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.

Water - not ice

 

It was freezing cold out today but our Rain Garden Waters flowed freely and beautifully. Cori finished one water panel and then helped   another artist finish up a second panel.

 

 

Sarah finally acquiesced and has put sparkles in her water.

She used mirrors and glass buttons to give her water a nice glimmer. 

 

Jane came in again today on her lunch hour

Slowly and surely she will have finished a water panel. Looks great too.

Ann completed her floral panel with a large orangy-gold flower and a navy background.

Helen is ready to complete her floral panel with navy blue tiles.
There are four of these small florals that will be side by side near the top of the water flow.

 

Here we are. Working and relaxing. Really. It's like therapy!

 

It was another good day in the mosaic studio.

 

 

 

 

 

Greta McLain

Greta McLain is our consultant for the Rain Garden Mosaic. As an artist, she has been creating many murals in and around the Twin Cities - both inside and outside buildings.

For example, when you are driving near Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue,

check out the two story mural on the side of the building on the north west corner.

 

She is currently working on yet another mural for Roosevelt High School and will be doing an outside one on Hennepin and Lake in the near future.

 

Greta came to our mosaic studio on Wednesday morning

and got busy sketching a panel. 

It will be a flower garden that you will see as you go in the doors by the circle.

 

Pretty exciting stuff for her and very enjoyable for the rest of us. 

If you Google her name, you will see lots of possibilities to look at.

For a little change of pace, here's a peek at some of Greta's work:

http://www.gretamclain.com/semilla.html

This is at Anderson School -

 

The Similla Project is a program in collaboration with Pastor Luisa Cabello Hansel out of

St.Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church on 28th St and 15th Avenue.

http://www.stpaulschurchmpls.org/

This chair planter sits in the church's front yard.

You can see more at: http://www.gretamclain.com/murals.html

We are feeling very fortunate to have her come and help us with our mosaic designs.

 

Below is the beginning of the drawing of the flower garden panel.

This panel will have flowers, butterflies and birds on it. Greta had to leave before this was completed and will return next Wednesday morning to finish it for us.

Here's a close-up of the left end....

 

                       ...and the right end.

 

Jane A. came in on Wednesday on her lunch hour. She's never done anything like this and said that she really doesn't do any artwork - but wanted to see what this was all about. So Jane sat down and got busy on a wave of water and did a very fine job! Yay for Jane.

She got away before we could take a photo of her though.

Next week I'll get Jane AND her wave.

 

This has nothing to do with the mosaic.

But aren't they pretty?

Birthday flowers from my kids -

and yes, that's Rob when he was just a couple of years younger. Cute, huh?!

Progress!

 

 Melanie T. came in this week and finished her panel; it has turned out beautifully.

The snail was made by me with just stones

but we're not sure they will show up as a snail!!!

Might have to pop that one off and try again. Don't want to ruin Melanie's panel.

When doing the longer water pieces, we have to section the paper pattern up

by cutting along a wave line.

Cori is working on one of the sections and has made great progress with her part.

She even put a little school of fish in her wave.

 

I've made some progress with an outer piece that will have flowers and creatures on it.

 

The mirror plants on the right will sparkle in the light. So there will be little pieces of mirror throughout the whole mosaic. Sparkle aplenty.

 

There is quite a bit done already but there is a whole lot more to work on yet.

All those blank patterns on the Caterpillar wall tell me we need to step it up.

Hope you are enjoying watching the progress.

Come on in and you too can have a little piece of your work in the Rain Garden.

 

Remember to check out the "Daily Puppy" at the bottom of this blog

And also to "feed the fish" at the top.  Just click in the aquarium.

But beware; it's addicting......and fun.

Sunday Workers and Donations

Our little group had some fun on Sunday.

Grayson worked on his detailed piece but had to leave before I got his photo.

Granddaughter Cepeda made a butterfly to live in the flower garden part of the mosaic.

Mama Dawn helped out by sorting some of the tiles and offering support. 

We like to keep the studio relatively tidy and easy to work in. Thanks Dawn.

This tidiness in the studio reminds me about the heavy, large mirror I smashed

a couple weeks ago to use in the mosaics. What a mess that made on the floor!

It needed more than a little once over.

After notifying Nolan of the "jillions" of shards on the floor,

it was vacuumed TWICE soon after.

Nolan and Chris were our heroes on this count. Wow! The place cleaned up beautifully.

 

 Linnea continued working on her pretty red flower.

It will make a nice "splash" in the Children's Flower Garden.

A favorite activity for the kids is to smash the big square tiles to reduce the size.

Absolute requirement is to wear safety glasses for this. (We have only one pair)

Then the larger pieces can be either smashed some more

or clipped with the tile nippers. 

Below is Linnea in blurred "hammer action". Beware! 

It was a good day in the mosaic studio.

 

Donation Thank You:

Sandy H. for small jars to be used for glue 

Deb S. for a piece of pottery made by her mother.

Sarah for a pretty and thick broken glass (her favorite).

Pieces of it will now live in the Mosaic Garden.

Sandra T. for some beautiful rocks.

My dentist, Dr. Catalin Constantin for

dental instruments that are used in moving the little tiles around and resetting them.

We're making good use of all.

Let me know if I've forgotten someone/something.

We still could use a first aid spray and some band aids.