Susan Crocenzi at Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art (SBSMA)

I attended another wonderful workshop at SBSMA with the amazing Susan Crocenzi. She has so much talent and creativity! It was a three-day workshop. The first two days we worked with tempered glass, I had a heart/peace sign base that I brought along and after listening to Susan and her wonderful ideas, I came up with a design. The final piece looks much better than the picture but tempered glass is hard to photograph. I'm going to post this now since I see I'm way behind with my blog posts. More on the polymer clay later.

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.

Big Bird

It's been a busy August but Big Bird is finally grouted! I used three different colors of grout that were in the mosaic - blue, red and yellow. I also put some glitter on although it's hard to tell in the picture. This is one of those mosaics where I think, well, that made it hard to see. But what can you do? I should remember not to put actual pictures under tempered glass. Or at least do a better job of it.

I also did finish three more mirrors which I will put in my next post. But for now I just want Big Bird  to fly into this post.

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!

Tempered Glass Mosaics

Streptocarpus photo

Tempered glass is an interesting medium to work with. I have made many TG pieces and learn more each time I make one. And I have thrown a couple away! Here is an example of one I made a while back.

The picture on the left is a Streptocarpus I grow. I put the photo in Photoshop and swirled it a round a bit (second photo). Then I glued the photo to a tile,added  a border around the tile and then glued the tempered glass on top.

Photoshop adds some swirls

(Some day I'll get Blogspot to put the photos where I want them but for now I'll let it do its thing.)

Tempered Glass Glued 

Above is the tile after adhering the tempered glass to the tile. And to the right is the finished piece. I grouted it in a dark teal green.

Below are three more pieces that are made with tempered glass. They all have at least two colors of grout. When you see them in person, they have depth.

Lava Flow

More Mosaics

Tempered Glass

I have been working on mosaics as I promised. I just haven't posted anything lately. Here is a tempered glass circle mirror (mirror not in place yet) with colored papers underneath. I've had it glued for a while, but I'm not sure what colors to use for the grout. There is some lavender in the paper on the left bottom so I may use a combination of pink, turquoise and lavender grout.

Turquoise Bead Heart

Above is another heart I made. Since every heart I've ever made has sold, I guess people must like hearts. So this is one made with some beautiful turquoise-patterened plates I got at our local Assistance League thrift store. I also put in some beads, ball chain and a polymer clay heart I made. Quite a mishmash! But think it's pretty and hopefully someone else will also. Below is a picture of the Good Cup wall where I hung it.

It's hard hanging mosaics at the Good Cup in a pleasing (to me) manner because the tables are always filled with customers! So I usually just hang new ones where old ones have been sold. The spacing isn't always great but I'm glad they have so many customers.

Good Cup Coffeehouse

The Good Cup Coffeehouse Show

Glitter Mirror

My show at the Good Cup coffeehouse has been extended through May! I'm very happy! It's been a really nice experience. When I go there to add pieces, people often come up and say how much they like my mosaics.

The glittery mirror on the left sold the first day as did the two tempered glass pieces below, Lava Flow and Fall Leaves. I wish I'd gotten better pictures before they were gone!

Lava Flow

I'm working on more tempered glass pieces and more hearts. Every heart I've displayed has been sold! Love is everywhere, it seems!

So if you're up on the Mesa in Santa Barbara, please stop by and see my mosaic art!

Fall Leaves

Ellen Blakeley and Tempered Glass Mosaics

Ellen Blakeley and Julie

I spent the weekend in Oakland at the Institute of Mosaic Art attending a wonderful two-day class by Ellen Blakeley.  I finished three tempered glass mosaics and learned much more about grouting with many colors in one piece. Below is the purple and blue piece I made to match my shirt and the Hardenbergia on the left. The circle has papers underneath the tempered glass, and the one on the bottom had a design on the wood that I mosaiced over. 

Purple and blue mosaic to match my shirt!

Tempered glass with different colors of grout

And the good thing is that I bought two of the flower rectangles below (at a thrift store) so I can make another one using better tools that I have here at home. Like my ring saw or my Beetles and Bits system for cutting pieces in any shape. At Ellen's suggestion I cut out plate glass to put over the flowers but the glass cutter that was available was not very flexible (to me, at least). So next time I'll cut out pieces that fit the flower and leaves better. 

I'm also going to add to the grout color by using her fantastic method for changing color after you've grouted. I learned it in her first class and have used it on other mosaics, but it was good to have a refresher course to remember how you're really suppose to do it!!!

Ellen is a wonderful hands-on teacher who is always willing to share her ideas and techniques with the class. We used epoxy to glue the pieces of tempered glass to the base. What a sticky mess that was! But I suppose you get better at it after some practice. I did spend quite a bit of time with a razor blade scraping off the epoxy residue on the top of the glass. 

Back to Mosaics

I finished gluing the three hearts mosaic, and I like the way they look. It's hard to tell that the scrolly lines are green but they are a beautiful iridized glass. Now...what color grout??

And the Christmas stocking below on the left is a form or cutting board I found at a thrift store. Since it's getting close to the holidays, I thought I'd make something for the season. The cuff is made with red mirror. I think I'll put some glitter on the grout to make it more festive.

The circle mirror on the bottom is one I did quite a long while ago and never was thrilled with the way the tempered glass looked in the middle. So I glued a mirror over the top and then edged it with marble. I'm much happier with it.

I've also been cleaning up in the garage and once it's looking spiffy, I'll post a picture. New shelving units on wheels have been added and I have a plan to change the picnic table to something else. Next time...

Tuberous Begonia in Tempered Glass

I decided to try another tempered glass mosaic. This is a photo of a tuberous Begonia grown by Paul Carlisle, famous tuberous grower. I glued the photo to the substrate and then used Mac glue to affix the tempered glass pieces. I find epoxy is just so messy so I tried this method instead. So far, so good. Today I plan to grout though I have no idea what color to use. Maybe charcoal.

And below is a picture taken last weekend of a real tuberous Begonia grown by Paul Carlisle. Maybe I should use this photo instead.

It's going to be hot here in Santa Barbara today (78°) so I may not get to grouting. I like to grout outside to keep the mess under control.

Sigh...

Perhaps a few years down the road I'll have all the possible faux pas out of the way and can do something right the first time. The center of this mosaic is made with tempered glass, and my intention was to color it with varied colors to move from the red to gold in the rest of the piece.

However, the red I chose was way too red, and the blue was too pale, and, and... I'm going to try repainting the red but I think once this type of "paint" is on, it's too late.

But this is how I learn, and it's still a pretty piece. Sometimes I find that someone will absolutely love a mosaic piece I've made although I see flaws everywhere. Thank goodness we all like something different!

Tempered Glass Moon

Here is another of my latest creations. It hasn't been grouted yet. The centered is tempered glass with rays of different colors around it, trying to use up a small bit of the giant batch of stained glass scraps I have. Tempered glass is very intriguing to me, and soon I'm taking a class with Ellen Blakely on all phases of making a tempered glass mosaic.