Last update: 10/9/2012
29 June
I'm getting prepared - sorting out the benches and also cooking-up some special glue. I will use this glue to stick the mosaic to paper, ready to stick onto the benches. It's basically a flour glue!
2 July
Today I start to scale-up the small designs onto large sheets of paper, measured to the actual size. I draw the design exactly like my line drawing design.
3 July
Today the work of the mosaic really started! I have finally received all my porcelain tiles ready to snip into the mosaic. It was like Christmas today with all the boxes to unwrap! Look at the presents inside...
12 July 2012
Been a busy week, really getting into the swing of things with the mosaic. I have had a helper with me......
My cat seems to love the mosaic!
She keeps me company while I cut tiles in to all sorts of shapes and sizes and then gently glue them into place on the mosaic. It is incredibly time-consuming and the mosaic seems to be growing incredibly slowly! The train in the photo took me 1.5 days to construct!
I have the radio on mostly providing me (and my cat) with some music to keep momentum up. Can anyone suggest any excellent 'whistle while you work' tunes?
August 2012
It's been so busy this month that I have hardly been on blog to update you all! I have been taking some photos of the mosaics over the past few weeks, and here they are.....
This is the day of cats and Corgis! My cat got very protective of the corgi mosaic. She started to lay over the artwork as I was making him!
Here is the corgi complete, but allowing a break in the tiles to wrap the final artwork over the sides of the bench.
My cat (in addition to laying over artworks) has been doing her part for the artwork by eating lots of cat food. I've been using her cat food boxes to keep all the different tiles in their different colours and easier for me to use while making.
By the end of bench #1, my jam jar of glue was slowly getting messier, more gunky and a little moldy! Yuck. A new batch to make I think for bench two!
I tend to work in blocks of colours. Starting with an outline of a shape, then filling inside, then filling around it. Sometimes I use loose tiles (see the grey tiles in a line here) to measure up and space the tiles between sections.
This is my favourite piece of the mosaic. I really like the green half tiles making a curved background to the flower. This hill has the castle positioned on it.
When I finish a large section of mosaic, I will cut it into smaller sections. This will help me to transport it. The sections are being kept safely in a banana box of all things!! Here is the entire mosaic for bench 1 in one box... who would have thought it could fit into that!?
Now onto Bench #2
25 August 2012
Been scrolling through my phone and discovered a few more photos that I took while making bench #1. They reminded of a few things that happened....
I used some mirror tiles on a special part of the mosaic. These were lethal to cut and my hands got completely cut-up with little glass splinters and grazes OUCH!
This was a picture of me scaling-up the design (the white paper) onto the brown paper. I had to use lots of maths to get the right measurements and double checked that the artwork would fit the bench. I'm not known for the best maths, but I really hope that I got these sums right!
When I wash the tiles off the paper, I often put them on my window sill and let the sun dry them. One day my cat decided to sunbathe with them. Of course it would have to be the matching grey tiles!
The next three pictures so the progress of the Queen's stamp - a main feature in the bench. It took me a good 2-3 days to complete alone!
So onto Bench Two and I'm going well, but this design feels far more intricate and taking even longer. I feel behind in schedule already and this is really pushing my patience. the sea waves, ropes of ships, leaping fish and text are all needing minute precise in my tile cutting. And can i just say out loud "I HATE CUTTING WHITE PORCELAIN TILES!". For some reason the white tiles are a nightmare to cut. As the tiles are made from natural sources, I'm guessing the white has a chalk base in them. If you can imagine trying to cut chalk in a straight line with a heavy pair of scissors, you may get a sense of how difficult the task is. My table is left with tiles shattered to pieces and I have so much white in this design!!!! But I'm glad I started this bench, after building up confidence with bench 1. I like it. I'm enjoying the colours and lines being created. Here are the first of the photos for this bench.
And here is a picture of my floor. I'm finding this a fascinating and annoying part of mosaic making. The debris of tiles fall onto the floor and surround me. My studio looks like a scene out of 'Die Hard' when Bruce Willis has to navigate across the room of shattered glass without shoes on. However I don't wear a white vest but I do wear shoes at all times!
I'm wondering what the cracks between the floorboards will look like by the end of project. Multicoloured ribbons I suspect!
I need a name for the swans in the mosaic Today I completed the first swan, and half way through swan #2. Name suggestions please!
Here is a collection of photos from my swan making showing the growth of his feathers.
September arrives
Usually I sit down to undertake the mosaic, but occasionally I have to stand to look at the work from a higher point of view. Of course there is always a lot of up and down-ing, getting tiles, moving around the table and getting rid of the shattered tiles that are gathering on my lap. My cat has learnt to study my movements and cease the right opportunity to claim my chair. I ended up mosaic-ing for a whole afternoon on my feet due to this chair hostage.
However when I do stand up and take a look at the bigger picture, I feel encouraged as I start to see the realisation of everyone's ideas.
Last week I began the most detailed work of both benches. The beach and ossary. Lots of circles and I have feared this section for a while. What i didn't predict is the love I have felt for the colours and shapes. This is really spurring me on through this difficult section. It's the trivial pursuits of the mosaic world.
10 Sept
Ok so the benches didn't get delivered as expected. Well I say not delivered, they came to the High Street but then the delivery guy had a problem unloading them!. He took them away and is now scratching his head, working out how to deliver them and place them in exactly the right place without damaging them! We hope that he will come up with a solution by the 24th September as Rob and I are due to arrive with the mosaics to install them into the benches!
So while the company works out how to deliver the heavy benches, I carry on with the last section of the bench. It went very well today except for the fact that I kept placing the gluey brush into my tea, rather than the glue pot. Doh!
September 2012
So do you want to know what was the very last piece to be placed into the mosaic? Here is a picture of the momentous day and final piece being placed in.
So the work is all packed up and ready to go.
If you want to follow the installation of the benches and the mosaic, click on the 'installation' page of the menu at the right.
Yeah I've done that tea-gluepot swap as well. If I recall the tea was fine....ish.
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