Posts from the ‘Mosaic’ Category
A commissioned birthday treat trivet for a fan of Scottish Colourists, this is 10″ x 10″ stained glass on board with a slightly blue grout. It’s homage to this beautiful (record breaking apparently) still life by Peploe and I have to say the style with the heavy outlines and flat plain approach lends itself to mosaic. What a pleasure to absorb the elements of a Peploe still life, the vase, the tulips, the fruit and the lovely colours of course. I love a commission for someone who knows what they like, it’s a challenge and always a pleasure to have a place to start. Here it is in a different light.
Nearly called this one the colour blindness test trivet. There’s a message in that trivet…look closely, or maybe look further awayly….it’s a date, 14.7.12, the wedding date of its owners. No more help. It’s all round cut stained glass, on a board that’s 6″ x 12″ and looks different in different light of course, so here’s another picture.
Items for Sale
This is an experiment. I wanted to see what I could make in a day, (long day, more like two days in fact) to keep the price of a handmade mosaic to the minimum, without compromising on the quality, look or merit of the work. So I made these in what amounts to a long day, and I think they look pretty smart. They are 6″ x 6″, enough for a hot pan, and I was hoping had a sort of retro 50s look to them. They are cut from the same mixture of glass, but each is unique.
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.
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