Home is where the beach is!

     Here's a beachy ATC I made for a swap last year. I loved it so much I made one for myself and  a friend. The umbrella is Polymer clay, the flip-flops are earrings from Claire's and the pink sand is from our Bermuda vacation. I always try to bring something home from our vacations that I can work into my ATCs. I think it's a nice touch. For instance, I'm from Salem, so often times, I'll put a little something from Salem in the bits and pieces of my ATCs.

August ATC exchange.

     Here is my beautiful ATC from Carla Lewis for our August exchange. The theme was "Artist's Favorite Color." Isn't it beautiful? She also sent me one of her exquisite pendants! I love everything about this piece and the cutting is so good.
     I love our group. I hope I get Nathan for our next exchange, because the theme is "Where We're From," and I'm from Salem, so I know I can make something that suits him just fine. He's so dark! Actually, I think I'll ask our coordinator. I'm sure she'll want to do whatever she can to make the group as much fun as possible.

     I'm working on a yoga scene right now, in eggshells. I'm kind of stuck on the window frame, though. I've painted some eggshells with a mother-of-pearl paint, but I'm not sure if I should cut the shells in a certain pattern or just have them be random.

     I'm thinking I might send it off to Linda Biggers and see what she thinks. She really has a knack. Maybe I'll do that today. 
     I have two more yoga scenes planned in the same color scheme, Dancer and Lotus. There's something about these poses that makes me feel calm and safe. It's possible that, because I practice them myself, that's the way I feel while in those poses. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way this is coming out. I'll need to create some shadows to make it a little richer and add a touch of nature. 
     

     "Fancy," is her name, and she was created at an Eggshell Mosaic Workshop with Linda Biggers, a.k.a., the Eggshell Lady, in Philadelphia, in March. 
     Linda is a wonderful instructor and gave each of us as much personal attention as we needed. I met Jessica Cherry and April Stiebel Press and they couldn't have been nicer. Annie and I had a wonderful time. It was a beautiful day and we had no problem finding our way around. The only thing we didn't count on was not being able to find a place to pick up a lunch for ourselves, so we ate from the vending machine. Yuck! So, we learned a lot and had a great time. 

Here is a wall from The Magic Gardens in Philly. It is absolutely breathtaking! The side of a building, completely mosaiced, just jumped out at us when we arrived. Bonus; we got a parking spot right outside the front door!
Once inside, it was hard to decide where to look first! It was a feast for the eyes! I need to go back because I didn't get to see everything. It was pretty cold that day and we weren't up to walking outside to find all the other mosaics.

Annie banani taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.
     
The mirror stood out the most, in the sunshine. I can't describe how beautiful it was. These pictures don't do it justice, at all.

I could have stayed, but for some reason, I was physically uncomfortable. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, but I didn't really want to hang around. Maybe, if I could have sat down somewhere. I don't know. Anyway, I would go again. I had a great time.

     Here's my girl! I had such a great time creating her. She went to Carla Lewis, who really liked her. I was at a loss as to what to do with a circus theme. I love dancers, so when I saw this pose I knew I could recreate it with a little clay, some red mirror tiles and rhinestones. 

     She arrived with a broken leg, but Carla doctored her up nicely. When she posted her picture on our Mosaic Madness site on Facebook, I couldn't even tell she'd been through surgery. Carla, you're a master!

~ Onward

   

Playing around with textures.

This is just one of those round, cardboard boxes that you can get from   any craft store. I wanted to do something colorful and different, so I began with the red and yellow Smalti. I really love it. Those colors just pop! 

This box contains a lot of odds and ends that can be used in other ATCs (artist trading cards) that I make for trade: Found objects, bits of jewelry, odd rhinestones, buttons and bows. Next!

~ Onward

Found in San Francisco

In October of 2009 my daughter and I went on vacation to San Francisco. I've always wanted to go. Always. Now I know why. Mosaic Art was waiting for me there.

We drove to Half Moon Bay (doesn't that sound sort of dream-like)? When we got out of the car we saw this beautiful bench enclosure. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. We continued to walk down the main drag and mosaic mural covering almost the entire side of a brick building took my breath away. But wait! We hadn't even crossed the street yet. We walked in through a chain-link fence and found the most beautiful bird houses I'd ever seen. I looked at them, turned them around in my hands and wracked my brain, but I couldn't figure out how they got to look like that. We were walking on inches thick of broken ceramic tile and glass and you could even buy it by the pound! I was awestruck. I had a lot to learn.

When I got home I bought a book, a few tiles, a tool, a birdhouse and got to work. My son-in-law would be the first recipient of my new passion. As time went on and I learned more and more, I could no longer work at the dining room table and converted a second floor bedroom to my studio. (Pictures to follow) It's actually getting ridiculous. I could use a bigger room.