More Butterflies to Fly to Florida

Couldn't resist doing more mosaic butterflies on mesh. Yesterday a dear friend gave me a bag of costume jewelry. Check out the butterfly bodies! They were part of a cuff bracelet and each link is made of three black faceted glass beads set together in metal. Two butterflies are red-orange stained glass and two are dichroic glass, one predominately pink and the other lime green. The dichroic glass didn't photograph well but the glass is fabulous.

(click on the photo to enlarge)

Space Mosaic - Saturn almost done

Saturn will be a small part of a large mosaic (perhaps 9 feet by 3 feet) that depicts a tiny portion of the universe and will include planets, spiral galaxies, comets, and other heavenly bodies. For inspiration, I visit the Ministry of Space Exploration website and gaze in awe at the magnificent images of outer space.

(a detail pic, a large Austrian crystal with a tail of crystals, located on the far right in the larger pic)




I think this mosaic will be a triptych; I toyed with the idea of triangles but I'm not sure that shape is conducive to outer space. I like the idea of a large circle also. It will probably consist of three equal squares, hung close together side by side.

Mosaic Butterflies to fly to Florida

Here are the steps to make a mosaic on mesh and ship (ungrouted) to its final destination where it will be installed and grouted as part of a larger mural. The artist in Florida (Eve Lynch) will trim away the mesh from the edges of the design. These butterflies and many many others will form a cloud of butterflies at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium.

Note that on the blue butterfly and the orange butterfly, I pieced together two scraps of mesh. Just overlay one piece over the other and glue together.

Step 1 -- a design on paper.
Step 2 -- the paper overlaid with a piece of clear plastic such as a sandwich baggie.
Step 3 -- the paper and the plastic overlaid with the mesh.

Mosaic onto the mesh, buttering each tile with glue by dotting the back of the tile with glue but not covering the entire tile. Continue with this procedure until your mosaic is finished. Allow it to completely dry. Peel the mosaic on mesh free of the plastic. Sometimes it's easier to turn it over and work from the back, and sometimes it helps to peel at an angle. I like to turn the mosaic over, free up a corner of the plastic, place my hand over the mosaic, and then jerk the plastic off quickly.

Step 1 - a design on paper

Step 2 - clear plastic over the design

Step 3 - mesh layered on top of the plastic