Missing my Little Mosaics

I was digging through my goodies tonight and I realized that I missed doing my mini mosaics.  I don't really have time (or maybe the energy --clean up time) to do one right now, but I may do another soon.

I did see a beautiful lamp that inspired me to do something with a lamp that I have sitting next to my bed. Mosaic the bottom and then make a stained glass lampshade for it.  Only thing...I like the lighting in my room to be bright and the glass really dulls the light a bit. hmmmm

What am I Doing?

It was brought to my attention tonight that maybe I wasn't clear about the project I was doing.  I showed a picture of the mannequin that I was going to start working on, but then I changed my mind and began work on a mosaic that I have been thinking about for a over a year.  I'll post a new pic this weekend of some of the work.   It's actually going quite a bit faster than I anticipated--always nice.  And...so far I am actually pleased with how it looks.  There is a small section where I will most likely scrape glass again--the glass I used for it really just doesn't work in that section.  But it is a small section and I know it will look much better with a different glass there.

Tree

Love this tree! There is/was a stained glass panel of a tree at AK Glass, in Redondo Beach, CA,  that I have always just loved looking at and have wanted to make.  So, here is my much smaller version.  I really like how it turned out.

Mosaic Something

I've been a little busy.  These mosaics take hours, so some days I just don't have the time.  But I am beginning one (and hopefully finishing) tonight for posting tomorrow. 

I know today, when I was conjuring up an idea, a title of "stress" seemed appropriate, and I could somewhat picture what it would look like. But that was today; this is tonight.  

Spiral Star Mosaic

Like!

I know I am a little behind in my mosaics....but I'm not sure they can be rushed.

I took two photos of this because the one shows the iridescent glass better and the other photo is clear. I'm going to have to get better at the photography of the mosaics.

Don't know if I am going to grout this one or not.  I made the pieces fit close together so I wouldn't have to, but there is space and I think I might prefer grout between them.

Next week I am going to shop and get some mastic, a syringe, grout (pre-mixed), craft sticks and more silicone.  Woo hoo!

Day Two

I bought a book while I was in Yosemite titled, Art and Fear -- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. I'm glad I did. I'm about half way through it--taking my time reading it, which is good because what I am reading is sticking with me.

So, when I finished my second mosaic for this project, and readied it for a photograph, I remembered what I read in that book about how art nearly always looks better (sounds better--depending on your medium) in your head than it does in the physical world.

I saw the things that could have been better, what I should have done differently, contemplated removing a piece (which I am still contemplating) and replacing it so  it conveys my thoughts when creating the piece, and I thought about pointing them out to defend myself.

I have decided to let the piece stand as is, not to bash or defend it, and just to appreciate it for what it is.  Hmmmmm could this be a lesson that is to be learned from this project.

A few years back I created a mosaic that I really didn't like once it was finished. It sat on the shelf for months before my friend saw it and said she liked it.  Gladly, I gave it to her.  Now, each time I see it at my friends house, I almost regret giving it to her because I really like looking at it when I am there.  Don't know where it'd fit in my home.  Maybe it just needed the right home for it to come alive.

This was the first time that I used broken dishes in a mosaic.  Now I can begin to hack away at the broken dishes that fill a small dresser that I absconded from a trash can somewhere and repainted. Once you begin mosaic, nearly all broken things become worthy of saving.

Now that I have used them, I suddenly am evaluating in my head which of the broken dishes deserve to be preserved for larger "more thought out" mosaics, rather than being used for this year long project.  There I go with the thinking thing again.

...by the way the book I mentioned earlier is by David Bayles & Ted Orland; and, thanks to Marisa Zocco for taking the artsy photos of my mosaic for the day.

This mosaic is titled: Friendship

Day One

Day 1

Today is the first day of my 365 mosaics project.  I did complete my first piece and I thought it was ugly (I just threw together mixed scrap from an old project), and that it took too long, so I contemplated doing something else for the projects other than mosaic.

Just from day one I have already learned so much.
1) That supplies and a space must be easily accessible to create without hesitation.
2) A plan would be good -- a plan for the piece that is -- at least a rough idea.
3) I am kind of stuck on rules.

The rule thing....
So, when trying to decide on what to commit to create once a day, I struggled.  I am totally into mosaic, and I think I am good at it, but they do take some time to create -- especially the way that I create them.  I look at them like a puzzle, and puzzles can take time. Mosaic might be too time consuming to create one a day, but it is my love right now.

I knew that creating one a day (small of course) would teach me much and give me opportunity to try new techniques without committing an entire piece to an unfamiliar technique. I also didn't want the act of creating a piece a day to interfere in my larger projects that I have planned.  If I create a mosaic a day, will that detract me from wanting to do my other projects....burn out?

I thought, I could do whales as a subject to do everyday.  I'm not much of a drawing artist, but I used to be pretty good at drawing whales.  I could do that, and maybe it would even be marketable later.

Then there was the idea that there were other things that I wanted to work on, like using the found objects that have taken over my craft/bedroom, trying assemblage, and other glass projects....should I just not narrow myself to mosaic everyday?

It was contemplating the other glass projects that would require the use of my saughtering iron that I realized that supplies and tools being readily available is crucial--if I have to dig it out and find a place to plug it in, it might not get done.  This is when I realized my first self imposed rule:  If you are going to bring out the iron, it has to be used on a large projects, or many projects all at once. So, to crush the first barrier, I need to find a place for my soldering iron to live and look decorative (or at least artsy) on my desk.

Okay, the rule!!!!!!!!!  I had to look up the definition of mosaic to see if I could sneak in some assemblage and the other glass projects into the mix.....could I stretch the definition of mosaic enough to include them?  Assemblage is somewhat a mosaic, huh?  If photographers could call a bunch of boxes containing pictures a mosaic, couldn't assembling a bunch of objects together be called mosaic? Or should I just say that I will create something visually artistic every day.

Well, that is when I realized that I am a little stuck on rules.  And (and I think I read this on 365-skulls too) that there are no rules when it comes to creating art.  Well, I guess an art instructor would argue that there are some rules, but anyway, here I go, arguing for rules again.

So, I decided to forget the rules, or at least to work on forgetting rules and to just create something (a mosaic) everyday for 365 days.

I also decided to blog about it because maybe this will keep me on track.

So, here we go!