March Blog Update

Well, once again I made a big mistake and had to find a way to cover it up. This frame is a cupboard door from my neighbors who own a kitchen design store. They give me the doors when the patterns are no longer for sale and I make them into mosaics. Now many of the doors have an inner raised area rather than just an inset where I can put the mosaic.

I loved the color on this one so I fiddled around and put Italian marble in the recessed area and thought it looked pretty good. I made some fused glass pieces in the shape of a wine glass and a wine bottle. I was liking it more and more! Then I filled in the rest of the background with an outdoor scene. I was quite pleased with my work!!

The Goleta Valley Art Association had an ingathering last Friday so I got out the drill to make holes for the hanging hardware in the back. And I drilled one of the holes through to the front! I couldn't believe my stupidity. Or carelessness!

So I remembered some little stars I had and used one to cover the hole! I put a few more to make it believable. And I think it still looks pretty good.

Sometimes I think I have too many geegaws but then something like this happens and I'm glad I have them.






I've been working hard to create new mosaics for my upcoming show in April. And I finished one of the two cat mosaics a friend has commissioned of her cats. I struggle mightily with these cat portraits. This is Charlie with Biscotti giving it a final rub. My friend was very patient with me but once I finish her second cat, I think it will be the last cat mosaic I make. At least for other people. I like the ones I've done of my Orange Boy and Patches. But making a mosaic really look like a photo isn't easy for me. I'm happier with a blue Patches!

Patches

Studio update

Well, it's about time I posted to my blog. It's been a very busy month of January and so far February! My show at the Good Cup Downtown is going well, and I invite you all to stop by for coffee. It's right next to the Fiesta theater, 918 State St.

I have applied for membership the Santa Barbara Studio Artists group, and one of the criteria was to send pictures of my studio. So I tidied it up a bit and took some pictures. I have a kiln now and, even though I'm a complete novice, I've been having fun testing and fusing. I bought the Paragon Caldera XL kiln which has three shelves that are 7" x 7" each. I've rounded some millefiori and fused some little bottles.

Picture and text placement is having its own way so I'm just going to leave everything as is. Over on the right is a wonderful rotating cabinet that I believe was made for CD cases. It is perfect for all my glass beads! Below are various views of the studio. I dare not move too much because then all the pictures will rearrange themselves so I'm going to post this for now and then tell you more about what's up in the next post. See you soon!

Biscotti watches the upheaval

Glass storage in indoor studio

Millefiori too close together in the kiln!

Here is the little kiln. I also plan to do some jewelry in it. Before I knew better, I tried firing some millefiori in a non-stainless steel bezel. That didn't work very well.

New Works

There is so much to do these days! But I still try to get into the "studio" at least once a day to work on a project. On the left is a spiral piece I made with various cut-up plates as the filler. The beads are small colorful blobs. They're called Circle Glass Drops and I buy them from Opus Mosaics Drops, one of my favorite places online to buy mosaic materials.

Below are a few more pieces that are finished. The cat and heart rocks were made during my wonderful workshop with Chris Emmert in Eugene, OR.

I'm also working on two commissions for mosaics of house cats, Christmas tree rocks and coasters for a neighbor, plus getting ready for Christmas boutiques. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it?





















Plus I'm working on finally setting up my outdoor studio. I I'll send some before and after pictures. Two worries I have - that I won't feel like being out there at night, and it may be too cold in the winter. I'll have to work on both of those things. At the bottom is a night view of what the studio used to be - a potting cottage. Now I hope to fill it up with all my tools and machines and saws and grinders to make working a little easier.

Exciting Happenings

Here is the back room at Max's Cucina where Marie Arnold (collage), Jacqueline Vanderlaan (oil) and I have our show this month and next. The show started last week and we had a very lovely reception on Monday evening. The picture on the left has two of my mosaics on either side of the big mirror and one of Marie's collages on the breakfront.

Below is another mosaic of mine at the show. It's made of Italian smalti and ball chain.

So far three of my pieces have sold.

On the right is a hen I'm working on as a thank-you for friends of mine who put on a fabulous party last weekend. They have a very upscale chicken coop with several handsome chickens. The mosaic on the right is being modeled after a photo my friend Gary took of one of the hens.










And finally we have a picture of Prancer Dancer Valentine Vanderwilt looking rakish with an eye patch. Unfortunately he never backs away from a fight, and yesterday I noticed that his left eye wasn't opening completely. I could see he had swelling over his eye so I took him to the vet and she operated this morning. Not only was there the bite over his eye but you can just see the red string on his side where there was another abscess. The vet found bite wounds from all four teeth there! So his roaming is curtailed for a few days until I pull out the drains.

Paradise in Eugene, Oregon

I just returned from Eugene, Oregon where I took a three-day mosaic class from Chris Emmert of chrisemmert.com. I had the best time and learned soooo much from her. First we stopped at the rock store and looked at all the kinds of rock that would make good mosaic pieces. Then I learned about gluing techniques, supplies to use, how to use epoxy grout and so many other techniques that will help me with my mosaic adventures. She is an excellent teacher, a lot of fun and very, very creative and prolific at making all sorts of mosaics.

And...Chris made us sangria with gin. My kind of teacher! Above I am showing off all the pieces I made; a cat face, two hearts, a red flower on a tiny rock and a three dimensional piece with electronic parts or gizmos as she calls them. Below is the cat face grouted.

Here is Chris Emmert working on a rock during our workshop. On the right is a beautiful stone with her house numbers. It will go out in the front of the house after she finishes some other mosaic work on her porch. I highly recommend her classes to anyone who wants to learn about mosaics.

Chris' House Number

Chris Emmert

Keeping up with my Weekly New Work Goal

I have been working on new mosaics! The mosaic above is a tempered glass piece that turned out looking like a bird. I started with a bouquet of Tuberous Begonias (left) made by a friend of mine. Then I put it in Photoshop and did a little Liquifying on it. Only when I showed it to friends did I see that there was a bird in the picture. This hasn't been grouted yet. I think I'll do two or three colors of grout.

On the right is a mosaic I am making for the American Begonia Society convention coming up soon. The picture is a botanical of Begonia boliviensis. I printed the picture on my large format Epson printer.Then I cut out glass squares and glued them down with Weldbond. Unfortunately some of the pieces (especially the long bottom glass piece) didn't get completely covered with glue and have a ripple effect. Hopefully grout will help to hide it.













To the right is another mosaic to enter in the ABS convention show. It is Begonia luxurians. It seems a little dull to me so I may spruce it up with some glitter somewhere. Martha Stewart has glitter paints that are transparent with only the glitter showing. I may try something like that on the sky.

And below we have a couple more mosaics; a cat rock and a big gold mirror, Neither is grouted yet. And I've been making Begonia rocks. I'll post a picture soon.

Still busy working on my mosaics!

Mosaic Begonia and a Cute Cat

Mosaic Begonia chloristica

This weekend my friends Mike, Gary and I went to Los Angeles to attend the Westchester Begonia Show and visit with friends. I submitted my mosaic of Begonia chloristicta and won a blue ribbon. The mosaic frame also won Best in Division for the arts division. What a thrill! I used the colors of the Begonia's botanical picture in the frame's vitreous tiles.

On the right is a picture of me with the mosaic. Life is Good!

You can just barely see the division trophy (bottom left) which was a pretty ceramic pot. I probably won't be breaking it up for the next mosaic!

On Friday night, Mike spoke to an appreciative crowd at the South Bay Begonia Branch. Our dear friend Eva took us to dinner at Cozy Mels in South Bay where I had a blue margarita. What could be better! Tequila in my favorite color.

And below is the darling Biscotti sitting atop the irrigation cover. He's hoping a bird will come by to check out the birdhouses.

Biscotti

Mosaic Rocks

Heart

I've started doing mosaics on rocks. Like the flag I displayed in my last post. I go to the beach and pick up a bunch of rocks that have come in on the tide. I look for rocks that are pretty flat on one side. Then I wash them to get all the sand and dirt out and glue on a design! Some are good, some not so much! I keep learning, however.

I've seen the ball chain outline used by a few different mosiac artists and thought I would give it a try.

Musical Note

This orange musical note on the right is a commission from one of my garden club friends. I've decided I really like the ones with mirror glass.  They really sparkle in the sunlight.

Bromeliad

The Bromeliad below was a rock I made for my friend Gary' birthday. I think it looks more like an octopus, but he was kind enough to say he liked it. Here it is sitting in his garden.

Ballet toe shoe and snail

This toe show was suggested by friends of mine from Los Angeles. They said ballet is very popular with the young crowd. So I made the rock on the left and NO ONE knew what it was. Well, one person did know but the other 10 people I asked could not identify it. Then when I tell them, it seems so obvious! The photo is before they were grouted.

Cat

The one on the left is obvious. A kitty cat! One of my favorite things!





And the colorful fish below started out as a musical note, but it just didn't turn out as I planned.  So I turned it into a fish!

Fish

Cats and Suns

This stripey cat was started at Martin Cheek's fusion workshop here at the Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art. I've finished the gluing and now I'll grout. It's a silly piece, the kind I like a lot. His ears are a bit big but I think it gives him character.

Another thing I notice is that I really like cats, flowers and suns in my mosaics. The piece below was started in the SAMA class about using power tools with your mosaics. I cut the yellow cat out with the power wet saw and decided right away that I would keep on using my ring saws. The saw in the class was large, noisy, expensive and required setup and takedown after each use. And it didn't really cut any faster than the ring saw. But I had a very nice time in the class. I sat next to a really fun person. We shared tools and decided we were going to try to knock the pieces out during the class. I came pretty close. I just needed to finish up the sky when I got home. And there's still grout, of course

This last piece is a Miltonia Orchid. I was going to submit it to the art portion of the Orchid Show here in Santa Barbara but, alas!, it didn't turn out as I'd hoped. The pink in the middle of the flower didn't really show up so I decided to paint the grout in those areas. Well, I forgot to add a key ingredient, gel medium, and painted it bright PINK. Fortunately I was able to tone the pink down with some Pearlx but it was too late to submit to the orchid show.

Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art Workshop

I spent last weekend at a workshop with well-known English mosaic artist Martin Cheek. The workshop was held at Tami Macala's Santa Barbara Institute of Mosaic Art. The class was more about Martin giving us insight into many aspects of mosaics, form, than it was about finishing a mosaic piece. Plus as I listened to his lectures, I realized that I had already made some design flaws in my piece. More on that later.

However, I did do a funky cat with Martin's fusions, smalti and vitreous glass. I also had some fusions from my friend Gary, so I added his butterfly and tail to the mix. And I had some ceramic pieces I threw in for even more fun. 

Martin Cheek

Martin is an extremely knowledgeable artist as well as being quite the funny man. He entertained us with many different kinds of humor. He also imparted very sound information about design, composition, colors, and contrast. So my beginning attempt is shown below and then the piece as it progressed through the weekend. I didn't finish as you can see but I plan to finish gluing and grouting soon. 

Martin grouts everything he does with a medium gray grout. He told us that he lost a sale because a woman asked him why his smalti piece wasn't grouted. He told her all the reasons behind not grouting smalti but she didn't buy it anyway. Martin also has a new book called Fused Glass Mosaics which I bought and am halfway through. It's a very enlightening book. 

And here is my cat. I'm still going to add the fusions coming in from the top that I had in the beginning picture. Another trick Martin taught us was the tone is extremely important in a piece and by converting a picture to grayscale, you can see if there is a good contrast of tone. Obviously I did a terrible job on the cat. The turquise background has the same tone as the green and orange of the cat. It's too late to change it now but it is a valuable lesson.

Grayscale