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

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

Mosaic Froggy and a New Heart

First is a heart made with mirror, stained glass and some roses I cut from an English plate with my ring saw. It started out as a resin heart-shaped trivet I found at a thrift store. I drilled two holes in it and added two d-rings for hanging. I seem to have a penchant for hearts. I have one ready to cut out of a wood piece in the studio but the blade keeps falling out of the jigsaw. Obviously I'm still learning about power tools. I'll have to wait until my friend Jennifer or my handyman Jim come over and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And then below is the froggy. It's still hard to see that there is a frog in there. Maybe the grout will help. It was a hot weekend here in Santa Barbara so I spent a lot of the afternoon yesterday in the house affixing tesserae to substrates! That means gluing tile to a base!

And Yet Another Lesson Learned

Commission House Number

Will I ever reach the point where I'm not learning from gaffes I make. This is a commission for a blue-diamond-border house number. My house number below was the sample the customer saw. and I love mine. When I made the 857 in the studio it looked wonderful. I used a beautiful iridized dark blue for part of the border tiles. Well, I took it outside to take a picture and, lo and behold, the beautiful dark blue tiles have a pinkish cast and look pink in the bright light! Oh no!

My House Number

I sent the house number to the client today and offered to make her another one if she doesn't like the pink tones.


How many more blunders can I make? It's a good thing I don't get discouraged. Maybe it's because I have these darling boys to brighten up my day.

Biscotti and Prancer Dancer

Cock-a-doodle Do is grouted

And he looks pretty good.  The colors of the tiles all match his plumes, and he's ready to sit in the garden.

Ready to grout

Well, I finished gluing two more pieces, and they are ready to grout. The first is the shiny Russian building with lots of mirror and glitter tile. The second is the gingham table. I seem to be keeping up with my goal of at least one mosaic a week.

Cock-a-doodle Do

My friend Jennifer gave me some tiles and plates she found. This rooster was the centerpiece of one of the plates, so I decided to use my ring saw to cut it out. Then I found this stepping stone out in the yard and decided to throw together a quick mosaic while working in the yard, dodging bees and repotting begonias. I used GE Silicone II so it should be fine outdoors. And tomorrow I'll grout it.

Picotee Tuberous Begonia

This started as a floor tile that I was going to cover with tempered glass. A friend showed me the method her brother uses to put d-ring hangers on the tile. You can see the screw head on the upper right. So I painted the tile with the blue and green paints, but when I put the tempered glass over it, I could still see the cross hatch pattern of the tile.

So next I decided to try a tuberous Begonia. It certainly looks odd now, but I'm hoping it will all come together when I grout it. I want to put a brick-like pattern in the background, but I haven't been able to find any brick-colored stained glass. I'll keep plowing along with the flower and hope for the best.