Plate Challenge 2007!

I started a new mosaic project so I thought I'd show off the "the plate challenge" since my project involves breaking a plate. I'll be using pieces of a broken plate on top of a keepsake box. I found a nice plate at the local SPCA Thrift Shop and I thought it's flowery design would look cute on top of the box.

It's not neccessary that the flowers on the inside of the plate remain intact but the challenge requires that the design on the inside doesn't get broken. I was taught this game in my mosaic class when our teacher had us draw a heart with permenent marker on the center of the plate. The goal was merely to remove the outer rim and keep the heart together. On my second cut with the wheel cutters, I broke my heart. I had no other plates to practice on so I had to leave my sorry failure on the table for all to see. It was shameful.

Not long after I started buying plates but I was nervous to try the challenge again. When I felt I had a plate that didn't mind trying the challenge on, I did and again, same results. I broke my heart on the second try.

I used my digital camera this morning to show my third try. Here's a picture of the plate, the wheel cutters and the safety glasses I needed to wear:

And there's my finger also!

I placed everything in the plastic tub because when you cut into plates, glass goes everywhere. This type of glass in unpredictable. My teacher also taught us that after working on a project like this, your skin will become very zitty. This is because those tiny little glass shards that you can't see get into your skin and voila! Pimples! I still laugh at her story that when her husband saw her a few days after she completed her project he looked at her face and said, "Jesus, Wendy! What the hell happened to you?" I don't have a husband but I have looked in the mirror and said the same thing only without the Wendy part. Since taking on this hobbie, Aveeno has become my friend.

Here I am cutting. Well, not really. I 'm just setting up the shot. You can tell because I'm totally not wearing those nifty goggles.

For the challenge, I'll be using both hands and really gripping those wheel cutters hard. As you can see, I have little puny hands.

Also, I'll be cutting into the plate, not at an angle. Cutting into the plate seemed to be the method the successful people in my class used. Of course, I used that method too and broke my heart twice.

Here goes my first cut:

And crap. I failed. Again. I'm not bitter. Not at all.

That's it for Plate Challenge 2007 then. See you all in 2008 or whenever I find another plate to break. Until then I'll be showing updates on this project through out the blog.

I'm gonna go away and cuss now.

She-Devils and Garden Checkers

No, I didn't make the above mosaic but isn't it cool? I wonder who she is according to Jack Chick's demonology. This piece was made by John T. Unger.

My mosaics aren't this interesting yet but I hope one day to make a mosaic of something with giant naughty bits so I can display it in my garden.

Speaking of gardens, my second mosaic was entirely an experiment. I made it in the same class where I made the tea tray. It's a checkers board with a garden theme:

The picture is very grainy but what I did was use a coffee mug with a flower design on it and some basic stained glass squares that I bought from Michael's. The oval piece of wood came from Wal-Mart just like the tea tray did. I'm sure it was intended for some lame wood burning craft project but I saved it and made it quite lovely.

And yes. I know what you're thinking. The checker squares aren't the right dimensions. I was worried about that when I started so I tried playing checkers on it and it worked. The game is a little more unpredictable although it is short. That's okay. Like I said, this piece was experimental. Breaking apart the coffee mug was my challenge and I liked the way it came out. I tried to eliminate the curve in the cup as much as possible and keep the flower pieces together. At the top of the mosaic you can see the yellow pieces which are all part of a single flower I tried to keep.

To keep with the theme, I bought some pre-made mosaic tiles at Michael's that fit this checker board nicely:

As you can see, the ladybugs have formed a trifecta opposition stance to take on the butterfly/leaf alliance. If the game wasn't interesting before, it should be now!

Mosaics and Cat Butts

Welcome to my first blog ever. Yay me!

Some of you know me as Rimmi from Holeee Cow. I know, I'm a big celebrity from that blog but please, hold you fan mail. I'm new to blogs so too much attention may scare me and I might run away.

I started this blog because all my online friends have blogs so it's my turn. Like Lita and wurwolf, I've decided to blog my craftiness. I like to make mosaics and stained glass decorations but I'm very new to this. I consider myself a beginner so I can show you my work so far and all the pieces that go into it. That way I can totally stretch out my blog and not blow it all in one silly post.

I'm also very new to digital cameras. Sorry for the grainy picture. Enjoy my first work in mosaics:

This is a tea tray that I bought from Wal-Mart. I brought it to my first class on mosaics because I figured it would be the easist thing to mosaic and also the easiest thing to transport. The other ladies in the class were using tables and bowling balls. You'd think that on a first project you'd go the easy route like I did but no. Lugging tables and bowling balls into class made every bit of sense to them until week three when they realized just how stupid that really was and then they lost all their love for the craft.

That having been said, the bowling balls didn't look too bad once they were finished. Grouting was kind to the sphere shape and when the balls were placed in terra cotta pots, they looked great for gardens. It was Martha Stewarty without the big bucks.

My peice here is obviously a fishy in the water. I'm not great with my biology so I'm not sure what type of fish, nor can I tell you what body of water it's in. I guess since it's mine and I can say whatever I want, it's the ocean.

I was experimenting with colors, textures, patterns and using the tools involved. I think it turned out well for a first try but I still feel compelled to poin out the things I wish I'd done differently. The orange fish has purple fins and the purple fins on top are hard to see because I chose a similar color for the ocean so it all blends together. I should have made sure the ocean blue tiles were a little lighter in color around the top fins. My other mistake, I guess, is all in the eye of the beholder. I consider it a mistake because I really didn't know at the time but the brown/tan tiles at the bottom that are supposed to be sand are backwards. I bought them at Michael's craft store around the fourth week of my class and thought they'd look good as sand. They are smooth on one side and have lines carved into the other. I glued the smooth side and left the lines on top. I thought it looked more sandy but the instructor told me the lines were supposed to hold the glue better. I totally lied and said I did that on purpose for texture. She was impressed with my brilliance and that was that.

On the other hand, let me talk about what I did right. I love the circles I was able to cut for the sun and the bubbles. I didn't have a glass grinder so I used a wheel cutter. In a future blog I'll discuss wheel cutters. For a beginner, I think I did a damn fine job. Some thing with the curving of the seaweed. That was half wheel cutter and glass scorer. So was the tail. I'm so happy with the shape of the tail. I tried the same thing on the mouth that I used for the tail only in reverse but instead the mouth look like a beak. But! It's a parrot fish. That's it! A parrot fish! My mosaic. I'll interpret it how ever I choose. So there.

I'm quite proud of this tea tray. So much that I'd rather display it than use it. One spill on this thing and I'd have to kill someone. On my shelf it goes.

Speaking of shelves, I was using a nice, sunny shelf to take the picture of this tray. Here we come to the cat butt portion of this blog. My kitty, Emma, decided she needed to get into the picture as I was taking it. I'll spare you the pictures of her ass and my fingers and show you a nice shot of her:

Note how she only has eye whiskers on one side. She came to us that way so don't ask me why she's like that.


This concludes my first post on my mosaics. Until next time. "MLAAAAAAAAGH!"