Working Alone - but wait! Here come a few more.

I was working all alone on Wednesday morning. Rather nice for a while. But it got kind of lonely in the studio so I took a break and wandered upstairs to the office.

I was in search of a cookie or something. Sue took pity on me and offered a nut bar with DARK CHOCOLATE. Mmmmmmm. That hit the spot.

Plus, there were people to talk with.

Just five minutes of socializing took care of my loneliness

so back to the studio with Dennis N. next to me....

....(since I made him agree to come and take a look at the project).

Dennis had some good advice for parts of the job. Thanks Denny.

 

I worked on my wave.

Auditioned a green for the end wave. That looked fine.

So that got put in.

A Lucite tile made in another workshop got added to the light blue wave and a fishy got it's audition on the left.

  Finished the panel with two fish jumping into the waves, some Arizona beads here and there. And Wah-Lah!

Then Helen came in. Yay! And Ann. 

Then Sarah sauntered in. 

 Sarah finished another panel.

Everyone was making waves.

Helen made use of some of the gorgeous rocks from Sandra T in this wave panel.

And here are a couple other finished panels.

 

It was a good day in the mosaic studio.  

 

 

A Cat Named Lewis

Sarah G and I worked alone on Tuesday.

Sarah decided that the garden needed a cat to bask in the flower garden.

So first she found a calendar picture of a cat and scaled it down to a size

that would fit in the children's flower garden.

After sketching it out and layering on to the cardboard with plastic and mesh, 

 she began to do the mosaic work.

See? The ears his little nose are made of stones donated by Sandra T., H.T. librarian.

 The eyes are two beads from Mount Lemmon, Arizona that were cracked in half.

What you see are the insides of said beads 

since they were set with the half hole forward.

The whiskers are made of mirror cuts.

Lewis the Cat turned out to be so cuuuuuute!

 Nice job, Sarah.

 

It was a good day in the mosaic studio.

Artwork is "stacking up"!!!

MY OH MY!

The mosaic panels are stacking up on the shelves.

Now we just have to keep them in order!

There IS a system... Each panel is part of a section of water or flowers. They are numbered and lettered so when the time comes, we'll know where they go.

 

We had the pleasure of having a young visitor today.

Betsy S. is working on a water panel

and she brought her granddaughter, Ayla

Ayla spent time patiently cleaning the burnt and dirty beads

with water and a strong Dawn.

Ayla also had time to make some pretty mosaic tulips for the children's flower garden.

Here are the beads drying on a towel.

They sure show off their colors when the soot and dirt are washed off from them.

Jane is making waves....

And they look so pretty. She claims not to be an artist - she sure was fooled there!

Pam came in for a quick visit.  

 

  You can watch for Sarah's whale Herman as he arcs into the waves .

 

Another find I discovered on our trip to Arizona were these adorable shaped tiles.  Take a good look because you will be able to search for them when they are hidden in the mosaic pieces.

 

Like this...

 

  

...and like this.

Can't see it? Look closer.

It's a rattle snake!

 

It was a good day in the mosaic studio today.... and yesterday.

Bruised and Beautiful Glass Beads

I'm so excited!
Today Rob and I went up to the top (well almost the top) of Mount Lemmon outside of Tucson, Arizona and visited a little gift shop there. It's called The Living Rainbow, Inc. owned and operated by "my new best friend" Debbie Fagan.  Gift shop site: http://thelivingrainbow.com/

Debbie used to have a bead shop on the same spot as her current gift shop with thousands and thousands of glass beads .
In 2003, there was a great fire on the mountain that destroyed over 300 homes and shops including Debbie's bead shop.
The place was a disaster. The beads were all broken, burned and melted - some into clumps with each other and many were visible in the rubble.

Debbie loved her beads and began to collect them up one by one, storing them in plastic tubs and anything else she could find. Remember - there were THOUSANDS of them. It was a monumental task but she wouldn't let reconstruction begin until she had found all that she could. The lovely, new gift shop has now been rebuilt and Debbie lives on site.

She has discovered that the voles have been burrowing in the back of the structure. There are STILL some beads that have worked their way down into the ground and apparently the voles don't like to have the beads in their habitat. So as they encounter a bead in their digging, they bring it up and toss it onto a nearby rock. The voles are now her "new best friends".

Debbie showed me some framed photos of the burned rubble. I asked her about the little cement sidewalk out front that has some broken beads pressed into it. Did they pop out with freezing and thaw? What kind of cement was used? Did she leave the mosaic bench out all winter? What happed to it with the freeze and thaw? All the time I'm thinking about the Rain Garden Mosaic waterway bed. Could this work for us?

THEN she said she gives away containers of beads to people that show and interest. Would I like some? WOULD I?!!!!!
She went behind and brought out two pint containers of the wounded and beautiful beads for me. We talked some more and out came two more larger containers of those gorgeous, colorful beads. I cried.

They are going to be used in the Rain Garden Mosaic. The beads will need some cleaning and volunteers are welcome for that task.
Just think, you could touch each and every one of them!

Here's a photo of about half of them:

I'm hoping to get to a tile place before leaving Arizona - maybe find some tile remnants that can be used in our project.

 

It was a good day in Tucson today.

Our Radio is Giving Out! Oh Noooooo!

Today was a good day in the Mosaic Studio.
We got lots of work done on the water panels.
I took lots of photos to show you who came in.

But first:
We enjoy our little old clock radio music - we try to satisfy everyone's taste, and it all seems to work out just fine.
HOWEVER......
The radio is threatening to give out. It's balking at playing for any length of time. Then we have to go and hit it a few times so it comes back on.
Does anyone have an old radio they could lend us or give us? We'd be ever so grateful.

Wow! Looka all those worker-bees!

 

 Helen works on her panel in the afternoons - after she finishes her other volunteer job at the food shelves.

.

Sarah was pleased with her panel..,,,

.......and  we can see why. It's beautiful!

Betsy came again.

She's one of my fiber artist friends. She also came in last week to help put patterns onto cardboard, cover them with plastic and then the mesh. It's a job! and it's easier to do with two people.

Jane enjoys her lunch hour visits.

Linda McM came in as a newby and is hooked on mosaics after one visit!

 Cori and Anne came in as they faithfully do every week.

We appreciate their work and it is turning out beautifully.

 

It was a good day in the Mosaic Studio.

Whew!!!!

When two people each create a panel that will eventually fit side by side,

we are careful to use colors that will match up at the seam..

So, today we laid two panels together

and they matched up very nicely! Whew!!!!!!!!!

As each panel gets completed, we leave them on the shelf to wait for warm weather

so they can be attached to the sides of the trough in the rain garden.