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!

Yes, I'm still working

Thought I would post an old project that you haven't seen before unless you have been to the cottage...it is one of my favorites.

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.

Kyle, State Street, Snow, Mosiac

I gave Kyle his mosaic as a holiday gift and I think he liked it.

It included:

• Gaudy (read awesome) gold frame and gold circles
• Tattoo-like imaging
• Some 3-D action
• A manly colored turquoise, a hint of purple, and most importantly: neon green

It is a whole lotta pressure to make a mosaic specifically for someone so it is nice if they seem to enjoy it. He looks happy, right?

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.

Snow day...Slow progress

I felt like I should post some sort of update since I spent the day at home. Unfortunately, I don't really have much to show for it. I just never completely settled into a rhythm. A successful mosaic day has a sense of zen - despite the winter wonderland today wasn't zen-like.

I am making a promise that I will post something to wow you with this weekend. Really.


9:15 UPDATE:
An hour and a half of straight work means I just finished gluing the pieces of the gift mosaic. It is shaping up to be super-cute. I'm feeling much better now.

Break time

I'm taking a break from dragon tongue and have started working on two new projects. One is a present so I'm not going to show progress, the other one is a wonderfully mindless project that I think will turn out beautiful.

I'm using the 15 pane window that was a dud of a project a few months ago and am going to make a headboard for my bed. I'm only using one color of glass and will be using a herringbone pattern; so all the pieces are essentially the same size.

It's like I'm still mosaicing but am on a vacation at the same time because there is no thinking about design. Here is a taste of what it will look like.

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.

Can you be classified a glue junkie if you don't inhale?

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.

My day off

Look! I happened to run into someone commenting on the blog. I didn't even have to pay her.

A trip to the glass store - I needed more glass for dragon tongue.

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

I fell out of love last week

I spent a lot of time staring instead of mosaicing last week. Glue wasn’t drying right, colors weren’t blending right. I wasn’t having fun. An episode of Craft in America depressed me instead of inspiring me.

I mosaic because I like it. If I’m not having fun, what’s the point? I tried to fake enthusiasm - gluing on a few pieces of glass every day after work, but I wasn’t bouncing back.

Ira Glass pulled me out of my funk. I don’t think I fell out of love with mosiacing; I just need to listen to myself more. If I’m struggling with a project it’s because my taste is protesting – and according to Ira, my taste is “killer”.

I’ve scrapped the 15-pane door. It wasn’t working for me, so I wasn’t working on it.

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.

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.