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

It's been a good week In The Studio which means I've been busy! That's always a wonderful thing.

The custom sun "Bohemian Blue" is on its way towards its new home as I write this. I love working on suns, stars and moons, so this was particularly enjoyable.

Using iridescent glass instead of mirror was a nice change. I'm glad I decided to do that here.

The client wants to place this in her kitchen. I think it will sparkle delightfully and catch the eye of many. I painted the sides a fresh white (not shown here). Oddly enough once I painted the sides and back, I neglected to take a photo of it.

I am lucky enough to be taking part in a mosaic mural for the Ronald McDonald House of Portland Maine called "ABC's of Life & Love" being coordinated by the amazing Amanda Edwards of Mandolin Mosaics. Her work is just as amazing as she is - do yourself a favor and go to her website. The mural, once completed, will be approximately 4 feet by 3 feet. Those of us who are contributing our time and talent were each given a letter of the alphabet to do. I got "Q". Thinking about how much I used to love to snuggle up with my daughters and now my grandson I chose to make a mosaic quilt.

I purchased the MDF square for this project as well as the sun shapes shown here from zzbob on Etsy. If you are looking for fun substrates, hop on over to their shop and take a look at what they make. They are also the folks I use when I need a crescent moon for a custom order made. They ROCK!!

My plan is to grout the quilt in white and the mesh "Q" and "q" will be grouted separately and in black. Once the grout is dry on all 3 pieces, I'm going to cut the mesh completely away and glue them down onto the quilt like this. Surprisingly most of the colors from the quilt will still be seen even with the mesh pieces glued to the top.

I have also been making a few gifts for little girls' in our family who are having birthday's soon.

This is a mosaic shoe wall art for a sweet 5 year old who loves all things princess.

Plum acrylic paint, grape glitter with a touch of silver glitter here and there. Tempered glass was glued on top of that. I normally use MAC Glue or a silicone based glue but my supplies are mostly gone with adhesives, so I used Weldbond as shown below, and I globbed it on! As you can see, it dries from white to clear in less than a week this time (it can take weeks or even months to dry). Once grouted, it will get milky colored again and there is always that threat of it not going clear again. Over time, it eventually dries to clear normally.

My daughter's boyfriend, Mark has two daughters. His youngest is having a birthday soon and will be eight! She loves purple and peace signs, so I made her this to be hung on her wall.

Both the shoe and the peace sign will be grouted in white. I think I might paint the peace sign the plum color used on the sides and back but that will be decided once it's grouted.

And last but certainly not least, I had another sun shape to use and was going to hold onto it for a while to see if I would get another custom order for one. Well, that lasted for all of a day before I decided to pull out some dollar store dishes and get smashing. I love how it looks and I'll use black grout to get these colors to pop!

When I shared this on last night after gluing the last piece down, I said because our area here in PA has been so gray lately, I decided to create my own sunshine. So there.

I'm just about out of black and white acrylic paint so until I can get more, the cool dot painted sphere I was making will have to sit for a while and wait. Also, in case you were wondering, the "Kick It Up" sphere I was making at the end of January has also been put aside. I can't decide how to continue with that one after pulling off so much of what I glued down when I made it. AND I'm also out of silicone so I can't keep going with it even if I wanted to. Weldbond would probably work but I like silicone to attach jewelry to my mosaics. It's my preference and works for me.

And that catches you all up-to-the-minute from In The Studio. Next week I may be sharing my progress on a few old window frames I pulled out of the closet. I've got some great ideas for these! But I'm fairly sure I'll do one and collapse in a heap for a while. I've only done one prior, shown below, and it took about two weeks to mosaic. These are labor-intensive and challenging but so awesome once they have a mosaic on them.

"Sunset Fire"

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy

In The Studio

Last week we lost power for 3 days and I'm still getting used to being at home again after going to stay with family nearby. That's the downside of being a homebody, I suppose.

However, before the lights and heat went out, I started work on the latest custom order, a sun. The client requested blues and beach colors. What I noticed she liked more was the colors of ocean as compared to the colors of the beach. I finished up the last piece of glass on it a few days ago. Once grouted, probably in another day or two, I'll share more photos. I love making these Bohemian inspired mosaics.

Please meet Bohemian Blue - still a work-in-progress.

1) The palette:

2) The substrate: 

3) The work: 

Are you interested in having a custom ordered Bohemian Sun made especially for you or as a gift? Please contact me through my email or message me on Facebook any time. The cost for a one-of-a-kind piece of mosaic art is $125 plus shipping for a 9.5 inch sun. It takes approximately 3 weeks from the time you order it until it gets shipped out. You can have a choice of up to 3 colors for your mosaic wall art. The back has a saw tooth hanger attached ready for hanging.

Other news In The Studio today is about my donation pieces!

I'm happy to announce that I am a part of an ABC Mosaic project for The Ronald McDonald House in Maine. My mosaic letter is "Q" and I've got a few ideas in my head that I hope I can transfer onto the 8 x 8 inch board I've just received.

And once again this year I'll be participating in the 2014 International Mosaic Auction DWB/MSF. I've been donating a mosaic to Doctors Without Borders for a few years through this auction. It's all done online so you can watch as the items are bid on too! Exciting! I'm thrilled that we are given a bit of freedom to do our mosaic this year plus they asked us to send along a piece of jewelry if we make them as well. I'm really happy about that because I LOVE to make mosaic jewelry!

As always, I'll share my work-in-progress photos as I go. I'm happy that the studio will be buzzing with activity for a while. And it makes me beyond happy to know my donated pieces are for such worthy causes. I'm feeling very blessed to be able to give of myself in some small way towards helping others. It's a wonderful life!

I've also got a few new items added on the 2nd Etsy shop this morning. I've yet to promote them through the social media spots but will do so later today. I've added a jumbo sized mug and a blank note card in my "Grow, Bloom, Fly" design.

Jumbo Ceramic Mug - $25.00

Blank Greeting Cards - Set of 3 - $13.00

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

Stay peaceful,

Cindy