Creating Art And Friendship.

Here's my quilter friend and artist Betsy designing a piece of the mosaic

that includes a little squirrel and a red headed woodpecker.
 

My quilter friend and artist Sarah put tiles to the little squirrel
and red headed woodpecker that Betsy drew for her.
Now Betsy can work on the rest of the panel

Here's a closer look:

 And this is how they are fitting into the panel.

Betsy is trying out some green tile to represent moss

on the north side of the tree but just isn't sure if it's working.

That's how we roll - we try something and if it works, we leave it.

If it doesn't work, we pull it off and try something else.

 

Sarah has started on another piece that includes morning glories,

a rabbit and a cabbage patch.

How in the world do you make a cabbage patch?!!!!

I guess we'll find out next week.

 

Swoosh goes the red winged blackbird

by artist, Ann N.

Ann has managed to make the air look like it's moving around.

And the daffodils are looking like they need to be picked!

Pretty.

 

Artist Cori has made the star of one of the panels

A fishing boat!!! With silhouetted fishing people!!!

To me this looks sort of Antoni Gaudi-esk with the great color.

Now we just have to figure out a name for the boat.

 

 Elizabeth Taylor has changed her eye color.
Guess she's not E.T. any more.
Looks more like Barney Google with a yellow flower. Boy those eyes shine!

Here's how those eyes glow in the panel.

I'm trying for a little sunset. Hope it works.

Oh, wait.

Those are yet a previous try at the eyes.

Next week will hopefully show a finished panel

with little Miss Google Eyes.

 

NOW Betsy's panel is finished.

She's put in the last touch - a white daffodil. Yay.

Artist Helen's panel is getting more and more complete.

She has some pretty nice air flow going on in the sky.

She used white stones from Sandra T's parents collection.

Notice the center of the white lily; it's using a patterned tile.

 Sarah's panel now has sky and is complete.
Frisky the Squirrel is seemingly loving the climb.

 And at the end of the day, we're making friends.

 It's been a good week in the Mosaic Studio.

Something To Learn In 5 Minutes and 45 Seconds

Ann N found a little video about making a little mosaic. It's pretty fun to watch and only takes 3 minutes and 52 seconds!
Click the following link. Easy Squeezy.
http://blogs.mprnews.org/state-of-the-arts/2009/07/how-to-make-a-mosaic/

There's another little mosaic video on the Mosaic On A Stick - a mosaic shop on Snelling and Lafond in St. Paul. This one takes 1 minute and 53 seconds.
Again - click the link below.
http://www.mosaiconastick.com/

Hope you enjoy your 5 minutes and 45 seconds of education!!!

TA DAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our granddaughter Cepeda helped with the egret panel by gluing in the last of the sky and the green bank behind. It was so great to have her in the mosaic studio lending her wonderful and artful skills. Our other granddaughter Frankie (in the back behind Ann) busied herself organizing and creating on her own. Such talent!!!

And TA DAHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Introducing Miss Charlotte Elizabeth, egret extraordinaire.

  Ann N. is shown here working on a very detailed panel of flowers.

Notice all the tiny, tiny pieces.

Also, notice part of the air flow in the white tile - see it?

It's a handle from a white mug!!! Clever girl.

And TA DAHHHHHH!!!!!!

The finished product! Amazing kaleidoscope of color and design.

Ann used beads, tile, parts of a mug and glass buttons to make her art piece.

 Betsy made a "jillion" cuts to make insect legs and dots and feelers

and chose leaf and sky colors to accentuate these wonderful critters. 

And TA DAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Only one little lily to finish so it matches up with the panel next to it.

Sarah spent last week end thinking about her panel of birch trees.

It needed a squirrel!

So Tuesday came and Sarah asked Betsy to design a squirrel for her to mosaic.

Sarah used some round tiles and other bits of tile for the body and bushy tail.

The eye is a bead that she cut to piece in. Wow! It really worked!

Isn't he cute?!!! His name is Frisky after a childhood pet squirrel of Ann's.

 And TA DAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Here's Frisky climbing in the birch forest.

He's soooooo happy to be here -

and Sarah is very pleased to introduce him to the mosaic.

Never let it be said that those in mosaic studio only do mosaic.

Sarah brought "Show and Tell" the other day.

These are 2 1/2 inch squares sewn together to make a beautiful quilt top.

Kind of looks like a mosaic!!  Nice work, Sarah.

 

I made a little frog out of pottery from Ann.

Ribbitt.

 

Can you find him in the panel below?

Anyway. The frog has been getting various eyes - they keep changing.

First they were purple (as above) and she became Elizabeth Taylor.

Then they were something else but they weren't showing up very well.

In the panel below, they are something else again,

but they're not showing up very well.

Must find frog eyes before too long; this critter needs to see! 

Story to be continued

 

I'm trying to make this panel look like the sun is setting.

It will be at the far western end of the trough and is next to  the egret. 

 Ann made a red winged black bird to go in a panel she is about to work on.

The colors vary to bring out the beauty of this bird - to give it depth.

Notice the beak, the eye and the feathered look of the wings.

When the glue is dried, she will cut it out and place it on the proper panel.

 Ann N. the artist.

Helen manages to make flowers look so elegant

with much shading, cutting and color choice.

Kind of makes you want to go and pick a bouquet!

The hummingbird was made by Helen a few weeks ago on a separate piece.

After the glue had dried,

she carefully cut it out and placed it on the panel where it belonged.

It's a process that we've figured out for various intricate birds, animals and critters.

It seems to work well.

 It's been a good week in the mosaic studio.



Full Speed Ahead

There were seven artists working on Tuesday.

(a couple less on Wednesday)

In the back: Helen, Ann N. and Cori.

Front table: Kathleen and Sarah.

Betsy and I were working at the other end of the studio.

Kathleen's pumpkin patch is growing!!! This is part of Betsy's design.

 Here's a close-up.

Don't those stems look tough and sturdy like the real ones?!!!!

She used some of the broken pottery that Ann N. brought in.

Nice work, Kathleen.

 Cori flashed a smile by the work she's doing on the water and pond plants.

Here's a better look at her piece:

Ann N. discovered a clever way to make leaves for her detailed flora.

Can you find her invention?

Pretty cool and funky.

Design basic by Greta McLain. Details added by Ann

Charlotte Elizabeth is almost done. Design by Sharon.

I'm working on putting movement of air in the sky using the same color tile.

Might work! We'll see. It's subliminal.....

Just an aside:

Once in a while we find a tile that fits absolutely perfectly in a spot that needs tile.

This time it was the "forehead" of the egret connected to the turn to the beak.

I found a piece was cut just right!  A gift. See it?

When this happens, we announce it to the rest and everyone cheers! Yayyy.

Ahhhh. Minnesota birch trees.

Sarah is starting to choose out tiles to make her birch look like - well, birch.

It's looking pretty good already, Sarah.

This is part of the panels designed by Betsy. She is working on this one.

Ewwwwww! Big black ants!!!! Wonder if they bite?!!!

Probably picnic ants. Yeah. That's it. Picnic ants.

They're fabulous, Betsy.

 Sarah finished this end panel

with lovely backgrounds for her bee balm and fantasy flowers.

The butterfly is swooping around the pretty blue sky.

See the "swoop lines?"

It was a good two days in the Mosaic Studio.

We all took Thursday off. 

A Little Field Trip To Art Scraps

So. I was driving home from a friend's house and

decided to check out Art Scraps on St. Clair in St. Paul

http://www.artstart.org/artscraps-reuse-store/

 see if they had any tiles for the Rain Garden Mosaic.

"Lucy" greeted me outside the door.

And so did this mosaic and painted picture!

Even better was this one showing the Mississippi River

and 18 insets of Minnesota wildlife.

Check out the various colors and placements.

 Now, wasn't that a fun little field trip?!!!

Oh, and I purchased about $8 worth of scrap tiles. Yay.

Some done, some not done.

Nice to have bee balm in our garden. Thanks Sarah!

It looks good with your butterfly and that other flower that we don't know what it is.

Maybe someone will tell us.

And Kathleen's pumpkin patch keeps growing......

Kathleen's sister Naomi came for a visit and helped a little with the pumpkin patch.

I think that included some cutting and nipping of tiles.

It sure isn't "sissy" work.

Charlotte Elizabeth had a pedicure and her toes are "painted" red.

AND she is tromping down the water plants with her dance.

The nerve!

 

Charlotte will fit in this larger panel.

She'll have the state flower and lily pads to the left and some cat tails on the right.

 

There is still much to do.

We've got birds, flowers, wind, sky, greenery and backgrounds to figure out.

Sometimes we "audition" various colors with beads, stones, tiles and glass

for our piece. And sometimes it just doesn't seem to gel.

So sometimes we just have to leave it for a day or three and come back to it.

That's why there are signs such as these:

"I've come unglued!!! Please do not disturb me!!!"

Thanks Helen. Guess you got tired of the rest of us lifting and dumping your tiles.

Ann and I decided to see how this panel is going to work side-by-side,
so we laid them out end to end. We think it's going to work!!! Yay.

 Here's a close-up of Ann's jewel box morning glories next to Sarah's happy flower.
But wait! That's the one with the two giant mosquitoes and a fly! Careful.

Helen's daffodils (or are they jonquils?) are wonderful next to Betsy's pretty poppies

It's been a good week in the Mosaic Studio.