Tesserae Tuesday - Scrap Glass Mosaics

As many of you might already know, I LOVE scrap glass mosaics. Taking tiny pieces of glass is something I like to do anyway but putting them altogether in a cool way makes me really happy. The results look great when used on glass-on-glass projects but just as cool on MDF. Below are just a few of my scrap glass mosaics I've done over the years. All are in private collections or have been sold.

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

 

Tesserae Tuesday - My Favorite Shops for Supplies

One of the things I love about Etsy is having all I could ever need available with just a few clicks. All but one link I'm sharing here today are from Etsy. What can I say? I love Etsy!!

When I'm looking for small amounts of glass tiles, especially for custom work, I use this site.

https://mosaicsbymaria.com/

Maria has a pretty wide selection in color and most of what I use in iridescent glass comes from her. If you stop in, tell her I said hi!

Here are a few links from Etsy for stained glass:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/beachcrafters

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StainedGlassSheets

https://www.etsy.com/shop/funkydreamsmosaics

Whenever you need full sheets, I recommend the 2nd link. Good prices for all 3 shops on their supplies and glass. Check them out and support small businesses.

Here are a few links from Etsy for MDF substrates:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MrWoodyCrafts

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticCraftSupply

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WoodCraftCutouts

This is not necessarily the order in which I shop, it is just the way I found them in my order history.

 

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

 

 

Tesserae Tuesday - Tempered Glass

 I have used tempered or crash glass for about 10 years. Maybe a little longer. It is my "go to" when I want to paint and use glitter and glass and grout to create something. I've made coasters, wall art, mixed media art and home decor using tempered glass that was once part of a car's windshield, an outdoor table top or someone's shower door.

Really, if you can find it, tempered glass is great to use in mosaics. There is a warning here, however, it splinters and HURTS when it gets under your skin. But the fun part is getting a large sheet and tapping it just right in the corner. Then sit back and listen to what sounds like the candy "Pop Rocks" crackling all the way through the sheet. Some use tape to keep it together, I've known others to use a glue and water wash to just keep it temporarily in one large piece. I take the pieces and put them in a box. When it's time to use it, most often there are still large enough pieces for me to use in my mosaics.

Here are a few examples, shown in photos. 

 

If you have any questions on how to use tempered glass, please send me a message. I might be able to help you.

 

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

Tesserae Tuesday - Swirling Moon

 After a lot of thought and contemplation on what color to use for this moon, I settled on soft purples and lilacs. Mostly because I had a lot of small scraps that would work for it. I like these color combos and I think it'll work really well.

Of course, mirror will fill in the swirly bits. I love using mirror. It helps make the magic happen!

Here is a good shot of the colors I'll use, along with my newest mug from naturallife.com. It's a VW bus with the words: "Follow your heart" on the inside. This morning it was filled up with pumpkin pie spice hazelnut coffee. I added the spice myself. Mmmm coffee.

So there you have it. The tess I'll use and the work-in-progress so far. Tomorrow I'll share more progress for this quick little mosaic which will be headed to Etsy as soon as it's grouted!

 

 

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

Tesserae Tuesday - Tess for the Temple

Originally I was calling the structure I'm building a shrine. Yesterday as I was putting it together to make it one piece, that little voice, my wonderful muse, said quite clearly that it's a temple. So that is now what I will call it. I never argue with the muse.

Tomorrow you'll see it all in one piece with the first layer of thin-set on it in my WIP Wednesday post. I'll be working on adding plaster cast strips to it today.

Below are the possible combinations and possibly all of the glass and dish tiles I'll use for the temple. Some may not get used. I'd rather pull out more than I need than not have the right color which is how this will go.

As of this writing, I'm only clear on a few details. The design itself is unknown. It will become clear that suns and moons and probably peace signs will be on it, I'm sure. Some cool words added. I'll be figuring it out as I'm putting the layers on the temple. Right now, all I know for sure is, it is going to be fun to create!

I often complain that I don't have enough of the right colored glass and have to get more. Right now I have more than I need but once the temple is finished, I might be saying that once more! 

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

Tesserae Tuesday

 This week I thought I'd share a few little odds and ends I've collected over the years. Not everything will end up in a mosaic, the Snow Babies for example, but I don't have a place just yet to properly show them off. They are in a bowl along with things that might end up in a mosaic. Some day ...

After a few years of mosaic-making, people started giving me their broken jewelry, keys, plastic buttons and so on. I use them when I can but sometimes I have to pull out things to look at them for a while to decide if they will work in a mosaic I want to make.

Some day, as well, I want to try a challenge, taking a grouping like these above and below, and use them all in a mosaic. The hard part for me is finding the right substrate or base to use. I have a lot of things that might work, including old cookie jars and discarded bottles. Working 3D is more challenging still. That's a good thing!

 

 

I sorted the jewelry and odds and ends by color, gold/silver, wood, holiday. It took quite some time but it's worth it.

The dark table makes these items harder to see but you get the idea. Lots of wonderful tess to use whenever I want to use it! Woohoo!

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

Tesserae Tuesday - August Birth Flower - Gladiolus

 It's time to get back to work after my 3 week rest/recoup/regeneration time. First thing up is the August Birth Flower, Gladiolus, in white and pink. Very pretty and luckily, I have a lot of scraps that will work really well with this flower.

This mosaic is being done on a piece of treated Styrofoam. A hanger has been added but it feels really unstable at the moment. Once it's finished if the back still feels that way I'll add more thin set to the hanger and hope it stays put. The next piece I do on Styrofoam, I believe I'll poke holes in the top and run some ribbon or string through for hanging.

I used the design I printed of the flowers and drew on the board using carbon paper.

I'll be digging through the scraps to get more but these pieces above represent what I'll use.

Some of the colors are washed out due to the overhead light but I'm using greens for the leaves and stems, whites with blue, a few pieces of iridescent white and some with grey, and pinks in light through dark. Hopefully it'll all come together within the next few weeks.

I hope to start on this, this afternoon as long as the heat isn't too bad up here in the attic. Thank goodness for the a/c because it wouldn't be possible to move around without it some days!

Tomorrow's post will share the crescent moon I finally finished getting glass down on. That took a while to complete but it looks just as I want it to. Yay!

 

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

Tesserae Tuesday

I was looking through photos from 2015 and came across some great shots of stained glass and mirror I've used to make mosaic magic. Here are three pretty cool photos that need little explanation.

It's fun to go back and see what I've done and what kind of glass and mirror I've gotten over the years. Hooray for Tesserae Tuesday! Yay!!

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

Tesserae Tuesday

I was looking through my many piles of bags and boxes of dishes, mirror and stained glass, etc. and thought it would be cool to share some "glam" shots of just a small section of what I have here to play with.

Dishes, stained glass, broken juice glasses, stringer glass, broken mugs and glass dishes. Just a smidgen of what is up here waiting for their turn to create some magic.

I think I'll share more next Tuesday. I am pretty sure the close-up photos are the best part! Glass and dishes for mosaic making can be so cool!

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

Tesserae Tuesday

Now that I've got almost everything I've been waiting for to get the muse back up on her feet, I'm the one dragging them. However, I do have the beginning of some magic going on here and thought I'd share. This will be shared tomorrow too, for WIP Wednesday. Hopefully you'll see a bit of progress at that point.

This is a photo I took quite a few years ago and altered with color. The glass shown here will be the basket and might possibly cover the entire surface or just leave it as a box like you see here.

I painted the sections with similar colors and noticed the box I drew around the fruit is slightly tilted. That won't make much difference in the end I don't believe. Using the glass that looks like the colors of the basket, might look pretty cool all around the fruit. I'll decide that when the time comes. Well, the muse will have the final say in it all, of course. ;)

Here's the glass I'll use for the fruits. I'm excited to make this one. By the way, the base is one of my Styrofoam pieces I covered in plaster strips and thin set. Not entirely sure how it will be finished. Hung or placed in a stand? But first, the magic has to happen!


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