My crab

And with the last blue pieces of glass glued and the grout mixed and applied the 7 week project is now finish.

It took 14 hours (2 hours per week) so the 7 weeks just seem long.

As you can see in the image, in the lower part of the background (the dark blue) I used very small pieces and in the upper part (light blue) I used bigger pieces. If any critics ask, it was intentional. But between us, it's a mistake, the lower part should have had the same large glass pieces as the upper part. I got carried away cutting, I don't know what happened.

Thanks for following and stay tuned for more! I got more glass and a glass cutter for my birthday so there is more to come! :D Special thanks to sweetheart, Ana, and Katie.

*Drawing by Katie Sabry (C)

Another Wednesday at the Workshop

Hi everyone, I'm making progress :D

Today I finished with the crab, I only had the claws left which I finished rather quickly.

And I went on to the background. I'll do a combination of blues and purples and greens to try and imitate the sea waves and colors. Katie was a great help pointing out the proper shapes to cut the tiles so they look more wave-like.

The basic idea is to cut in a small angle so that you get these long pointy curly shapes. Actually, the correct adjective is wavy I think. :-)

I can't wait to go back next week, this part of combining shades and similar colors offers a wide range of possibilities and leaves room for improvisation. Hope you're passively enjoying this at least half as much as I am.

From Katie's workshop

I haven't written anything in a while and not because I haven't been doing anything, but because I was too lazy to bring my camera to Katie's workshop every Wednesday for the past month.


I learned a lot, more than I can write here, more than I can simply put into words like a 5 step program. As I expected, having Katie there helped me see better what I am doing, gave me perspective as well as tips and ticks. I'll share some of the practical aspects and leave the rest out, you have to experience it for yourself to know what I mean.

1. First and foremost I was very surprised to find out that nippers with metal discs are much easier to use. I need to get me some of those :-)

2. When filling negative space it looks better if you create patters even if you use the same color (eg the red spirals on the crab). If you look at my previous mosaics, the spaces filled with tiles of the same color are very chaotic spaces, and not in the on purpose kind of way, but more in the what am I doing way... :-)


3. Glass comes in a much larger variety of shades and colors and it is much more diverse than I imagined. Not to mention it goes perfectly with a sea theme.


4. It's nice to let imagination run it's course while you're making the mosaic, but it's also important to have a clear idea of what you want it to look like (at least generally). And I say this because I have the habit of rushing into things and I had to rip off some tiles with a screw driver at some point. Ops...


5. And though I thought I would never say this, working in a group is really fun and creative :-)

Stay tuned for finishing touches, I'll try to make it worth the wait. :P

*Drawing by Katie Sabry (C)

Mosaic Workshop in Limassol

Hi everyone,

Pass the word around, there are still some available spots in Katie Sabry's Mosaic Workshop.



"Now added another day/time for those of you at work or school in the mornings. The classes will be on Fridays from 17.00 - 19.00. Start date June 3rd. Couple of places still available on Wednesday mornings. Katie"

2nd project: Home sweet home (Part 3)

It's done! All grouted and everything!

I have to tell you I made a test first combining black and white to get a gray. Here it is:



At a close up you can see the difference between this gray grout and the white one I used before:



This is the final result:



Thanks for watching and stay tuned, I started a new project! :-D

2nd project: Home sweet home (Part 2)

First of all I need to thank my sweetie for his generous donation: the air pump I needed! It really helped.



There wasn't much to report during this project, it was very similar to the first one. Lots of circles and difficult pieces to cut and this time since the project was larger in dimension I had time to practice more.

I ran out of white tiles last week, I didn't plan them too well. Good thing the DIY shop is close by so I could just run out and get some more! Other than that 2 notes:

Note to self 1: Very small pieces to fill spaces I left by mistake... not very aesthetic.



Note to self 2: The large spaces I left between tiles in some places may not be that aesthetic either.



Good thing you don't notice these thing from a far distance. :D I will apply the grout today. I'll make a combination of white and black to get a gray that I think will look better than in the previous project. Wish me luck!

2nd project: Home sweet home (Part 1)

So the first project had its ups and downs and I am still a little upset about the whole grout thing (that the white grout did not go too well where I had those black tiles) and painting over it did not turn out to be the best solution. This time I will try another method that I will describe in a later post.

***

The second project, "Home sweet home" is, as the titles already gave away, a decorative plaque like the ones I used to see in cartoons when I was little. I came up with the idea when I saw the wooden base in the store.

In order to make the big letters neat and tidy I could have used an image from the Internet and print it like I did for the previous. But because I don't have a printer and my sweetie is on holiday (no abusing the printer at the office this week) I used the following technique that will help in the future too:

1. Divide the base into smaller rectangles according to where the writing will go and how large you want it



2. Decide what type of letter you want to use



3. Count how many letters you have in a certain word and divide the space you have for that word into equal rectangles (eg: home has 4 letters so I made 4 rectangles of 8cm x 10cm and drew the letters to fill, this way all letters are of similar size)



4. Use copying paper to transfer the writing onto the base, or if you don't have copying paper (I didn't) you can cut out the letters and stick them to the base with double sided tape and draw the outline. I used the double sided tape to make sure I the letters don't move out of place and make the writing crooked.


And now, on with the million little tiles!