Vignettes

A new way to use our many picture frames . . . 9.5" square

"Feather" (passport to the angelic realms).  This feather came from the studio of Suzan Germond.  

The background for the feather is textured stained glass.

 "Good Luck"

"Honey Bee in the Flower Garden"

Second in my campaign for Awareness of the Plight of Our Bees

"Jewels of the Sea"

These and more mosaic art will be at Annii's open house on October 11.

8512 Silver Ridge Drive, Austin, Texas, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.  

Annii hosts an open house every fall so that we can display and sell hand made items for Christmas gifts.  Annii is such a wonderful artist; she recently designed a new tee shirt logo for UT, its debut was at their fashion show at the UT Co-Op this week.  For sale now at the Co-Op.  

Tesserae

Isn't this glass gorgeous?  I just bought it from an eBay seller and it's on the way...it's called Oceana and it's a speciality stained glass that was made in Santa Cruz but no longer made.  I have a ton of glass already but I couldn't resist this; it's a Christmas present from me to me.  Oceana glass is so fabulous; it is always beautiful yet different on both sides.  It's often thicker than other stained glass, and is known for its bold color, mottled texture, and the random edges of the hand-poured pieces.  I just finished an article about tesserae, all about the different qualities of tile, glass, pebbles, costume jewelry, etc. and I will publish it as soon as I take the pictures to go along with it.  

South Austin Music WIP

Left half of sign, stained glass on Wedi. The sign will be 6.5 feet x 5.5 feet. The M becomes hands that are playing the guitar. The lettering and all the design are white stained glass and the background will be black stained glass. The plan is a random crazy-paving mosaic on the white areas and orderly, horizontal waves on the black background. The Wedi will be bolted to the original sign.

Space Mosaic - Earth in progress - still needs work

(click on the pic and then click again to enlarge)

Sea Journey with oak frame

I like this better with a frame; it looks more finished now ... (click image to enlarge)

Sea Journey

Completed and ready to hang:  (click to enlarge)

(Note added 3/23/11) Since this photo was taken, I have added an oak frame and will post a new picture when I buy batteries for my camera. 

Sea Journey

Click to enlarge . . . The first photo shows the framed canvas turned over, Wedi installed, mosaic applied onto the Wedi.  I liked working with this canvas because it is unusually deep so I can use all levels of tesserae.  Note the drapery glass.  The blue glass in the upper right is rolled back onto itself, and makes me think of a wave.  The second photo shows the stained glass frame added.  Next I will grout using sand-colored sanded grout. 

Wedi board - my first time to use it.

I purchased two large pieces of Wedi board from Maryland Mosaics almost a year ago.  I finally got brave enough today to cut out a piece.  I used an Exacto knife and it wasn't too difficult.  The cement coating chips a bit but I am going to seal the edges with thinset anyway so it doesn't matter.  I have come up with a new way to hang the finished piece; first I want to seal the edges and install the Wedi in something else (a secret right now) and then I will take pictures and post detailed instructions (if it works).  I'm excited. 

Wedi is a light-weight substrate that looks like rigid styrofoam covered with mesh and then coated with a thin layer of stuff that looks like cement.  I want to use it because of its light weight.  I can do a large wall hanging without worrying too much about the weight.  So we will see!  I will post an update shortly.

I am nipping plates and bowls for the birdbath and still thinking about the design.  Although I haven't posted much lately, I'm working!  Today I grouted a beautiful pink stained glass and Swarovsky crystal picture frame, and then cut out the Wedi. 

Here's an interesting discussion about Wedi that I participated in last spring:

http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/stainedglass/msg1213403330145.html?40

More later.

Conquistador guitar ready to grout except for strings and tuners

Working on this head a few bits at a time. I see that I must nip and tumble lots more glass. I plan to pop off some of the red-orange glass on the nose and also on the chin and replace it with random colors here and there. It's time-consuming since it's so rounded. I have received some puzzled looks from family over this one!

Click to enlarge:

Vancouver glass picture frame 5x5 finished

Finished this yesterday; I am now ready to tackle something large! I love this glass; it is so yummy. I will be sad when it's all used up. Grout is painted with metallic acrylic paint.

Stair risers (by request) completed in 2009

I will give a talk and demo about mosaic art to some fourth graders on March 25 at Bee Cave Elementary and I will take these photos with me. These stair risers are a real attention getter; various delivery people and workers, neighbors, people selling candy bars - - they are all so interested and complimentary. Thought I would post these pics again (and hopefully I will do something productive soon so I can post some new pics)!

The top eleven:


The bottom five:

Vancouver glass picture frame 4x6

Made this with scraps from the same glass as the candles picture.

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!

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!!

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.