Monday, April 1, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

 It is Monday, already, again, but it was a great weekend. 
The weather was nice, got out for a walk both mornings, went to Costco Saturday and out for a nice dinner with the hubby at an Italian restaurant before picking  up my friend at the airport. Yesterday I puttered and poked and made a nice Easter dinner for my immediate family.
Hope you had a great weekend too.
And besides it being Monday today it is now 
APRIL
and that means winter is a lot less likely to show its face.
I hope!!!!! Because I am so ready for spring.
So I worked on a BIG art project this weekend too-
something I haven't done for quite a while.
Years ago I bought this excellent book
I love it- a definite favorite.
Then I found out Laurie Mika (the author of this book) was coming to a place near me to teach and I took a 2 day weekend workshop with her which was fantastic.
Every now and again I get into a mosaic making mood and I make a big bunch of tiles and a bunch of pieces. I've even sold several.
But I haven't done this for awhile.
But then in New Mexico I bought some ceramic mini tiles from Mexico which are really fun and I decided I wanted to use them and make a big piece for one of the rooms in my house.
Last weekend I got the board painted and this weekend I did the assemblage.
Look!
Laying them out isn't the easiest but I seem to be pretty good at it, as long as I have a lot of assorted sized and shaped tiles. You need tiles to pick from because since all the polymer tiles are handmade-  they aren't all sized the same. You also want to have a big variety of sized and designed tiles to make the piece more interesting. 
Most of these tiles are made from polymer clay, using various rubber stamps from the collection. A few of the other tiles are glazed ceramic tiles that I bought at the Mexican shop in Taos.
You can see I did some coloring with assorted markers, paints, Radiant Pearls, pens. The tile on the far left is one of the ceramic tiles from Mexico.
Then I glue them down on the painted board. I still need to fill in the spaces between tiles, like the yellow spaces you can see in a few spots. I will fill them in with seed beads, but I haven't done that yet.
Then I add some small metal or ceramic charms. I am going for not only a flat assortment of tiles but a 3D layered effect. I don't want the finished product to be totally flat when you rub your hand over it.
This gives it a lot of depth.
I am not quite finished with this project but I am getting very close. Will show you the finished project then.
Have a great day.





No comments: