Buddha's Garden

Buddha's Garden is complete. I need to scrap some glue and a few areas of grout off still, polish it a little more and then coat the stones with an enhancer that makes them shiny and call it finished!

Buddha's Garden - seen through natural light
13 x 15 glass-on-glass
Stained Glass and Stones

Buddha's Garden - sitting flat on a white shelf

I also got a little more grouting completed. I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the back so I can get it photographed and listed. I really love these dish shards and this elephant wall hanging.

After I took this photo, I noticed a bit of grout still on a few of the pieces of tess. After cleaning it, I picked it up and found this.

Elephant Dust

Great name for this photo, don't you think? :)

I took some photos of the pendants I put resin on this morning and found gaps in between the tiles, so another coating of resin is necessary before I can list them, IF I list them. I may stick with grout. It's messy too but not a liquid!

Here's what's waiting for me now.

Enjoy your weekend!

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Mosaic Fun

I've been having fun this morning gathering up everything I want to do today.

It is grout day, hooray! If I don't get too tired, I plan to grout quite a few things, including the Buddha. I've changed my mind again about what color to use. Once he's grouted I'll share photos. He's staying with me, by the way. I like him too much to sell or give away. He's my gift to myself.

It's a grouting day!

I'm also finishing up the 6th cross along the sides with tiles. I've changed my mind about this too, thinking I'd paint the sides instead of adding glass tiles. Letting things sit for a few days is always a good thing for me. It makes my final decision a good one, almost always.

Green glass tiles getting glued to the sides of cross #6

I used some resin on the unglazed ceramic tiles I painted. I'm still not sure if I'm a resin fan, but I know many who are. It is extremely messy to work with. It does, however, give a nice shine to jewelry and protects it as well which is why it is so widely used, I believe. I do think I'll use it again. I have a tendency to change the color of grout on pendants after a few years, so using resin on everything I make probably won't happen. However, using it instead of grout, for instance, is something I'll do again.

Messy work - resin will need to be scrapped off the backs - yuck

Random question answered: Every so often someone asks a question on one of my favorite social media spots about how to do something relating to a crafty project. Quite often, I have the answer mostly because I've experimented with it myself to figure out how to do it.

The latest question was how to get a hanger on a small styrofoam ball being covered with a mosaic if a wire won't work. Well, I have the answer to that one!

If you are interested in making small mosaic ornaments to give or keep during the holiday season and want them to hang securely, glue ribbon or jute on the ball, making a loop for hanging, BEFORE you add any tess to it. Once the ribbon, jute, string, what have you, is dried onto the ball securely, start filling it up with whatever you'd prefer to use as your tess for the mosaic. Once grouted, the string is definitely secure on the ball and can hang quite nicely.

The other alternative if string or ribbon isn't available is to skip the string altogether and make 3-5 small balls placing them in a nice wooden or glass bowl on a table as a display. Someone offered up placing them on a mirrored tray when they made them. Nice! I gifted many of these through the years but unfortunately don't have a photo to share.

If you are going to try something new when it comes to a mosaic craft and you need a question answered, send me an email. I may be able to answer your question and if I can't, I am positive I'll know someone who can! I'd like to share questions/answers from others here on my blog because once in a while having a reference to something you want to try in the future is a great thing.

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Buddha's Garden

What a great weekend I had in the studio!

I finished the glass-on-glass mosaic, Buddha's Garden. It's waiting for grout.

Buddha's Garden
13 x 15 inches
Stained glass and stones

I played with resin for the first time ever, putting it on top of some wearable art:

Grabbed some dish shards and created 2 pendants and 2 wall hangings with pique assiette.

This morning I grabbed some glass, another cross (as part of the 25 Mosaic Crosses Project, I plan to make all 25 before the end of October) and I do believe the next few days will be filled with mosaicking crosses. It's time to get 5 more made.

Busy days with grouting should be towards the end of the week. Woo-hoo!

How's that for a productive weekend?!


Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Last Day for the 50/50 Mosaic Wall Art Sale on Etsy

It is the last day of the 50/50 Wall Art Sale! The chance to get 50% off wall art that was marked $50 and up ends tonight in my Etsy shop. Tomorrow I'll be taking all of these sale items out of the shop to make room for new inventory in the months to come.

Blowin' In The Wind

Peace, Patience and Happiness

Back To Basics #3

Out Of Africa

I'm still working on Buddha's Garden. Yesterday, I did quite a bit. It won't be long before it's ready for grout! Woo-hoo!

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Buddha's Garden Mosaic Work-In-Progress

I don't have the best luck getting a good photo of this just yet, but I know once it's finished and sitting in the window the sun will give me some amazing photo ops!

Buddha's Garden - WIP

©EarthMotherMosaics - Cindy White

If you look at yesterday's blog post, you'll see I did quite a bit of work on this since then. I'm anxious to get back to it, which is a great feeling. I've been thinking about the grout color and have decided to cover it in white and then paint some areas with acrylics. I am a messy grouter and could never get the details in grout exactly as I'd like it. However, using one color and painting it is a great way to get the effects I'm looking for. I'm excited to see it completed!

I've been studying the stats from my Etsy shop and I'm thinking about taking the larger pieces of fine art off of the site. They get looked at once in a while, but mostly people like the smaller items to purchase. Although it isn't clear where I'll put them to sell online instead just yet, I'm looking around to see where I can sell the more serious art pieces and some of the larger not so serious pieces too.

This thinking came about after the CIJ Event when I noticed almost everyone loved and used in the treasuries the smaller items. After looking at what sells in my shop it is obvious most folks like the candle holders, small glass plates, peace signs, MDF shapes and so on. That's awesome and I'm always happy to have a sale so there is no complaining about any of it. I do think, though, that placing the larger wall art pieces including the larger mirror frames on another site perhaps dedicated to visual artists is the way to go and the next step in my ever evolving life.

I'm happy to have avenues to share my work online and believe with all my heart that if it weren't for so many sharing my items as they do in treasuries and favorites through Etsy, I wouldn't have as many sales as I do. I'm forever grateful for that! I don't think taking the larger pieces of art from Etsy will make any difference at all, which is why I'm going to do it.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. I plan to work on the mosaic as often as I can. Updated photos will be shared on my Facebook page and here next week.

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics