Stained glass Mountain Mosaic shelf

Back to the mosaic idea for this post!  Yes, mosaics are a favorite of mine.  As is the saying "Variety is the spice of life!"  Pieces of this and pieces of that, put together with an individual's touch make up the days and years of our lives.  As a child I would spend hours sewing together fabrics that I had collected.  Later it would be photos of our daughters added to photo albums.  Then it was steps in a running race, bike races in a stage race, mountains to be peak-bagged to accomplish a goal.  All the parts summed up to the whole.

Being older must have hardened me because my favorite mediums are now stained glass, metals and stone!

This project was to create a storage area in our small toilet room.  Firstly a nice niche was already available since the room is located under the stairs.

Finding this photo online, gave me an idea!

Being in the Adirondacks, a profile of the Great Range would be the perfect detail for the long narrow space at the base of the shelf.

Once again I dug out my box of stained glass and set about picking some colors to suit the mountains and sky.

It wasn't long before I cut out a pattern on paper to make the pieces in glass.  Using a grinder I ground the edges of the glass smooth after cutting them with a glass cutter.  Gluing the glass to the wall took a bit of patience to ensure that they wouldn't slide...but before long, this shelf had a face!  Or actually many faces - the faces of The Great Range : (from right to left)  Marcy, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Armstrong, and The Wolf Jaws! Big Slide sneaked into the foreground for good measure...

I chose colors that were more subtle than the original photo so that there would be details to look at as time went by.  Below are some of the details.

I guess that gives a new meaning to the mountains over head!

The big mosaic picture!

To follow up on the pics that I wanted to post with the Dragonfly mosaic post.....  This is a landscape mosaic made with glass beads, porcelain and ceramic tiles, lots of broken pottery and a few pieces of mirrors and marbles.

This mosaic is in a stairwell and thereby hard to photograph.  I did the best to get some overall coverage, but it really is ok to focus on the details since it is difficult to take in 8 feet by 17 feet.  As there really isn't a good vantage point to absorb the entire picture, I will not tire looking at it as I pass! :-)

A close up of the autumn foliage!

The Mighty Oak with a couple of leaning white birch is in a forest of evergreen boughs and a variety of different maples' leaves alongside a roaring brook.  He stands beside a flowering bush planter that is perched on the stone wall soaking up the colors of Autumn.

The base of the Mighty Oak stands beside a whirling pool of sparkling water!

A bit closer look at the planter seated on the stonewall beside the creeping rose bushes.

One of my favorite details is the swirls and curls of the water as it waves and twinkles beside walled off forest.

Perspective makes a big difference when viewing a mosaic.  I tried to show that by choosing some pictures that were from a distance and a few close ups.

Dragon Fly Mosaic

OK it's been a long time, but I have finally had enough proddings from Dearest Greta to post another project on this blog.  This time I will tell you a bit about my passion for mosaics.

In case you didn't know, Greta has a sister, Leslie who requested that I make a dragonfly mosaic for her newly remodeled apartment.  After making the huge-a-mongous mosaic at the Roscoe Outpost, I figured it would be a breeze.  Here is a picture of my first mosaic which Greta helped me design:  OOops I have to take a new picture.  It seems my others are "lost" ?!So to keep moving along, here is how I started!  Looking in my favorite mosaic book -

I decided on the dragonfly as it would best fill the space and add lots of color to the hallway.  The second picture with the flower was a serious consideration because it would not over power the space but decided that the hall could use a prominent feature.

Looking through my collection of broken ceramics, glass beads, and old tiles, I drew up a design.

 Cutting a huge piece of paper to the size of the wall to be decorated, I drew a dragonfly.  After sorting through my shard collection, I attached them to the mesh pattern pieces with a glue gun. Mastic was used to stick the mesh segments to the wall.  I traced the dragonfly pattern onto the wall so it would be easy to place the segments of Ms D Fly!

This shot also shows the tool used to grout the crevices between the tiles and beads after they are on the wall.  It is called a caulking tool and is sold at Home Depot.  I eventually cut off the end with the metal blade because it would get in my way when grouting close to the perpendicular wall.

 The wall space allowed for a bit of free style design area in the background!

Here is the best shot of the overall mosaic with a few close ups of detail.  It is difficult to photo because of the narrow hallway and limited natural light.

Zing!!  As you will notice the white background incorporates various shades of white and harder to notice but also different textured white tiles to give the work depth and life.

I would have liked to incorporate more pics along the way but it was tougher for me to get the camera a'rolling than to get the shards a'sticking!