OMG! Where have I been?

I'm still here but it seems I'm too busy to update my blog. And so many things have happened since my last post. So I'll update in chronological order so I don't miss too much.

In November I attended a wonderful and wonderfully creative class taught by the master mosaicist  Laurel Skye. The class was in the Los Angeles area, and the teaching was great but the venue was not very conducive to working. We were in a cluttered garage with too many people, and it was almost impossible to skirt the other artists and get to the table with supplies and things to buy for our creations. Of course, I elbowed my way through and bought some lovely lavender jeweled ribbons and tiles for my rug. Here we are with our mosaics at the end of the two-day class. I didn't quite finish but I have done so now. Below is the finished piece.

We used a technique I'd read about but never tried. We took mastic and colored it black. Then we used that as our adhesive and "grout" since it would be pretty hard to grout these pieces after they were finished.

Here is my piece on the first day. The hand was made in polymer clay in Laurie Mika's class in Santa Barbara. And you can see the beautiful purple and lavender ribbons that were for sale. Below is the finished piece. I think it turned out really well.

I sat next to a really funny person named Robin and promised her I'd let her know when I put this on my blog. Well, it took four months. She isn't in the picture unfortunately but she really added to the happy atmosphere of the workshop.

 I should also mention that I have started doing fused glass, bought another kiln and have been having a wonderful time trying to make things. The two things I have found relatively easy to make (although I have many stories of those that didn't for one reason or another) are swizzle sticks and slumped bottles. The swizzles on the left all have cat designs, and the one below is a set I made for a friend's birthday. She has always loved swizzle sticks and has a large collection. I made it in colors she loves and put the "O" on for her last name.

So I will stop for now but will go through my calendar and make sure I don't miss any of the great mosaic events that have happened.

See you all again very soon!

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.

Tanit the Punic Goddess

Goddesses Julie and Jennifer working on marble goddesses

Last weekend I attended a wonderfully informative workshop at Tami Macala's Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art. My friend Jennifer and I were the only participants, and we were taught the art of indirect mosaic from the renown mosaic artist, Betsy Gallery. Betsy had prepared a paper template for each of us of the goddess Tunit, or Tank as she was sometimes called. Betsy also explained the technique for scaling up a mosaic by transferring lines in small boxes to larger boxes.

We began by mixing up flour, salt and water into a paste which we cooked to create a glue. Then we traced Tunit onto brown paper and then went over the lines with red and black Sharpie markers. The idea was to have the design bleed through to the back of the paper. I was making a stepping stone and Jennifer made a wall hanging as she was here from Colorado and had to tote the finished mosaic home with her.

Betsy provided long strips of various colors of marble which we cut into smaller pieces. Then we began gluing the marble to the paper. It didn't seem like the glue was going to hold but magically it did. We spent the afternoon gluing the marble to our designs

and only got about half way through.

Jennifer

After grouting

Saturday morning we arrived and continued gluing marble to paper. When we finished a little after lunch, we put the mosaic on the paper into the sun to dry. Then we turned them over and, lo and behold, only two or three pieces fell off. So then we stirred up some thinset and carefully put down a layer on our substrates. Next, with another person to help, we inverted the mosaic and placed it marble-side down on the thinset. Then we took a board and mallet and pounded the mable into the thinset. Then we sprayed water on the paper and after a while it was relatively easy to remove. We did lodge a few pieces of marble loose but we just pushed them back into the thinset.

The next morning we returned and viewed our beautiful goddesses. Then we mixed up some charcoal grout and grouted our pieces. And they are beautiful! Here is mine warding off bad juju in front of my porch.

US Army Unit Crest: 65th Engineer Battalion - Motto: FIRST IN - LAST OUT

Here is one of my recent mosaics. It was commissioned by a lovely woman in Hawaii whose husband is in the 65th Engineer Battalion. Someday I hope to have a picture of the major and the crest, but for now, it's just me in my working garb. Too bad I didn't keep my fingers off the letters. Which, by the way, were the hardest part of the mosaic to create.

I didn't realize that every unit in all branches of the armed services has a crest. And they all seem to have tiny little letters on them. This mosaic is 14" tall. I cut the squares and rectangles by hand and used my ring saw to create the rounded pieces, the knife and the letters.

Oh, and she requested the piece on a Friday and it had to be mailed by the next Friday so it could be presented in a ceremony the following week. Very exciting!

New Mosaics

Well, my brother has been chiding me for not posting anything for over a month. The problem is I've been busy with commissions that have to be done by a certain time. So as Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman says on her blog, "Here's what's been happening on the ranch."

Teal Mosaic Mirror

I finished a 24" teal mirror for a client.

Coastal Collections, a new and very classy store on State Street, is now displaying my mosaics. Here is a picture of the mosaic rocks and mushrooms.

Mosaic Rocks and Mushrooms

I have another commision for a client in Hawaii. I don't want to say much about it yet as it's a surprise. I'll post pictures once it's been delivered.

I'm working on another house number for a friend. And I'm trying to finish up a mosaic to donate for my darling grand niece Miranda's upcoming Gala in Carlsbad. She is playing Liesl in Sound of Music, and the opening is next weekend. So that has to be finished by Friday so I can take it with me on the train.

There! That should placate my brother, and I promise to write more next week.

The Saga of "Sunrise at Sea"

Today I submitted my mosaic "Sunrise at Sea" to the Santa Barbara Artist Association's Semana Nautica juried art show at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara, California. It was a long and stormy road to get it to the show today. I tell this story so others who may be afraid to jump in and begin working with mosaics will see that we all have horror stories to tell.

I have been working on this piece on and off for months. There are a lot of little pieces of glass which, in itself, is quite time consuming. After I finished the front, I started to glue beautiful French L' Opio red tiles to the edges. I had purchased some Lexel glue from back east, and I think it must have frozen during transit because it was a cloudy color. I didn't know what I know now, however, so I used it to attach the pieces to the edge. By the next day, they were all falling off. So then I cleaned all the glue from the tiles as they were too nice to throw away, and the next day I used another outdoor grout. Well, I couldn't believe it but the next day, the tiles all came off again!!! At that point I set the piece aside in disgust.

I was watching a video by the very talented mosaic artist, Sharra Frank, and one of her demonstrations was to take textured glass, paint it black first so the black goes into the depressions, and then when dry, paint the back with a color. She showed it using tapestry glass. I thought that was a great idea so I found some textured glass I had in a swirly pattern. I first put gold paint into the indentations and then when dry, I painted it with red. It really looked nice and I thought of the sunrise mosaic sitting in a corner that had been so much trouble. So I sanded all the edges and applied the new red and gold tiles. It looked wonderful.

Then it sat some more and finally I got around to grouting it. But I knocked out a few pieces as I grouted so that meant gluing them back, waiting a day for them to take hold and then regrouting those areas.

So now you'd think I was home free, but more trouble loomed. And I probably shouldn't tell you about this because it will just make me look inept but that's how we all learn, isn't it?

So yesterday I started to put large d-rings on the back. I started drilling holes and the wood seemed super hard. I kept drilling and drilling and putting my considerable weight into it and still nothing was happening. I started considering going across the street to my dear neighbor Rodger's house and asking him to help me drill through the wood. At some point, however, I discovered I had the drill running backward. No wonder I couldn't get anywhere. But before that discovery I somehow managed to drill hard enough to drill through the glass in the front. I'm laughing as I'm writing this because you wonder, how could she be so stupid. Oh, it's easy. So then I had to re-glue the pieces that were pushed up and wait another day for the glue to dry and then re-gout. Then this morning, the day of the in-gathering, I was able to finish up the d-rings. Whew!

It was all worth it, however, because I won an Honorable Mention with a yellow ribbon. I was told the judge was really taken with my piece. There will be a reception on Thursday, July 11th from 5pm to 7pm. Please stop by if you're in the area.

Etsy and "Sneak Attack" Remembering

When I had just started selling cards with my photographs many years ago (see card pictures below), I had a wonderful boost from something called a Sneak Attack, orchestrated by Amanda of Cute N Curly Boutique 

Within a few hours, I suddenly had at least 35 orders for the cards I made back then. Recently Amanda contacted me to ask about the effect the Sneak Attack had on me. Thank you again, Amanda, and here is a link to her post:

Sneak Attack

Now I've moved on to other endeavors. I guess I just love making things.

Here is a new tempered glass mosaic I made using a background of beautiful California Poppies. The grout has been painted gold, and the frame has a cottage chic look. Even though orange is not one of my favorite colors for the garden, I really like this piece. You can also see it on my Etsy shop along with a bunch of other mosaics and jewelry.

Joooles Design Etsy Shop

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.