Tis the Season

Commissioned mosaic for a Christmas Crazy Mom. Turned out cute.

Tongues!

Been a while, but the second dragon tongue is complete - super cute!

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.

No show

Sorry people, no show here. I'm on a mosaic break to lay down new flooring in my house - I guess you could call it 500 square feet of a strip mosaic. My work area is now a furniture storage area. See you in June!

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.

I've got a new headboard

Love it.

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.

Cleaning up shop

I've got glass everywhere, so I've implemented a new system to organize it all. I heart containers.

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!

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.