Mosaics by me!!

2008-01-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the chair!!! As I speak the first coat of stain (black) is drying thanks to my hubby Jerry!! (Godbless husbands!!!) I can proudly say I did not loose a single bb in the grouting of this chair! That alone is a feat in itself!!! It is made with beads,mirror tile,tile and bb's.

2007-12-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the last box that also was included in the gift exchange for work. I tried to make each different based on each gals personality. The chair is a work in progress. I just started it yesturday and got the chair quite awhile ago from my Mom in law who had gotten it either from her Mom or her Mother in law. Unfortunatley I cant remember now which one!!! Im exited about the colors of this chair and hope it turns out well.

2007-12-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

These are some boxes that I made for gifts for the gals I work with. I actually have one more but I will have to load it to the next post as it wont let me on this one.

2007-11-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well its finally done!!! Here is a picture of my finished bench. It turned out really nice. It was a lot to grout and lucky for me Jerry likes to grout. He did 75% of the grouting while I was doing clean up on the grout to make it go faster. My Mom should be gettin this in about a day or two.

2007-08-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't added to my blog for quite a while. I have been working on a bench for my Mom, and with it being summer I haven't gotten as much time to work on it. I'm hoping to finish it within the next few weeks. It is not grouted yet although it looks like it is, I affixed it to the bench with thin set so your seeing the color of the thin set coming through. The thinset also washesd out the color of some of the floweres. They are a pale pink. When I grout with grey it will become more obvious.

2007-07-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ok...here is a little bit of what I've been doing....I am putting the hummingbird when finished on a cement bench that my mom has and the little spikey ball is just weird..so I liked it. I saw a picture of something like this that the gal had used roofing nails and a bowling ball, I figured that was just a little to hazardous to my health so I used a small (a little bigger than a quarter) styrofoam ball and little tack nails...

2007-04-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is my frying pan that I got a few months ago in the frying pan exchange...I should have posted this picture long ago but got lazy and didn't. As you can see it is a Veno theme, the gal and fellow mosaic/stained glass artist is from Colorado and had gotten my name in the exchange forum. I was so excited when I received this pan. Her work is always beautiful which I'm sure you can tell by the photo.

The second photo is a my first ever copper-foil project. The butterfly. It turned out pretty good I thought but I found out soldering copper -foil is NOT easy at all. It will take a LOT more practice. The garden trowel/spade with the flower on it next to the butterfly is also a present from Hazie in Colorado. Although we have never met in person, we have become fast friends on the gardenweb exchange and by email. If I ever get to go see Niki, Tim, and Mitchell I will definitely make a side trip to meet her.

2007-03-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well here is some stuff I been doing. I did an old boat oar that we had and made a small mosaic on it, I really liked the grain of the wood how it had aged so I didn't cover the whole oar. I started it about 1 year and a half ago and didn't like what I had on it so I got my wonderful husband Jerry to take it off with a screw driver and hammer...talk about flying pieces everywhere...sheesh..ok my husband has informed me it is NOT an oar it is a CANOE PADDLE (whatever!!!)

The bowl is my bowl that I have worked on for a little under two months. It was done for a bowl exchange. I don't know who is sending me a bowl but my bowl went to Menomonee (something like that) falls Wisconsin. It arrived today in fact. I was very surprised because that was a long way to go in such a short time!!! I mailed it Monday, priority mail. I was hoping it would get there next week!!! Oh well, I think she liked it though...
,

2007-03-11T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well my class is done..and here is the finished product!!! It is hanging in our window in the living room. It is now puttied and patinaed. I know its hard to tell! Class was really fun and the instructor did a great job, he wasn't overbearing like some teachers can be..he taught and it was fun!!!

I will be making a bigger panel after my bowl swap after March..well actually I have to finish Jerrys oar THEN I will start on my panel. Its a little bigger and has more pieces.I keep telling myself..baby steps..baby steps!!!

2007-02-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

I have been taking a leaded stained glass class for the past couple of weeks..these are photos of my first projects.

The first one is a scrap glass panel...the instructor had us go through a box of scrap glass and make this panel. This was to teach us how to make a panel and make all our mistakes (I wish!!!!) on this one. It is blue glass with some of the pieces iridized. It was quite the learning experience! I learned to solder with this piece. I have only seen copper foil soldering and this is quite different. You do not solder all the lead you only solder the joints.

The second piece (sunset)is the panel I finished soldering today. The soldering was MUCH easier this time. I learned (yesterday) the importance of making sure the pieces match INSIDE the lines of the pattern. I had not trimmed my pieces enough so it would not fit properly into the lead. I also found that being left handed can be a pain in the rear...my angles (which Jerry tried to reteach me) for the lead took some time to cut to where they would fit...all in all I don't think it turned out bad for my second project.

Both pieces are not puttied (next class) or patinaed (final class) It will change the look of the lead when it is done.

I have to admit mosaicing is ALOT easier!!!! It will be a looong time before I try something big in leaded glass!!!

2007-01-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

I could not post this picture until today...I have been participating in a frying pan swap on the garden web mosaic/stained glass site. The frypan was given to me by my Mom (thank you again Mom!!) We had until Jan 31 2007 to mosaic a frypan...on of the people on the site was chosen to pull are names and address (we supplied to her by email for privacy reasons) out of the hat and whoever's name you got that is who you sent the frypan too..the person receiving the pan did not know who was sending them a pan..My person got her pan today sooo it is safe for me to post this as I cannot ruin her surprise if she happened to visit my blog. This is supposed to look as if a dragonfly has landed on a checkered gingham tablecloth...I got the idea out of one of my mosaic books. The colors are more vivid on the pan than in the picture (I think anyhow) the gray table kind of washes out the dark blue.

I hope to receive my pan by the end of the week from whoever got my name...I am SOOOOO exited...there is so much talent on the gardenweb and I was happy to participate!!!

2007-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

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Here is what I've been up to lately...I know its been awhile since I've updated SORRY!

pic 1 a candy tray..made out of real candy. I glued the candy to the tray and Jerry and I mixed up some resin and waa laa...candy tray

pic 2 a crash glass ball..a small styrofoam ball covered w/ foil and then crash glass glued to it

pic 3 small cheese cake tin covered w/ crash glass and center piece from a plate from a garage sale. I grouted then painted the grout gold to match side of tin

I just changed to the new blogger site and have been having a little trouble with it so if I sound hurried that is why...took me forever to get this far!!!

2006-12-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!!!! We had an awesome day..we went Jerrys parents (Randy and Linda) early afternoon had some fun there and then finished up by having dinner at my Moms.

Sorry It took so long to update but I couldn't update until after Christmas because the Rooster picture was a gift. Jerry made the frame with a honey blonde finish and I did the mosaic. I will have to admit Jerry cut and glued quite a bit of the background for me, which is honestly the part that takes the longest. I as usual stressed over the grout color, and we (Jer and I) finally decided on the brown which we custom mixed. (white grout w/ liquid brown color added bit by bit) Jerry also helped me with the grouting and cleaning of the grout. He has become my right hand in this whole process!!!! Couldn't do it without him.

After I got the Rooster picture done I got a case of the "I need to do something else" syndrome and made this "Man and beast" mirror mosaic in one afternoon on a rock. When I need a quick mosaic fix these work well ( the rocks) you mosaic one day grout the next. The mirror tile is a dusty rose color w/ a grey grout.

If you have been on Mitchells blog you would have seen the mosaic Ipod I did for Mitchell...that was pretty fun..it also was a quick fix project.

Everyone have a wonderful and safe new year.....I loved all my presents...and the company!!!!

Many blessings...

2006-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

I got my grouting done.....I really need to learn that I CANNOT grout 2 things in one setting.I had mosaiced this blob guy long time ago and decided while I was grouting the tulip pot that I would grout blob guy also...bad idea!! If it wasn't for Jerry helping me (saved me again Mr Man!!!!) I would have never got them cleaned off before the grout dried on the pieces permanently. Oh well, live and learn...Happy Thanksgivings (early )to all of you out there!!!!

2006-11-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today was my last day off and the only day I had time to work on a mosaic...I haven't finished the second ball I started (the twin to Nikis bowling ball but smaller) but decided to do a one day project.

This is a tulip terra cotta pot that I bought and decided to mosiac with the green leaf beads and stained glass scraps. I will grout the project tommorow using a black grout to make the colors pop. It felt good to do some mosaic work.

I have a hindu rope plant that I plan on planting in this pot this summer..so I needed a little bit of color because the plant is a beautiful green!!!

The weather has been cold but beautiful the last few days, No rain just lots of frost!! I even had time to take a short bike ride..ya hoo for me!!!!

2006-10-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

Mushrooms in our yard!!!!

Here are some pictures I took today of some mushrooms growing in our yard. I think there pretty awesome!!

Today was a gorgeous day, warm, sunny and perfect for working out in the yard.

Jerry cut quite a few branches and pulled out a dead tree from the front yard with his truck, roots and all. I was VERY impressed!!!!!
It was a good day...even if I did break a toe hitting the ottoman in the living room!! Maybe tommorow I'll post a picture of it..yeehaaaa good times!!!!

2006-10-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

This is a maple tree in our front yard...aren't the fall colors gorgeous!!! I know we complain about our weather in Washington but I have to say...what a great State to live in with our four seasons!!!!

2006-08-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Well these aren't mosaics but I decided to post them anyhow...Jerry and I have been camping at Millersylvania State Park...Here are some pictures .

{picture 1} is our site number.

{picture 2} is a view from the backside of our campsite.

{picture 3} is the chipmunk "Stumpy" climbing down the tree..He/She was not shy at all, it came within feet of us.

{picture 4} is "Stumpy" (which by the way is missing half his tail) running across camp with a nut Jerry left him (hazelnut)

{picture 5}is The bridge to some of the hiking/biking trails that I fell off of on my bike the first time I went over it.

{picture 6}is Jerry on the same trail being his usual cool self.

{picture 7}is farther down the trail a beautiful grove of trees.

{picture 8}is a staircase that leads down to the water from a hill next to the lake. They had these all down the bank. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great. Their was a good breeze all the time so if it was hot out I didn't notice. Jerry kept us warm with his wonderfully hot fires and I beat him at cribbage both times we played before bed.

2006-08-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

I grouted Niki's ball last week, I waited till this week to clean the grout haze off. I will be sealing it for the weather on Sunday. The grout will lighten up a little bit more over time. The nice thing about the grey grout is- it looks different if it has rained on it (makes the grout look darker)then if it is dry. The next one I make I will be keeping for myself (selfish girl aren't I) I really enjoyed making this.

2006-07-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here is Niki's ball so far...It has been to hot for me to do much work on it lately, and my schedule wasn't allowing it. After work on saturday I'm hoping to get to start working on it again. It's about 50% done.

I am really pleased with NIki's color suggestions. I didn't even think I liked these colors....they are very subtle and I'm gonna have a hard time giving it to the intended person (Niki)....I sure hope it doesn't get lost in route!!!

2006-07-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

I started Nik's bowling ball mosaic today. Of course it doesn't look to great right now. I have placed a few arrows with the colors next to them. If you click on the picture it will come up a bigger size. The picture I took DOES NOT do the colors justice. They are a very pretty color combination and the flowers are actually made out of four different colors of purple.....You can see a little of my pencil drawing on the ball.

Doing this half is easy...its trying to do the oppisite side that might be a challange..lucky for me you can only look at one side at a time, so if I have it off center a bit hopefully know one will notice.... This is one of the bowling balls that was Nanas, it actually had the name "Helen" on it.

2006-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a mosaic butterfly on a rock. (duh!!!) I have found this is a very quick and easy way of making a mosaic in a very short time when I need a little mosaic fix. (yes it is a sickness..look it up!) A couple of weeks ago I needed a break from the fawn so I decided to try to do this. The antennae is wire that I have superglued after bending. I hope they hold up.

Every time I would take grass clippings out behind the garage in the wheelbarrow I would trip on this rock and I liked the colors and shape of the rock. If you look closely you can even see scuff marks on the rock from where I kept hitting it. So here it is!! I know I will be doing a lot more of these, I want to do one with a dragonfly on it. When we finally get to have our new deck I will be putting it on there.

2006-07-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hey...look its actually a mosaic....not somehting else....I do have to admit I made this awhile ago...but did not get to finish (the other side!!!!!) it until recently. I grouted it on the 4th (before we went to our cookout at my sis's) and here it is...I still have another side to grout but that will have to wait until this weekend. For those of you that don't remember it last time. This was given to me to do by Linda ( my Mom-in-law) and it came from Nana's house.. I have about 4 or more (stressing the or more!!!) projects started so now I must actually finish them!!! The weather has cooled down and the rains back, but thats ok...I don't mind a few days of rain to wash away the dust.

2006-06-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

The big day is over!!!!!!!

Well, we have proof now....Glen is out of school and getting ready to start his new life as an adult. His plans include moving to Illinois to live with his Dad and they can hang out and be buds, while Glen gets himself together on just exactly what his life is going to be...

Now Mom, she (me) on the other hand has a whole lotta different ideas in her head....Yes let the boy move...no not so freaking far away as Illinois. Let him find a good job, one that he likes and will enjoy going to each day...not because he has to but becasue he wants to......There are so many people in Glens lives that played a major part of this, Me, Jerry,his friends,his Dad in Ilinois and Grandmas and Grandpas and all the other family it would not have been achieved without you all...THank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!!!, Good job GLen......WE LOVE YOU!!!!

2006-06-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my (disco) gazing ball in our front yard. I thought it looked rather nice with all the rocks around it and this plant. (whatever the plant may be called!!!)

2006-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my nieces little boy Jonathan...isn't he adorable...he was not real happy with the fact that I put my sun glasses on his head and started taking pictures..but he was a good sport for a few shots.

I am of course working on some mosaics but I don't have any current pictures. I have been working in the yard and with the weather nice I don't seem to sit down and work with my mosaics a lot lately. (yeah I know..excuses escuses!!!)

Can't wait to get together with the Wold side of the family in June!!!!

2006-05-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of the bird baths that I did for Mothers day. The one with the black grout went to my Mom and the one with the grey grout is going to Jerry's.

Linda is out of town this week so she has not got to see hers yet....today (5-15-06) the weather was WONDERFUL..it was in the 80's. It was overcast some of the day. If the sun would have shined through I believe it would be have been really hot.

2006-05-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

I don't have a picture to post....I am really sorry it has been so long...if any of you are even still looking at my blog. I know how boring it gets to check it and see nothing, it gets easier and easier to just stop checking. I will be posting pictures this weekend. (hint hint after mothers day!!!)

2006-04-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here it is folks....Jerrys new love...she's a 2006 mustang gt...he is VERY proud and exited. Its wondefully fast, he has retired his other one. He searched all day to find the one that would follow him home!!!!! He's tried to wash it twice already.

Funny thing, on the way home not even 10 miles from the dealership he almost gets taken out by a white ford van.....that would have just ruined his day...I wonder if I'll ever get to drive it??

What do you think!!! My bet is a big NO~~

2006-04-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the quilt my Mom has been working on for me. She started this a while ago and has a lot of hours and love poured into it.

She designed the layout herself knowing that I love our Mt Rainier, hiking and camping so she put the mountain with the sun, cabin, canoe, and lake.

I will proudly be hanging this in our bedroom and will cherish it for years to come. It has instantly become a family heirloom.

Great job Mom....I see where I get some of my talent from!!! (ha ha ha)

2006-03-14T20:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, I decided to add a few more pictures...these are pictures of older mosaics I have done. First is a bowling ball that I covered with mirror tile..I call it my bird blinder. It sits outside and I figure it might blind a bird or two (crows preferably!)
I know it looks like a big disco ball!!!!

Mosaic #2 is a foot stool..my first piece of furniture I have ever mosaiced, this is an old bench that I use to put my feet up or to put my foot on when I play guitar (yea Jerry I know its been a while!!!) I did the design myself. I got the fish from an online coloring book and added the milfoil to make it more interesting. It made the bench really heavy but I sure like it!!!

My foot is doing great...I get to start actually putting weight on it in two weeks..but I won't be off the crutches for 6 more weeks...life is very boring on your butt!!!!!

2006-03-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Hi all, I have not been doing much this week because of having ankle surgery....I finally am able
to sit at the kitchen table for awhile. Jerry has been taking really good care of me....I'm sure by now he is ready to leave home and join the circus!!!! I've packed him a bag.........(just joking!!!)

I decided to start working on the fawn that I got from Linda, she says this was at Nana's (hence the fact that it is a FAWN!!!)It was aleady painted so I am using tiles that match the painted color..only the head feet and eyes left to do. I decided to mosaic it so she can put it in her yard. I am going to mosaic the brown with a brown grout and the rest with white for the eyes and black for the feet. I will post the final picture once it is done...which will be awhile cause I really need two feet to grout.!!!!

2006-02-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

Here are two more mosaics.

The Mopar one was made awhile ago for my nephew Jon who is really into his mopars!!

It is a candle holder and looks really cool in a dark room.

The tulip I did this weekend. My Mommy in law gave me the unfinished piece and I had a few hours so here it is....

2006-02-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

Burr...I can't believe how cold it was today. Beautiful,clear,sunny but cold!!!! It is supposed to get down to about 9 degress tonight!!! WOW!!! Here is my Mermaid. I got to grout her today. She turned out great..I also am adding a picture of my fish. (at my brothers request!!!!) Take er easy!!!

2006-02-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

I tell ya...this blog stuff is gonna make me turn gray haired!!! I hope you guys can really see this stuff!!!! I know this isn't a mosaic but I am so proud of my baby!!!!! Here is a picture of Glens Honor role certificate!!!!!! This is his first time on honor role.....way to go Glen!!!!!!!!