Glue Boogers and Cat Hair

I'm going to take a moment in this blog to explain some mosaic terms I've been omitting so if I use those terms in the future, you'll know what I mean. Everything but the "sand" in my first project is stained glass. The weird tiles with the lines carved into them were called vitreous glass tiles or tesserae. They are Italian made even though the ones I buy seem to come from San Francisco, CA.

In the checkers board I used a coffee mug and in my current project I'm using a plate. While you may think that they are just mere coffee mugs and plates, they are actually called pique assiette (or picassiette). The term was created in 1938 after some French guy named Raymond Isadore who covered his entire home in pique assiette. His neighbors hated him and the eye sore he was creating so they called him "le Pique Assiette!" which means "plate stealer!" Obviously the term is now used for the plates, coffee mugs and other found glass so non-French speakers can sound intelligent when discussing mosaics.

This is where I began my project early yesterday. As you can see, I already cut out the flowers and I was getting ready to chop up more pieces to fit in around the flower on the top of the keepsake box. The wheel cutters are still a part of this process. The glue I'm using is called WeldBond. It's like Elmer's Glue but stronger. Much stronger. Glue-your-own-fingers-together stronger. It dries very quickly.

Emma helped. She watched the entire process. She liked the part where I cut the plate inside the plastic tub. She could see the pieces fly all over and she would sometimes lunge at the outside of the tub. I guess it must have been a slow day for birds flying into the window yesterday.

She was very cute. I don't think she left me all day. Next time, however, I'm putting a hairnet on her tail. She was always trying to stick it in my way.

And here is the finished product. Finished but not grouted. I'll do that in the next few days. I'll blog the process of that too.

Overall, there are things I would do differently. This plate was hard to bust apart. It didn't cooperate quite the way I would have liked. And plate rims are a bitch try and cut out. I hope I didn't ruin the wheel cutter. Those are expensive along with everything else attached to this hobbie.

The one thing that I found working too well was the gluing process. I'll have to remember for the next time that the strongest adhesive agent around is glue boogers and cat hair. This entire project would not have been made possible without it.

Until next time, "MLAAAAAAAAGH!

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!"