No progress

I'm abandoning the beaded tree - at least for now. I've spent hours staring at it and another couple of hours experimenting with background ideas. Nothing is working for me so I'm moving on to a new project and will return to the tree at a later date.

On the horizon: a 15 pane window/door.

I'm doing it backwards

Indecision is really going to screw me over. Despite knowing better, I glued down the beads before completing the background. I absolutely don't want grout touching the beads. So, the smart thing to do would be to get the background done, grout it, and then fill in the channel with the beads - voila - finished mosaic.

But, I was having trouble visualizing what kind of background to do in combination with the beads so against all my better judgment I skipped ahead and now I'll end up paying for it by constantly maneuvering around the beads.

On the bright side, I think it looks cute so far.

Out on a limb - again

I seem to be stuck on trees - Martian, Grandma, Wispy - and now beaded. As you can see, I've got an assortment of glass beads and other random items. They will become the tree limbs, beyond that I'm not sure what the background will shape into.

Underwater weed

My finger is healing and the mosaic is done!
It's a keeper.

Measures 17" x 17"

Blood and grouting guts

Don't say I didn't warn you. This is really gross.

I generally wear two sets of those latex exam gloves when grouting. Yesterday I only had one set on and as I was rubbing in grout I sliced my middle finger. Because I was in the middle of grouting I couldn't just stop so I just took off one glove and put on a new one. Unfortunately, glass cuts bleed an obscene amount so my new glove essentially filled up with blood.

When I finished and took off the glove I thought the result was picture-worthy. Don't worry - the mosaic came out blood-free.