I worked for 3.5 hours yesterday and I began the two leave/trees inside of the large interior rectangle. I did just a bit of the outside of one leaf as well.

My new goals are to finish this table on Saturday, perhaps even to grout on Super Bowl Sunday. It will depend on how much time I think the adhesive or glue needs to dry.

Whew! I am almost done with the perimeter design of this Table. Yesterday (ofcourse it SNOWED!!) I was able to achieve my goal of completing the swerving leaves surrounding the swirls and also to complete the background behind these four leaves. I worked for almost 4 hours although it is hard to tell as the portion that I completed is relatively small. You can see that I am serious about mosaics as I buy my adhesive, Weldbond by the gallon. This jug of glue is on the upper left hand portion of the picture of the whole table.

This is a belated post from THURSDAY. Yesterday, as I worked at an early start school, I slacked and did not put this on the blog. Oops. What can I say? You can see that I spend my hour and a half or so, cutting and placing the dark greenish brown stained glass on to the table. It is difficult to see (the sun in Minnesota in January is rare!), but if you look for the white colored glue you should be able to make it out. I put the outline of the leaves which are on either side of the early leaf/tree. These four leaves curve around the spiral/waves.

I tackled the symmetrical leaves/trees (as well as the background directly next to these trees/leaves), on either of the long ends yesterday. (Of course as soon as I edited my photos I realized that I should have "edited" the rest of the table so that it would really show my progress.) Today I will only be able to squeeze in a very few hours as I am substitute teaching in a favorite K class in the afternoon.

I have almost reached my one month goal for completing this table - I think it is a good thing that my customer is understanding - "life gets in the way". My guess is that it will take about a week longer than the one month that I quoted her originally.

Making this table has been such a great exercise for me in so many ways! Keeping track on the time involved is very eye opening (it took an hour and 45 minutes for the first leaf - without any background!), also I think that I may be over my "custom" anxiety, and in the future I will know to make time allowances for ordering supplies, etc.

I was only able to spend 1 hour and 45 minutes working on this Table yesterday. (I have decided to take myself off of the substitute teaching schedule for today so that I can really tackle this Table.) You can see that I completed this leaf/tree with 6 different colors of green! I took this photo at 5:00 p.m. and the light was fading so perhaps the 6 colors will be difficult to see...

I grouted just a bit of this Table yesterday (as I was grouting anyway and I made too much grout). Although the Table is black and the grout is dark grey, grouting this small section of this Table, (approximately 1/9 of the total table) made me feel a bit closer to finishing this project that has consumed my mosaic life. Another sign of progress is that I am now done with the stylized waves or spirals, and have now begun work on the leaf/tree motif.

Yesterday was sort of a bust as far as working on this table went. Today, though, will be much, much better as I am not working and I have the house to myself. Also, as soon as I finish the final spiral/wave, I'll be able to begin something new - the leaves. So, I am excited about that. As you can see, I am back to my messy ways, covering this table with my many mosiac tile jars!

The end is in sight! I worked for, I think, three and a half hours yesterday and I could finially see real progress. I filled in the small spaces between tiles, I completed three incomplete spirals (or waves), and I began a fourth!

After deciding that I was finished for the day, I cleared the Table off of my many, many jars of tiles, took photos and decided that this Table was going to be beautiful. There is movement, just as there is in the waves of Lake Superior. Which is exactly what I wanted from this work.

More tomorrow...

I had yesterday off from substitute teaching and in between doing the ever necessary household tasks, (laundry, dishes and loading up the wood stove), I was able to spend three and a half hours working on this table. I think I have reached a bit more than the half way point. You can see my tea was keeping me as warm and comfortable as I could be - our temperature barely reached beyond zero yesterday.

I had meant to take yesterday off from working on this Table but did not. Of course I should have taken the day off as I ended up pulling up, by screw driver, approximately an hours worth of the tiles. I made a big oops, although it is fairly easy to pull the tiles up, even from the day before, if I use a screw driver. (You can see my lovely windows that are along three sides of my studio.)

Yesterday I got a bunch of work done on this massive table. I have almost completed one side and have switched the table from the left hand side of my mosaic studio to the right - pushing the table to be next to the window. (So that the opposite side is nearer to me.) Now I can enjoy the limited sunlight coming through the windows and the lovely forty plus year old pine trees. You can see how the two sides are mirror images of each other. I became very fatiqued working yesterday even though I broke up my time into 45 minute to an hour segments. As I became tired I started to break my tiles incorrectly so I decided it was time to stop. My plans for today are to work for another 4 hours, but I will see how I am able to hold up.

Yesterday was a great day as I received the last (I think optimistically) of my tiles. Although I was only able to spend 2 hours working on this Table, I cut tiny pieces of tile into triangles to fit between the spaces of the spirals as well as adding the yellow to the ALMOST completed center of the perimeter of this Table. Please notice the wonderful embossed leaves, fish and disc purchased from firedandfused - a wonderful Etsy artist.

Yesterday I was able to spend just a bit more than 4 hours working on this massive project. (Well, maybe it is not massive, but it is very, very BIG.) I could see my progress and I very much liked how this was turning out. You can see how narrow my studio space is and how awkward it is to squeeze in a chair to sit on. I became part of the "zone" of creating and even though I was tired it was difficult to stop.

I was able to spend only 2.5 hours working on this table yesterday. Which seems like such a long time - I would have thought my progress would be astronomical! But it wasn't. ;o( I barely finished one spiral on the end. !!!! If you look at the photos you can see my progress as the other spiral, or "wave" is at the far end of the photo. So at this rate, I will need at least 12 more hours to complete attaching my tesserae to the top and perhaps 3 more hours to grout and finish this.

Yesterday, while waiting for my wood to arrive, (don't even ask as it was a disaster!) I got quite a bit accomplished on this Table. I was able to complete one spiral and begin the center two spirals, as well as complete the center panel perimeter. This center panel will be made up of leaves. (The design is of leaves and spirals. A nice combination, I think.)

I have begun in earnest on this table!

My supplies arrived on Friday, my stencil is complete and now I will begin to have fun attaching the pieces of tile to this table. Yesterday I was able to spend a few hours getting started.