Gah! There’s MORE?!?!

I was so content – I had accomplished a certain amount of organization and was inordinately pleased with myself.  I needed a way to store and organize bits of stained glass that had been cut from sheets.  I spent the morning searching for a storage system, and found a 39 drawer storage cabinet (to add to the 22 drawer cabinet I already had) and spent the afternoon filling it up, and gluing a small bit of the glass to the fronts of the drawers.

I have exactly 4 drawers to spare and those are all larger ones.  Not much room for expansion, but it’s a good start.

The sheets and larger leftover bits are (and have been all along) stored in plastic milk crates set on their sides.

For about 4 years I have been taking all those small bits and storing them in plastic cups, stacked in a small, antique wooden chocolate box on top of the milk crates.  The stacks had begun to look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

So while writing this blog post I thought “I should take a picture of the milk crates and the now empty wooden box”. 

And much to my dismay, I THEN noticed the brown plastic grocery sack by the wooden box.  Guess what’s in it?  GAH.

 

In case you wondered, that’s oregano drying in bundles hanging from that shelf.  I’m not very organized with herb storage either.

But I reached a good point in the current mosaic – so here’s the most recent picture:

Have a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: storage,stained glass,mosaic,wine,pear,fabric folds

Only one challenge at a time, you say? Pfft.

I have started a new piece now that the petal is done for the Unfurled Mosaic Mural.  At 12” x 16” it’s not a very big piece, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to tackle some challenges in representing things that I have always been intimidated by.  Why did I have to put them all in the same piece, you ask?    ~shrug~    I dunno.

There are so many places where this could go wrong. 

Still life has never been something I was compelled to try.  Love to look at ones that are well done, but never felt like I had the eye for good composition…….challenge #1.

I have never tried to represent glassware…….challenge #2.

Oh what the hell, let’s throw in some fabric folds, shall we?……..challenge #3.

So I set up the still life with a piece of fabric, a glass of wine and a pear.  I considered that I might need a third object, but every attempt at working with three objects was awkward and unwieldy.  I decided I couldn’t handle three objects liked the two.

I had a table lamp on in the background and loved the look of the diffused light, particularly the hourglass shape that the shade threw on the wall.  I took two photos, one without flash because the light pattern was best that way, and one with, to be able to see the coloration of the pear. 

I will combine the two photos, but the background behind the wineglass will be abstracted, as in Morning Has Broken.  I obviously have to take some liberties with shadows and highlights since I’m working from two photos where that is more or less the only difference.  Here’s what I have so far:

The lighting is funky in the studio today for some reason.

Technorati Tags: glass,challenges,wine,glassware,still life,mosaic

FINALLY!!!

I was beginning to think it would never happen.  But I did it – I finished the top of the folk art table on my patio.  ~sort of~

I haven’t grouted it yet.  I need to let the thinset dry overnight, but I can’t even begin to tell you what a relief it is to have that silly thing done.  I think part of the reason is because I was making just for me, and I always felt that if I had the time to spend on a mosaic, I should be working on one of the pieces that would go to a gallery.  Whatevs.

Grout soon – total finished pics to come!

 

P.S. – It only took 16 months to get this close to completion. Wanna take bets?

Technorati Tags: Folk Art,table,mosaic,ceramic

Unfurled mosaic mural beginnings

I mentioned on my Faceboook page the mosaic mural I’m participating in – Unfurled designed by Lin Schorr Mixed Media Mosaics – and I see that I never mentioned it here!  Huh.  I have tried so hard to pull myself together and get more organized about sharing information, but I have reverted to my scatterbrained ways. 

Anyway, here is the design Lin came up with, which is being divvied up among something like 50 artists.  The completed design will be 8’ tall by 13’ wide.

Currently, artists (myself included) are working on the section on the left.  I am assigned the flower petal on the far left.  The color scheme for the petals is to be pink/tangerine/yellow. 

Searching for inspiration, I kept coming back to look at the images I have collected over the years of the tulips, from centuries past and modern day, that have very pronounced striping.  I have been fascinated with the tulips that caused a major financial panic in Europe in the 1600s – as much for the bizarre behavior they inspired as for the flowers themselves.  Tulips were introduced to Europe in the century before, but in Holland an industry developed around their cultivation which produced a bubble like the dot com bubble or the housing bubble, although on an even more ridiculous scale!   

 

At the height of the mania, the Viceroy tulip at right apparently sold for 3,000 – 4,500 guilders.  A skilled craftsman, by contrast, only earned 300 guilders per year.   

 

I love these stripes,  but I was concerned about being too literal with the design.  In part because Lin has come up with an overall design that looks to me very Jacobean (click here to see some examples from the web), although the project information says it is Art-Nouveau inspired.  I can see that influence too.  Both are very stylized botanicals with lots of curves.  I wanted to be sure to incorporate lots of curviness because of that (and because I want to, dammit).  So here is the beginning of the petal:

And because of my fear of commitment, I have only very lightly sketched in a guide with pencil.  Many of the artists have added bold black marker guidelines to follow, but what if I change my mind?!?!?!  I tend to find that I like the finished piece better when it evolves organically anyway, so I’ll just let it flow and see what we end up with.

I plan to do the pinks first, then fill in with the yellow and oranges, but I couldn’t resist popping some in just to get a feel for how it would look.

Technorati Tags: Unfurled,mosaic mural,Lin Schorr Mixed Media Mosaics,petal,tulips,tulip mania,Art Nouveau,Jacobean

*Whew*

 

Thank goodness it worked out.  In fact, I like the new flower better than the other.

Now I’ll put this away until I get the flower petal for the public mosaic done (although I’m hung up on waiting for my smalti order at the moment). 

Then I have two more projects in the pipeline!  Oy.  Project management is another of my weaknesses.

Duh.

Well, sh%&. Now what?

 

Poor planning.  It’s what I do best.  Some folks are excellent cooks, some are great doctors, some are awesome singers.  I am unparalleled at flying by the seat of my pants.

And most of the time, to be honest, it trips me up somewhere along the line.  And here we are.

I was so excited when I wrote my last blog post, remember?  Things were going even better than I had hoped – the flower centers looked exactly as I wanted them to.  I loved the way they sat up above the surface of the petals.  Well everything was rainbows and lollipops until now:

 

I can’t have the center of the flower behind that petal sticking up higher than the petal.  Check out the other photo again, you’ll see what I mean. 

 

Can I cut the glass rods as short as the smalti on the petal that overlaps?  If I do can I set them in there neatly?  I don’t know……..

My other option would be to either omit that flower, or redraw it in a different spot.  This decision is going to require a glass of wine.  Or two.  Possibly three.

At any rate, tomorrow is the last day I’ll work on it for awhile anyway.  I need to get crackin’ on the flower petal I was assigned for the mosaic mural designed by Lin Schorr – Unfurled.  That project has a deadline, and this one doesn’t.  I would like to finish that last flower (or not, if I decide to omit it) and add the flower centers to the remaining ones before I shelve it.  Here’s where I am so far:

Above and to the right of the center flower is a seedhead that will also have the black glass rod center.

UPDATE: It only took 1/2 a glass of wine (damn!) to make the determination – flower has been erased and will be redrawn just slightly further away. 

Oh Boy!!!

 

It’s so exciting when something I attempt works out as well or better than I had hoped!  I’m diggin’ the flower centers. 

I used this technique once before on Farmer’s Market, so I guess it’s not as big a surprise as all that, but I like the way it looks even better on this piece than on the last.  I cut black glass rods approximately 3/8” to 1/2” long and embedded them upright in black tinted thinset.

And here’s a detail shot of the flower centers:

Technorati Tags: Bellafiore,black eyed susans,glass rods

Time for a change?

I know I’m really poking along on this piece.  I am having trouble getting myself into the studio, for no good reason that I can discern.  Maybe I just need a break.  Sounds lame, considering how much I’ve been out of town since the first of November.  Anyway, I’m happy enough with it so far, I think.

However, I may have to stop work on it and begin another.  Today I ran across a call to artists for an exhibit with the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA).  The title of the exhibit is “clothing optional”.  Since I don’t do figurative work, this seems like a strange exhibit to feel drawn to.  But my first thought when I read it was “She was just asking for it”. 

I have been increasingly alarmed over the Cro-Magnon rhetoric in the media over the last few years about women and their “place” in society, and what I consider the barbaric ways that social conservatives are trying to stuff women back into the box they came out of.  I consider all the comments concerning rape in the media over the last year or so a big part of this.  I’m not one to make social statements with my art, but on this one I feel compelled to try.  We’ll see what comes of it. 

Technorati Tags: glass,mosaic,floral,call to artists,NAWA

I don’t have time for this.

I’m getting rather cavalier about using my reference photo.  The colors are really not very much like the original, but I decided (subconsciously, I think) that the original photo had too much even color.  At the size I’m making it, it needs more variation or it won’t be very interesting. 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The photo is a detail shot – the total area is about twice what you see there, total size is 30” X 37”.  I’m going to try to finish this by April 1, although it’s not very likely.  My daughter will be here for a visit for most of March, and we will be spending a week or so travelling to Florida for a memorial service for my father-in-law. 

Meanwhile, I’m trying to organize what needs to be shifted in galleries, and trying to balance keeping fresh work in the galleries with having new pieces to enter into exhibits. 

This is too hard for me……

Technorati Tags: floral,mosaic,exhibits

Another doh! moment

 

Wow.  What a difficult thing it has been to get back to work in the studio after the holidays!  In part, because the two things that I have started are crap.  They might be saved, somehow, someday.  But as they stand I hate them.  Not hate….intensely dislike?  Whatever.

Today I started on a large project that I prepped ages ago.  In fact, I was trying to remember exactly how long it had been.  And I can’t.  That’s how long it was.  At least 2 years, maybe 2 1/2.

I have been staring at it crosswise for a couple of weeks now, trying to decide whether the time was ripe to give it a go.  I have been especially hesitant because of the two projects I mentioned above – gives the old confidence a kick in the ribs to have two projects going at once, and both of them rubbish.  So maybe I should wait?

I decided that maybe what I needed was to jump in.  So I end up with a third lemon, so what?  What’s one more?

Anyway, I placed a couple of orders, but I CAN’T WAIT.  I know I’ve told you many times that patience hates me.  So I started with what I had on hand.

 

 

Aaanndd…… dummy.  I should have waited, because I put some glass in that was definitely too dark.  That will have to come out and be replaced when the orders come in.  How old do you have to be to learn this damn lesson?!?

 

 

 

 

The photo I’m working from was taken several years ago in my gardens in New Hampshire.  I think it’s the coolest photo because I have no idea how the colors came out like they did.  This photo is unretouched:

 

These rudbeckias were in the shade of the house, but the sun was still high in the sky when I took the pic.  I have no idea why the green foliage turned out blue, but I loved it.  I used this as my logo for my garden design business Bellafiore Gardens.

 

 

Technorati Tags: rudbeckias,Bellafiore Gardens,mosaic,glass