This is a glass mosaic wall plaque for outside, too big to be on a table really at 14″ diameter. It’s for my Dad who is 75 today, and by trade a geologist. Ammonites look lovely as fossils, well they are only fossils now as they are extinct poor dears, but millions of years ago there were more than millions of them swilling around in the sea, so now they are dead common as fossils. They were cephalopods, which means both head and feet stick out of the same place, and are quite like modern day Nautiluses. This is a picture of a living one. Anyway, well done to them, they have achieved immortality in every fossil shop you ever go in. It’s a rainy rainy day here – so the picture looks a bit dull, and the round cut sea bubbles around the creature are more blue green in real life – I’ll take another picture when it’s hung on a sunny day.
Happy Birthday Dad!
I’ve learned how to cut glass, properly. I couldn’t understand how it was done before, I watched loads of YouTube videos on how to cut glass, “you just make a fluid motion with your cutter, hear the lovely crunchy sound, tap tap and da dah!” (Perfect curved piece of glass flops onto tabletop.) Well, this time the birthday present brief was, bright colours, flowers maybe, and straight lines. So I had to just perfect the art of cutting glass, I couldn’t get away with nibbling it with my usual mosaic nippers. I persevered, put some nice oil into the glass cutter, and finally understand the crunchy sound – you have to press harder than I was doing, fundamentally. So here we are, a piece with lots of straight lines, made mostly with my favourite thing, different green glasses – it’s 12″ x 12″.
A birthday gift, 12 x 12″ glass mosaic. The brief was ‘something art deco and the recipient likes those ladies you see on 1920s posters’. So interesting brief and I like a bit of deco myself. I’ve never attempted faces on a mosaic before and I didn’t know how they’d turn out. I used Egyptian jewellery colours, since art deco went hand in hand with the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. I visited Egypt for a holiday in 2009, and got well into the ancient Egyptian archaeology – really weird, beautiful and absorbing. There was one ancient funerary building at Saqqara that was 5 thousand years old or so, that looked like a 1930’s film set, so art deco was it – scroll down this wiki page, small image of walls right hand side and go on holiday there – it’s amazing.
This one makes me think of a groovy 60’s Italian trattoria, I’d love to do a whole table top. This is 6″ x 6″ and all glass tiles cut into quarters.
The couple this was commissioned for, as long as they keep their trivet on the table or by the stove, should never forget their anniversary. K and J got married on the 31st March 2012, and yes, you’ve guessed, they are both keen sailors. This is 10″ x 10″ and made from stained glass. Here it is in another light, some of the glass is iridescent.
Didn’t know if this would work, but it’s rather attractive, and since shattered safety glass comes from skips, it’s a good find. It’s very thick though so I had to fill up the space under the mirror glass in order for the surface to be smooth. Good experiment though, I’ll do this again.
In 2005 my good friend Anne left London to go back to Scotland with her big bump to start a new phase of life as a mum. As a consequence of this move I was the recipient of a load of stained glass, a whole shelf full. I don’t know why it’s taken me um…7 years to make a mosaic out some of it, but as I was thinking of making a mosaic for my neighbour Mary for her birthday, and Mary’s a blue glass fan…anyway – I’m rambling. I love the colours, and I love the shapes that are bigger than you can get with glass tiles, I love everything. I will be making more pieces with glass, and popping over to a glass shop ASAP for some more colours to add to the mix. I’m excited.
PS spot the four fish.
Glass mosaic of a leaf, inspiration below. As with other iridescent mosaics it looks completly different in different lights, so here’s two versions anyway. It was a challenging subject, the leaf was a beautiful colour, and very intricate and subtle. I had to use sixths of a tile to feel like I’d got the scale right, so it looks fairly randomly organised. I bought some yacht varnish for the back as it’s going to be hung up outside. I explained to the man in the sailing fandangle shop that I didn’t have a yacht, I think that may have been unnecessary on reflection.
A trivet present for my good friend, a keen cook, for her kitchen which has a kinda snazzy pink and silver wallpaper. This mosaic is 10″ x 10″, bound in lead strip and made from small pink tiles and broken mirror. Here’s what’s so great about mirror, it looks different every time you look at it.
I was asked to design something for a front door that was sadly lacking in the stained glass department. I didn’t make this stained glass, I don’t have the skills for that, but I did make a design drawing for the stained glass people and look what a great job they made of it.
kawportfolio 