Back in business

Yay! It's been a while to say the least but I have made a bit of progress on the second dragon tongue mosaic. It felt really nice to be back at it.

Dragon Tongue part II

Now that the headboard is done I'm back to Dragon Tongue. I'm still waiting for the glue to dry behind some of the translucent pieces so I can't grout yet. But, I've decided to create a companion piece. I have an identical window and am going to make a tongue out of the amber glass that I used for the herringbone pattern with a background of blues and greens.

The tongue will come out of the side of the window instead of the bottom, but I think I'm going to stick with the pieces being smaller at the bottom and gradually getting larger. Here is the plan and the color palette.

Looking Good

I grouted on Tuesday, using an almond color to unify the pattern. I think it looks really nice. Sometimes I add the grout and it doesn't turn out nearly as good as the picture I had in my mind. Luckily that wasn't the case. Shout-out to Tim for helping me grout - for his first time he did really well!

Last night I painted the frame a bright white. Fabulous! Next post will be the completed herringbone headboard.

Herringbone Headway

The headboard on Wednesday morning.The headboard today.

Yeah done! Hoping to grout and paint the frame this week.

I've been taking a break

I have admittedly been slacking in the mosaic department. But, I would like to atone by presenting you with an almost finished dragon tongue! It still needs grout and the frame needs to be cleaned up but all of the pieces are glued down. So, progress!

In the headboard department things are in slow motion, but we should kick it in gear later this week.

Headboard update

Here is the latest picture, five panes are completely done, ten to go. At the current pace I should be done by mid March - yikes, I've got to get busy!

Harder than I thought

Okay, I thought the herringbone project would be a piece of cake but it is proving to be a little finicky. Keeping the pattern running straight is not so easy.

The hand-cut pieces (charming I think) vary by millimeters in size - just enough to mean that you have to constantly compensate with spacing and angles. I'm a little crooked in some places but I think I'll be okay once the edge pieces are added.

Five squares are roughed in with ten to go, then all of the edging. I'd say that each square will end up taking between 2-3 hours.

Playing with grout

I grouted the gift mosaic today - that means it is done! Woo hoo!
The problem with mosaics that you make specifically for other people is that you rarely end up liking them. I will say that although this definetly isn't my usual style, it is pure cuteness. Hopefully I'm not the only one that will think so - I'll let you know reaction and get a picture up after the holidays.

This is what 8 episodes of Top Chef looks like

While mosaicing this weekend I had a Season 6 Top Chef marathon (I'm rooting for Kevin). I still can't cook, but I did make some progress on Dragon Tongue. Beside gluing pieces, I grouted the tongue and base with black grout. The pieces are getting bigger so things should speed up soon.

Sunday = Mosaic Day

Well, at least a little progress has been made. The pieces are still REALLY small at this point, although hope is coming soon. You can hopefully see some size difference in the higher peak on the left.

For some size perspective

When I say the pieces will start out small this is what I mean.

The visual progress is slow. Of course, if I stopped blogging and just worked things would speed up.

It's my version of a dragon tongue

Here is where I stand.

The background plan: small pieces of dark colors start on the left, moving to larger pieces of the lighter colors.

The grout will get lighter as the glass gets lighter - unifying the background. I've never done this before so I am anticipating having to do a test project to make sure it is cool/doable. The grout mixing will be a tricky business.

Cornucopia of color

The tongue/geyser will be green. The other colors will hopefully transition into one another. In my mind its fabulous.

Author note: There is some controversy as to my use of the word cornucopia. Some feel that the variation in colors is not great enough to warrant the term. I disagree and challenge said people to a squash eating contest.

Introducing...Dragon tongue??

Here she is, my new project. I'm undecided on the imagery. It is either a dragon tongue or a flaming geyser. Color palette to follow.

I'm super good at break-ups

Trying to make it work
It's overIt can get messy

Height regroup

The pane on the left has the winning method for achieving different heights with some of the pieces of glass. As you can see, the method on the right is already being deconstructed - it was a dud.

As an aside, I'm listening to music about insects, which I think is improving my work ethic this morning.

My project for today

The "flow" will be in large pieces of teal, blue and green. I'm going to experiment a little with making the glass sit at different heights so it isn't all smooth across.

I've got a couple different ideas about how to do this - we'll see which one ends up being the most viable.

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.