might get a bit of a face-lift if I feel the urge to mosaic it. Nothing is safe around a mosaic artist! Isn't it something?

I surprised myself and decided to grout late in the afternoon yesterday. I had done a lot of social media stuff in the morning and thought I'd just chill. However, the muse leaned in and whispered in my ear to get going on that giftie that will be needed this weekend. And so I did that, a coaster my daughter made many years ago when I was still teaching basic mosaic classes and a cute Halloween themed mosaic ornament.

I won't yet share the gift which is shown at the bottom in the photo above. But here is the coaster and the ornament after grouting.

I think my daughter did a great job on her coaster. I'm sorry it took me so long to grout it but it got shoved in a box in storage and just resurfaced again. Isn't that little house funny? It makes me smile each time I see it. Ghost House, I guess should be what it's called. This was going to get an orange paint/water wash on it but I like it just as it is right now. I might paint the back orange, and it will get a hanger.

Recently my daughter helped a friend move. In turn we got a lot of unopened boxes of pasta and tomato sauce plus a few odds and ends she wasn't sure she wanted anymore. She gave me some dishes to smash and my daughter thought it would be nice to use them on a coat rack to give her friend. Sweet idea and I really love making gifts like this for my family and their friends.

After all the grouting is finished (I still have the mosaic letters to grout) I will get right on this cool project for my daughter.

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

In The Studio - Friday

Happy weekend!

After working on the "Super Secret Mosaics Lab" gift, I decided to do a little grouting! I was surprised that my "to be grouted" pile is kind of overflowing. It's a good feeling, though, because that means I've been busy creating!

I grouted a small pendant and a wooden trivet first. Grout color is called "fawn". I love it.

After grouting this wooden trivet, I noticed some cracks in the side of the wood. It might have been something I did, but these pieces are about as old as I am (I'm now officially 62!) so chances are I just didn't notice the crack until now. If I list this, it will be reduced due to the crack. Oh well, my loss is a customer's gain!

I finally got that big old frying pan grouted because I had a little left over from what I did above. I love this thing but this sucker is HEAVY!

This might get listed soon. I'm still cleaning off the grout from the dish pieces. I used different thicknesses so some are almost hidden from the grout at the moment. But I do love this and really would love to work on more aluminum items. I'm going to have to take a trip to the local thrift store some how soon to see what I can find. I don't drive, so finding someone to not only take me but be excited to go with me is probably the biggest challenge.

Enjoy your weekend and remember to keep it creative!

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

In The Studio

This week is going in slow motion. It seems right after a holiday, everything goes much slower. I'm okay with that feeling and enjoy the long days of grouting and mosaic making magic. No frantic "must get it done!!!" feelings at all this week ... and I like it!

We had our Thanksgiving on Saturday, gathering all the fam together. We had a great time together. I usually try to take some photos but I spent most of the day cooking so when the time came to sit, I sat! I've decided after seeing this photo, that although I kind of enjoy looking like a Happy Buddha, I don't enjoy seeing all those chins that always seem to suddenly appear when I sit a certain way on this couch. It's only on this couch. Perhaps I should learn NOT to sit on it but do what my Dad does and lean in, standing up! But part of being a Happy Buddha is accepting what I look like and becoming unattached to it. Buddha has a lot of chins and seems perfectly fine with them. Easier said than done but I am going to work on that way of thinking more often. Until that time, from this day forth, I am going to be known as the Scarf Nana. I am wearing one now! Wish I had thought of it before the photo below. Sigh.

The Super Secret Mosaics Lab is going to open again in a few days when I'll be working on a gift for the Little Dude. He likes to play the PopCap game "Plants vs Zombies", so I thought I'd have some fun making him a mosaic rendition of that. Here's the inspiration, for those who have no idea what I'm talking about.

Wish me a lot of luck. I think I'm challenging myself a little too much when I decided to do this. But it's good to keep the juices flowing.

Grouting was done a few days ago. Much cleaning needs to be done on almost all of these before they can get listed, but I'm very pleased with the results.

I did need to rest for a day or two, enjoying leftover turkey sandwiches along the way, before starting on a new project.

I had some leftover glass and mirror cut from the gazing ball and decided to make some coasters. Simple design and sparkly glass and mirror. Cool!

I re-grouted the black bowl I've named "Dizzy". After dropping it a few months ago, a piece of the grout along the top of the bowl cracked and fell off. It, too, needs a lot of cleaning before it can be relisted, but it looks good once more. Yay!

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

Cindy

In The Studio - Part One

Setting up a "new to me" computer this week and it's been harder than I'd like it to be. The learning curve for things like this is harder than I remember. However, there are a few photos I can share of newly grouted items before I got in way over my head figuring this fun computer out.

Also, those that are curious, my Dad is doing really well after his surgery. What a blessing!

SOLD! before grout was dry - yay - it's heading out today. Cleaned it up a lot more than what's seen in this photo but didn't take an updated photo.

A soft mint ribbon has been added to the back for hanging - hope to list this today

I have decided I like square bezels much better than round - I don't have the skill to fill the round ones up properly but this sure is pretty!

Love the colors used on this one.

I like this one!

After the recent sales I had last week, I was able to get scrap glass for more mosaics. I'm going to start on an autumn inspired mosaic very soon using what's in this box.

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

Cindy