Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Mosaic Challenge

Every month the online guild that I belong to - Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) - issues a challenge to its members.  This month's challenge is mosaics so I've been working on a new design for this challenge.  As most of you know, I've been working on what I call mini-mosaics for a while.  These are small mosaics build on a 3  1/2  inch square wooden block and backed by a self-easel.  But for this challenge I wanted to go bigger!

I recently bought some cross forms from Hobby Lobby and liked the fact that there was a frame around it.  You can see that project in my previous post.  So my challenge was to figure out how to create a base with a frame around it.  I found thin trim pieces at Lowe's that I could strip down to the size I needed and used wood glue and my pneumatic nailer to attach the pieces.  A bit of sanding and it's ready for the mosaic tiles!

I found this really cool stamp at JoAnn's that says "Life is art.  Paint your dreams... Sing your songs... Enjoy the dance."  This just spoke to me so I decided to use is for the challenge piece.  This piece is much larger than the ones that I've worked on in the past - measuring 9 inches tall by 6 inches wide.  The warm brown frame around the piece finishes it nicely and ties in with the color used for antiquing the tiles. 

I found that I really enjoy working on the larger pieces so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these listed in my Etsy shop. I'm also working on the tutorial for my method so keep watching for that.  I'm getting close....

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Fun with Mosaics

I've been working on a series of mosaics this spring and have come up with some interesting designs.  This particular design is one of my favorite.  I found this cross shape in the vacation bible school section at my local Hobby Lobby and thought it might be a good base for the mosaics.  What do y'all think?

I'm  thinking about writing a tutorial for my method of creating the tiles and assembling them.  I call this finger painting mosaics and would love to share the way I create them.