One or Two Mary Mother of Gods?

Yesterday I worked on the sides of my altar. I used a old chipped Limonges plate. There is a difference of thickness that I will need to compensate for when I grout. Now you can see the one Mary "look" and perhaps this will help with you thoughts.

I think on the bottom of this shelf, where I rest my one or my three Marys, I will put a deep blue mirror like tile. I may have just enough to do this. I was originally going to put a design in the "floor" but now I think it will get lost.

I also was able to finish my two small Jim Dine inspired heart shaped tea light holders.

I may grout today, but I don't think so. Tomorrow I am back to trying to find a substitute teaching job. Ugh.

Yesterday I grouted 6 pieces, granted that 5 were just tiny tea lights, but still, I grouted. Grouting is just not something that I enjoy doing. I love the results of grouting, but not grouting. Why? Well, because it is messy. Usually I use a dark grey grout and it gets under my finger nails and into my skin, too. I put lotion on before and this does seem to help. But I just don't like to grout. I will try to readjust my attitude towards grouting. Perhaps if I can just skip ahead to the finished results, then I will be okay with grouting.

Oh well.

I have begun something new. A portable altar. This is just one shot of my beginnings. There is some debate as to whether I should put one Mary, Mother of God or three. Actually, I am thinking my portable altar needs SIX Marys. Take a look and let me know what you think.

My continuing mosaic "work" for a very busy Thursday.

Thank goodness I was able to squeeze in a few hours in the morning because yesterday afternoon I spent cleaning up my refrigerator. Just think about all the dust that each week you remove from your floors once or twice? Well, behind and underneath my frig all of that dust had built up (UGH!) and had caused a small part, perhaps an inch by 2 by 3 inches to burn out. I called a very nice man in town who drove out here and fixed this and we cleaned up the dusty mess. In a 2 hour period I spent half of my money from my table's final payment. Sigh. Well, at least I COULD pay him!

This is what I completed on my time spend mosaicing. I completed the finial side of the 4 seasons vase/candle holder. It looks a bit bright, almost too bright, in the photos. Then I continued to tackle the background of the picture frame. First I had put a yellow mirror tile in and then when I sat back and looked, I realized my 4 yellow leaves blenden in a bit much. So I got out my trusty screw driver and removed them all. (In the photo you can see the remaining tiles and semi-wet Weldbond.) After a bit of scrounging, I decided to put a transparent pale celery green glass in the background.

The first photo is of my Jim Dine inspired heart vase/candle holder - grouted and ready to sell, as well as three tea light holders. Grouting makes them ZING!

My continuing mosaic "work".

This is what I have been working on this week. A used frame from a "used a bit" store in Silver Bay, the Dilly Dally, as well as a vase/candle holder.

The Table is now at it's home. Sigh!

My customer came and got her table yesterday (it was so windy and snowing - quite the awful weather to be driving in!) So now it is gone. I felt a bit disorientated at first, then I swept out my studio and got to work.

Here are the final photos. One as I am applying the grout penetrating sealer to the surface, the other of the Table and finially of Laurie (ready to carry this huge Table out to her vehicle.)

The Sun!

I got so excited on Saturday as there was SUN! It seemed almost miraculous in this season of cold and wind and ICE. So I retook a few photos of tea lights that I had done in December to see if the light was as strong as I thought it was.

Just a bet of time to work yesterday...

I had just a bit of time to work yesterday. Here are the results.

I had so much fun yesterday!

Yesterday I played "hookie" from being a substitute teacher. Perhaps it was a very bad day to do this as I kept getting calls for jobs that had already started. Didn't seem wise to go to teach a class that had already begun. Can you imagine students waiting for a teacher? So I opted out.

Instead I had a perfectly lovely day playing with my glass pieces that have littered the top of my work table. You can see how beautiful the glass looks through the glass forms that I've attached it too. Looks almost frost or crystal-like.

I also filled my bird feeder and replaced the suet. (The birds were slightly crazy yesterday - perhaps the thought of spring filled them as well as the humans.)

The Grouting is Done. Yes.

I have finished grouting this table! The adhesive held even though it was just barely 24 hours old.

After covering this table with the wet grout, I let it set on the table for about 45 minutes, then I used the rough side of the sponge to rub off the excess grout, followed by a damp sponge, then a very soft old sheet to buff off the excess. Finially, just to be sure, I misted the whole table with a spray bottle - I did not want any of the grout to crack. I was able to find a very large plastic bag to cover up the table to "cure". In three or four days I will uncover this table and do the finial clean-up and then it is time for this table to go home.

I even had time to complete a simple tray for Valentine's Day.

It is a bit odd to finially be done.

I AM FINISHED ATTACHING THE TILES. TODAY I WILL GROUT, I THINK.

I completely finished glueing on the tiles yesterday. I could have spent hours searching out for the tiny crevices where just another small piece of tile could fit. (I often do this after completing a piece - I keep studying it and fitting in small pieces of tile.)

I thought that I would start another piece or at least work on something that I had left, abandoned, but I just couldn't. The Table was just sitting there. I kept looking at it, and thinking about how this design just WORKED.

Today I am planning on grouting. I hope the adhesive has dried enough that I can.

Just a bit of adjustmentTod

On Thursday, I learned from my customer that she was not fond of the red leaves. So I quickly took out my screw driver and removed them. It really wasn't as bad as it sounds! With just a bit of encouragement they popped out.

Yesterday I decided to remove the small tiles in the leaves that were behind the two central leaves as they were definately red, too. This time I first moistened the surface with a paintbrush and water. I needed to reapply the water for a bit, but these tiles also popped off. I am so glad as at this point this is a relatively easy "fix". Had I waited even a few days this glue may have decided to "keep" the leaves and the tiles affixed to the table.

For the red tiles in the leaves, I replaced them with a turquoise tile instead. These two leaves mirror the two leaves in front of them but I decided to make them just a bit darker to show that they were in the back and were just a bit shadowed. I know that this is a subtle change, but I think it adds dimension to the whole table.

For the red leaf tiles, I hunted amongst my leaf tiles and experimented for almost a half an hour until deciding that the blue leaves with just a hint of purple in them looked just as good as the original red leaves.

I am short of the tiny yellow tiles!

I am so close to being done! I had studied my bag of small yellow tiles and thought, hmmm will there be enough for me to complete the table? Yesterday after working for 2.25 hours I decided that I am approximately 12 short!!! Now I need to look through all of my various containers to see if I can find something that will work. I just need a few more for the space between the stems of the 4 center leaves. I did stop my self in a "good space" so that if I end up using some other similar tile it will look intentional and not just plain goofy.

the red leaves

I worked for just under 3 hours on the center of this table. I did decide to put the red leave tiles on this table, although I changed the size and the position of them. I think with the yellow background that these red leaves "work".

I like how this table is turning out, I really hope that the customer does as well.

Almost, but not quite done!

Yesterday, Saturday, February 5, was my renewed goal to complete attaching the tiles to this table. A bit naive of me! I have 2 or perhaps 3 days left of 4 or more hours to be able to complete this very big table.

Each of the tiny tiles, approximatley 3/4 inches square, used in these four center leaves needed to be hand cut CAREFULLY into thirds as I wanted the center leaves to be a bit more dilicate that the outer leaves. This careful cutting takes a very long time. I spent 4.5 hours working and this is how far I got!

I have subbed everyday this week, except Monday, (an emergency trip to the dentist - Ugh!) so this is the only entry I have in my Table contest. (This contest is only with myself - and I lost as my one month's deadline has come and gone and this Table is almost, but not quite done. Sigh. I am so lucky that my customer understands.)

On Monday I began to place the small yellow tiles surrounding the mirroring leaves on the inside perimeter of this Table. You can see that the yellow really brightens up the whole table.

The red leaves have not been glued in place yet. I am debating about these. On the one hand I tend to think that almost every piece needs just a bit of red in it. On the other hand it could be jarring to place this small amount of red in this table when, for the most part, the colors are blues and greens. What do you think? Please post your comments as I'd love hear your ideas.