All done

Well, here is Big Guy, all dressed and ready for a night out on the town. He is already hanging up in my living room - which was a project in itself considering he weighs in at about 45 pounds.

I'm happy.

Almost there

I woke up at 6 this morning and despite my best efforts could not fall back to sleep. The good news is that I decided since I was up to actually do something productive. So, I finished grouting the last five squares of Big Guy. The frame still has to be painted so I'll hold off on posting a picture at this stage so that he can have a big ta-da moment.

Now I'm off to have a nap.

Big Guy turns black with grout

I am halfway through grouting Big Guy. Here I am with grout all over me in my garage. I didn't have any sponges so had to use old t-shirts to clean off the grout. Since he is so big I didn't have time to finish all of him. I think he is looking pretty good.

Thanks to Matt for taking the photo!

Put away the glue

I've been slacking for the last week and haven't mosaiced at all. But I am now pleased to announce that all of the pieces are glued on Big Guy. Two steps remain: grouting and painting the frame. Since he is the size of Montana, grouting should take about two hours. All of the glue needs to be super-dry before grouting so he'll be resting for the next week or two.

In the meantime, I've got a piece that I'm trying to salvage from disaster. I'll introduce you to her in the next post - that is unless she takes a turn for the worse and I just have to put her out of her misery.

"I don't have the vision"

My Mom is at my house. I told her she didn't seem that excited about Big Guy and her reply was, "I don't have the vision like you do." When I started to laugh, her follow-up comment was that she can't get excited until they're grouted.

I have a clean slate - I need opinions

Back to working on the last corner of Big Guy - for real this time!

Leave a comment about any suggestions on what color to make the frame - I'll be using black grout.

Rinse and repeat

The pieces of glass that I removed from Big Guy's corner have been cleaned of glue and are ready to be reapplied in a new and improved design.

Here they are in the rinse cycle.

Unfortunately a hand wash and dry was necessary.

In the washing process I got a wicked cut on my foot - long story. I'll spare you the picture of toes and blood since I actually like it when people come to the blog, but man, Big Guy is causing a lot of trouble.

I'm insane

I finished the last corner of Big Guy this weekend (yea!) and then decided that despite the corrective surgery I just wasn't happy with the one corner (not so yea!). The three other corners had a swirl pattern so the non-swirling corner was totally bugging me.

This leads me to the picture. I basically saturated the glue with water and then used a screwdriver to pry up the pieces. I only ended up cutting myself once so that was exciting. The pieces of glass are now soaking in water to get the last bit of glue residue off.

Nip & tuck

Maybe I'm the only one this is noticeable to, but here are the before and after surgery pictures for Big Guy.

He looks better in person

I finished the third corner of Big Guy this weekend. I think he has at least 25 hours of work in him so far. This of course doesn't include all of the time that I spend just staring and debating what to do next, if he looks cute, if he doesn't look cute, why I chose these colors in the first place...

I'm still not in love with the corner that already underwent surgery but we'll see what happens.

Corrective Surgery

Big Guy just underwent surgery to fix his right angle. It involved water to soften the glue and a flat head screwdriver to pry up certain pieces of glass. He looks better, but plastic surgery is a slippery slope so now I'm eyeing up some of this other flaws.

Big Guy is coming along

Rainy weather in Madison means lots of mosaicing time. The blog is also a motivating factor because I feel like I should be showing progress - we'll see how long that lasts.

So, here is Big Guy at the moment. I ended up with a right angle in the corner that I am trying to withhold judgment on (but I'm really not a fan). You have to, of course, imagine grout.

The mosaic known as "Big Guy"

This is what I'm working on now. It's a really large window (about 3' x 4') that was in need of some repair. I've got a rough guide taped behind the start of the swirling glass design. I'll keep you updated on progress.