WIP - Space themed guitar

This guitar will feature my favorite theme, Outer Space. Tesserae include stained glass, vitreous glass tile, glass globs, vintage jewelry, leather bolo, rhinestones, crystal, and glass beads. I need to add strings (probably will use dichroic stringers again) and then it will be ready to grout! I received two old beat-up guitars for Christmas gifts and a cracked mandolin, and recently my friend gave me a beat-up child-sized guitar, all ready to mosaic, so I am happy. CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE.

Our little wild fox

Her mom was hit by a car and this little fox and her twin brother live on our property and we feed them. Isn't she beautiful? She is cautious, yet will still approach to a distance of about four feet. She trusts my granddaughter and will almost eat from her hand. Please click on the image to enlarge and better appreciate her beauty.

Christmas Puppy Daisy

This has nothing to do with mosaics but I can't resist! Here's our little Christmas puppy Daisy; she is now just 2.5 months old. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Glass Totem/Obelisk done!

Looking west:

Looking south:

Looking east:



(Click on each photo for a larger view.)

Glass totem ready to install . . .

It is cold here, v. cold. I am waiting for a warm day in order to silicone the pieces together. The base (pictured below) has been installed on a sand and concrete base and has endured rain, snow, and freezing weather, and has not been knocked over by deer. Hopefully the sun will come out one day this week and I can complete it and post a picture.

Glass Totem body grouted, another view

The sun just came out so I took another photo:

Glass Totem body grouted

It's raining today and about 60 degrees, perfect weather for grouting on the back porch. Here are two views of the largest piece of the four-piece glass totem-to-be. (Click on the photo for a close-up.)

Mosaic picture frame

I am close to finishing the glass totem but I've temporarily stopped working on it and am making picture frames instead. Here's one I finished today. It's made of scrap glass from the large order of stained glass from Vancouver. It's kind of an experiment. The glass is applied haphazardly with no regard for grout allowance and no concern for grout creep. I am happy with it!

Day trip to Wimberley and Gruene with my friends

We had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect. We met in town at one lady's house at 8:30 a.m. and had banana bread and orange juice and coffee. Then we took two cars and headed out for Wimberley. Wimberley Market Days was going on and we browsed through all the booths for a couple of hours. I bought the most adorable succulents (plants) there. Then we drove to Gruene and met a third carload and had lunch at the Gristmill; then walked next door to Gruene Hall and listened to two sets of Rob Roy Parnell - very good band, very energetic and fun. Known as Texas Roadhouse Blues, I believe. Got back to Austin about 6:30. So relaxing and wonderful to be with my friends again. I am second from the end on your right.

Glass Totem work in progress

Bottom half of the totem, and a closeup:


















Top half of the totem and a closeup:



















There are four pieces total: a base, the bottom half, top half, and a pointy finial. They will all be grouted as separate pieces (for ease of handling) and then all joined together (using GE Silicone II clear for windows/doors) and placed outdoors on a small concrete pad.

Happy Hallowe'en, everybody! Click to enlarge the photos . . .



Renee, age 9



















Rachel, age 11

Bumping up my favorites

This is my favorite piece so far so I'm bumping it up in the queue to look at until I get this glass totem done. Whew, working on round glass is quite challenging. The GE Silicone II for windows and doors works great - - the pieces don't slide around at all - - but it is difficult to get out of the tube. My daughter gave me a neat little tool that fits on the bottom of the tube of silicone and rolls up as you go, so that helps enormously. Here are two views of my guitar, my most favorite of all things to mosaic. The second view is painted on the back. (click to enlarge)


©2008, Silva Hayes, Celebration of Texas Women in Music

Glass Totem beginning

Here are the pieces:
















The pieces stacked:


















The plan is to mosaic them using the special glass I just received, using GE Silicone II, grout them with black sanded grout, then glue them together, again using GE Silicone II, and grout the junctions.

Here is just a small selection of the glass I've been raving about (click to enlarge):

New shipment of stained glass received!

I got it yesterday. Spent last night in 6th Grade homework hell until almost 11:00 p.m. Today the granddaughters are out on Lake Travis and I am home with my stained glass shipment so I opened all three "large flat rate boxes" and sat on the back porch and sorted and gloated. Bill came to the back door once and said, Uh I know you are in stained glass heaven but could I interrupt you with one question? Hahahaha. This stained glass is mesmerizing. The small company that manufactured this stained glass went out of business. I wonder what happened to the employees? The blue glass is totally different than the green glass. The pale white and grey glass is dappled. The green is uniformedly ridged. The dark red is boldly ridged. Each color seems to take on the personality of its creator! Or so I imagine. Anyway, I love this stuff and if I won the lottery, I would immediately call the lucky owners of this stash and tell them I was on my way to buy them out!!

Spreading granite on driveway?

Papa seems to have gotten sidetracked here . . . . click on the pic to enlarge.

Hunting and gathering

I am waiting for the mailman today. I managed to track down the person I bought the amazing stained glass from last year. It's from a small glass factory that closed their doors. The glass is all hand poured and lots of pieces have that wonderful irregular edge that I love so. Each piece is full of beautiful color when held to the light, and each color is different than what it appears it will be. For instance, a piece of pale olive green when held to the light turns into orange fire. Fabulous! I ordered a lot more. They had to get it out of their crawl space and sort it for me. I already have thousands of pounds of glass. But I wanted this glass and so ...

Yesterday my husband went to Lowe's to get a trailer for the riding mower because we are spreading granite on the driveway. I asked him to get me some GE Silicone II for windows and doors (clear), and SIKA Latex R. Well, he bought some other GE white caulk or something, and they didn't have SIKA so he substituted a big jug of latex additive of which I already have a bunch, so I took it all back. I had to literally climb the shelves to finally locate one small tube of the GE Silicone II for doors and windows (the workers there brought me the silicone for showers and tubs and it was white). Anyway, I finally found this one small tube and they are now out, so I will be hunting for more. But isn't it amusing when they can't find what's on the list, they will invariably substitute? And the glazed look in the eyes of the workers at Lowe's and Home Depot when you start trying to explain what the purpose of your purchase is? Too funny! So hopefully I will start this up within the next two-three days!!! I actually have two projects in mind and I may do them simultaneously: A tall glass totem/obelisk and the glass in the front door. I will take pics.

Bumping up the photo of my stair risers

Inspiration

Took our granddaughters to Fredericksburg and Kerrville this weekend and on the way back we passed a large steel sculpture of a steer. We've seen it many times but this time, I stopped to take a picture, and the sign said Benini Gallery 5 miles. Although we were tired and ready to go home I thought ''We may never pass this way again'' so we went down this old road which turned into a bumpy unpaved road that took us to the most awesome and awe-inspiring sculpture gallery, the Benini Foundation Galleries, Sculpture Ranch, 377 Shiloh Road, Johnson City, Texas, 78636. The last sculpture is entitled Mother Guardian and Father Guardian (my favorites). The one before that is entitled I Could Have Danced All Night. Here are a few photos . . .

Latest project finished and will be shipped tomorrow

Kat's Obelisk, grouted

It's overcast this morning, no sun at all. It's about 75 degrees, a perfect day for grouting outside on the front porch. I just finished grouting Kat's obelisk and I had to run for the camera and try and capture the effect of this glass, this shape, this assemblage. I don't have words for what happened next. Cloudy day, no sun, this piece is completely sealed, there "shouldn't" be any inner light source. Here are the pics: (as usual, click on a pic to enlarge it). In the first picture, it's covered in grout.

After I cleaned off the grout I took the remaining photos.