Coming to the Ending of the Retrograde

I think I am fairly aware of the planetary activity and try to keep even more aware during the retrogrades when they occur. This time, however, I took a chance and purchased a printer which is one of the nopes during a retrograde. Making large purchases, especially electronic in nature is risky. I'm glad I took the risk but there was one small glitch.

When I set up this beautiful Smart Tank from HP (and believe me, it truly is!) it came with a cord for attaching printer to outlet. Well ... for some odd reason the cord wouldn't fit properly and I tried flipping it, pushing it and so on. I might not have the strength I once had but I do believe it just wasn't going to fit. Thank goodness I saved the cord from the last printer, not an HP, because it slid in the spot with ease and the machine came to life immediately. Yay!

This brought me to my frenzy of printing things I've wanted for collage and personal use. Honestly it hasn't slowed down yet but I told myself to relax, I've got time. I'll share some of the photos I've printed here but I'll mention now, they will get ripped up and/or cut up to fit a collage or art journal. That is their purpose for me and I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to continue the weekly fun with art at the table.

Last week, I took a printout of the birth flowers I did in mosaic a few years ago for April and decided to give it a try in collage in an art journal. Daisy and Larkspur are the flowers. It was a little more challenging than I thought it would be but I do love how it turned out. I'll share the work-in-progress to the end result below. 

I did a little Gelli plate work last week and found taking older papers that were just ho-hum could still pop a little more with extra paint or mark making. One of my favorites that came out of that batch was a paper I had splotted inks on and then did some mark marking using leftover paint from the Gelli plate. It's entirely possible I will never be able to duplicate this but I definitely am going to try. I already used a piece of this in my daily journal collage practice.

 

A piece of the above paper was used on the top right side square. Isn't it cool?!

I also managed to do another Neurographic page and added some fun Posca paint doodles on it. I do love this technique. So much to enjoy!

 I played with glue resist.

Unfortunately I let the paint dry because I got called away as soon as I put it down on the page. It's cool looking anyway but not exactly what I had planned for it. After all, these journals are for learning and experimenting and I have managed both on these two pages. I love the colors!

Here's a WIP that I work on in the evenings. I'm spending a little time with new stencils and I do love this one especially apparently, since I've used it three times here on this page.

Here are just some of what I've printed with the new toy. The colors are so rich and lovely. It's been a very long time since I've had a good printer and I'm so happy to have one now.

 I'm going to be enjoying these prints in so many different ways, including trying another collage of Voorhees (shown above).

 

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

 

WIP Wednesday

I'm so happy to share a photo of the sun that is now in the "to be grouted" pile! Woohoo!

How it looks in artificial light.

How it looks in natural light.

Once grouted, it will be put in my Etsy shop for sale. This was a true labor of love (and patience for me, which is rare!) and I'm so pleased with the result.

Also, I only have a small section to finish on the larkspur before it will join the sun in the "to be grouted" pile.

I'm proud of this one. July's birth flower, Larkspur or Delphinium, is the first in a 12 part series. Now I only have 11 more to go! Yikes!! August will be done after I work on the crescent moon.

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

WIP Wednesday

It should take another week to get the larkspur mosaic completely finished. It's coming along really well.

Filling in the leaves and stems made it easier to do the blossoms.

Each session takes about 1-1/2 hours to do.

I really love this glass combination. And I still have some left over! Yay!

Filling in with yellow was the right choice, I believe. It looks awesome so far!

Where I left it, Tuesday evening. A few more sessions and then resting a bit before grouting will do it!

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

WIP Wednesday

There's not much to show yet, but I have started the larkspur. This is for a series of 12. I'm making mosaics using the birth flower for each month. This is for July. Larkspur or delphinium.

I'm still unsure it'll come through in the way I want it, but it's up to me to make peace with what does come. Going with the flow ...

The porous nature of the thin set used on this (as you may recall it's Styrofoam covered in plaster cast strips and thin set) has caused the glass to be a little resistant. I'm going to have to use a lot more glue on these pieces and may have to redo what I've done here just to make sure it stays put when it's time to grout. I don't remember having that problem with the piece I did before this one, so it might just be a spot that's too thick or not as smooth as the other one was.

In any case, I have started and I'm happy with these colors.

This might take a while with many stops and starts or it could go quickly. I'm thinking I'd like to enjoy the experience of the 1st flower in the series. Hopefully I'll take my time and appreciate the journey.

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

Tesserae Tuesday

I wanted to show the glass that I recently purchased through a shop at Etsy. I love this color combo for the larkspur or delphinium I'm going to attempt to mosaic.

Originally, I had glued the printout to the board I'm using but I didn't like the way the design came through under the glass. It still will do that, but with the drawing, it won't be as obvious. It seems a bit daunting to me at the moment but once I get going on it, it should be fun.

I've learned to go with the flow, so whatever happens as I am creating this flower, it will all be a learning experience. Every mosaic I make has something to teach me.

It was difficult to get a good shot of it for some reason. It looks more blue than purple here but it is periwinkle and will look more like that when I use it. The other glass is a beautiful iridescent glass in light blue violet. These two combined in this mosaic will be pretty cool.

My kitty, Baby, decided she wanted to see what I was doing as I had all these things where she could get to them on the blanket chest.

Little Miss Nosy had to sniff everything. Including the lamp. But this photo above shows the glass colors a little better and the green glass I'll use for the stems.

Final inspection. Kitty approved. On with the creating!!

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