Where Does the Time Go?

Have I said that before? It's already June! I've taken down the mosaics from my show at Salon Patine. I sold eleven pieces and want to thank owner Rob Hofberg for allowing me to have a show at his shop.

However, I now have a house full of mosaics! And I want to make more. My friend Brenda Sullivan, who is responsible for starting my journey down the mosaic hole, came over for lunch the other day. We had such a nice time catching up, and once things settle down in her life, we are going to get together to work on mosaics. It's perfect out in the yard now, and since my dear friend Jennifer moved to Colorado, I really miss having someone to mosaic with.

So I've put some of my items in my store on Etsy. I have a tempered glass mirror that another friend almost bought but she hates the color pink. She liked the roses but wanted them in the color blue.

Next I have a spiral mosaic with hand cut English china plates. There is an inset of a round portion of one of the plates, and it has a burgundy tile border.

And I have another house number commission which is almost finished. It's glued and the wedi board and edges have been covered in thinset. I cut blue flowers out of English transferware plates to decorate, and it is done in blues and greens. I made the numbers large and white so they can be seen from a distance. I've noticed that sometimes house numbers are too hard to read from the street. Tomorrow I'll grout it in charcoal and then seal it the next day. I've already added special hanging hardware with posts through the wedi board. I think it will be a nice addition to someone's home.

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.

Hearts and Spirals

Spiral Mosaic

 I'm still keeping up with my goal of one new mosaic a week. Although I wonder if I'm jumping the gun by saying I finished something when it still needs grouting. Also I haven't shown commissions that I've made so I think I can feel good about my goal!

I'm working hard to get things finished for the two shows I have coming up. This top piece is a spiral in all my favorite colors. It has some millefiori thrown in here and there. I think I'll grout it in charcoal.

And here I go again with the hearts! This piece below is a medallion with mirror hearts. I'm still trying to work out the color for the part between the border and the top of the hearts. I've thrown some yellow on there to see what it would look like.

And I decided the work table outside is not the best place to photograph my mosaics because the colors never come out just right. I'll try it again in another spot where there isn't a green umbrella shading it.