A very, very stormy Wednesday!

On this terribly stormy day (the last day of February!), I am trapped at my home, watching the snow swirling around my house! I am glad to be inside and working on earning and collecting my CEU's as well as working on my mosaics a bit.

Here is my completed shelf/coat rack. I was thinking of painting it black, but for now I will just clean it up and re-oil it.

I am very pleased with how this came out. I like it A LOT and I am thinking of asking between $400 - $500 for it. Which seems like a lot of money for this, (I worked on this between 30-40 hours), but I think it is a "show piece" and would certainly be worth it for a special place in someone's home. (Actually, it would look smashing in our bathroom, but I made it to sell so our bath room with remain without it's shelf.)

A Wonderful Photograph

Impulsively, (not that I regret this decesion at all) I purchased this photograph from the gallery owner in Grand Marais, Stephan Hoglund. He had stayed up all night to take this wonderful shot of the northern lights coming through the ancient pines. Now I am thinking of what a wonderful mosaic it would make! We have not decided yet where to put this in our home. Currently it sits on the ottoman leaning against the living room wall.

progress

It is Thursday and I need to go back to work today.

Yesterday I grouted the inside and three out of the four sides of my shelf. You can see the nails that I stuck in the holes so that this shelf will be able to be "bolted" to the wall. Also, I was able to start this Mirror using items that i already had. A good celebration of being almost done with my grocery store job!

Tuesday again!

I finished COMPLETELY attaching the tiles and partial tiles to my shelf/coat rack. Today I think I will grout the top only. I think it would be to much to try to do the whole thing at once. Although all the surfaces are flat, I still need to work around the coat pegs. Perhaps I will break it up into two separate grouting days - the top and outside set of sides today, and the inside and inside sides tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I finished my shelf yesterday - at least the top of this shelf. I decided since it is a shelf, it is best for the top to be less decorative and more functional. Although it is still decorative, decorative in a BIG way, rather that small and putzy.

Here are the last two Valentine's pendants. I think I will wear them both today just because!

It is Monday and my only day off for over a week, with two double shifts on Wed and Th.

I had NO TIME to mosaic yesterday. THis is what I managed to squeeze in on Saturday. I hope today to be able to complete filling in the interior of this large leaf on the top surface of my shelf.

Friday and I have gotten some sort of crud.

THis is what i worked on yesterday before meeting Cindy to sell my Platter Mirror and running into Duluth to get my 2 CEUs and an extra day of substitute teaching at Nettleton.

Ofcourse, it FELT like this leave was much more done until I looked at the photos. Now it looks like there is A LOT of filling in left to do. Oh well! At least I got the interior veins done.

Wednesday and I am trying to do too much!

THis seems to be my theme today - trying to get too much done. I am a bit paniced as I need to have 125 CEU credits done by June. THis means approximately 25 per month and I did not do ANY in January. Oh well. Now it is crunch time for me and my CEU's. This afternoon and tomorrow afternoon I have classes to try to achieve these.

Ouch! THis bites into my mosaic time. Nothing to be done about this now, however as I HAVE to get my CEU's or I will lose my teaching license.

SO this is what i have been working on - a shelf with a perimeter of taconite pellets. Perhaps the heaviness of the pellets is indicative of my mood!

It is Friday and today we are journeying up the "Coast" to collect my Grandmother's Platter Mirror from Stephan Hoglund's Gallery.

Today it is very warm for Northern Minnesota in Early February. We are going to be going even farther North to retrieve my Grandmother's Platter Mirror to be sold to Cindy Brubakken Svee right here in Two Harbors. This is a very special Mirror made up of tiny pieces of stained glass, all hand cut (by me) and placed around this Mirror in vines. Stunning.

Here is the progress on the Shelf. I have a bit of mixed feelings about the placing of the whole squares of tiles surrounding the poplar leaves. It is still not to late for me to pry them off and replaces them with shards of the tiles in stead. It would add movement to the piece, but i am a little concerned that this movement would distract from the leaves.

And two more pendants that I have completed with mosaicing and just need to grout and place the two part resin on.