When is a Dragonfly not a Dragonfly?

When it's a damselfly. I've spent the last few days working on my newest project, a damselfly, that I've wrongly and repeatedly referred to as a dragonfly. Simplified, a typical dragonfly's eyes are close together and appear to touch; their rear wings are smaller than their fore wings. A damselfly's eyes are separated; their fore wings and rear wings are similar in appearance and approximately the same length. So now we both know the basic differences. 


My damselfly is based on a typical blue male but I haven't done his colors justice. And I seem to have reversed his wing structure when I made the pattern and glued the pieces on the stepping stone. arrrghhhh... I HATE when that happens!


The flat plane of the wing is on top and the bottom side of the wing is fuller and more curved. Nothing I can do about it now, of course, but lesson learned. Next time I will get it right. Also, instead of the solid piece of mirror glass, I will break it down and incorporate smaller pieces into the wing detail. I changed direction in the middle of this project and did so with unsatisfactory results; at least as far as I'm concerned anyway. Because I know the faults in this piece, I'm not thrilled with it but hope that the final results will turn out better than I expect. 

Quandary

The Key to My Heart project is nearly finished but I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with the way it's turned out. I added the last touch to it last night and it's had all night and day to cure. It just doesn't seem secure and I'm afraid that it will come apart with very little handling. After this newest round of glue and another night of curing, I'll take pictures tomorrow to show the potential problem with the piece. In the meantime, I'll be thinking of other ways to secure it. I've already considered grouting it but I'm thinking that maybe I should've used thinset to start with. One of things that makes you go "hmm..." 

Regardless, I'll have to figure something out because the more I think about it, the less content I am with it. I've learned very quickly if you're not happy with something - do it over. If you don't, you'll pick it to pieces in your head and kick yourself for not doing it "right." 

Excuse me, there's something I need to go do...

Looking for New Inspiration

When you're at a loss for an idea and you see someone's mosaic dog, cat or pink elephant is it considered "inspiration" or "theft" if you decide to make one as well? You know full well that what you create isn't going to be anything like theirs. It's the concept that you're inspired by, not the actual pink elephant itself. Sometimes I feel a tad bit guilty for taking another person's concept and creating my own vision of it. Original concepts or ideas are difficult to come up with, though. Most of the time, you'll find it's already been done, a quick search and you'll see what I mean.

Speaking of... I often spend hours looking at pictures on the image search page. Even if someone has already used my idea, I still look through the pictures to see if anyone came close to what I visualized. Other times, I'll plug in a word - summer, for instance - and then start combing through the pictures for something that jumps out at me that I can turn into a mosaic. Saturday afternoon was Rose Window day. I saved copies of some of my favorites and I'll study them for a while. There's no rush; I have a long way to go before I could even attempt a Rose Window of any kind. 

Inspiration is wherever you find it. Just be inspired!

Paint Wash on Grout

I've been working on a project that just begged for a tinted grout - red grout - specifically. OK, so I tinted the grout and it came out a lovely light PINK! Not exactly what I had in mind. I did have pictures but seem to have deleted them all - oops! All right, so now what? Unhappy with the color, I decided to try a technique that a Flickr friend uses with good results - paint washing on grout. First, let me just say that Mary creates phenomenal work so I'd be happy to make something that looks half as good. I looked around for some detailed information on how to mix up the paint. I found various formulas saying to mix the paint with water in a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio depending on how thin or heavy a coat you desire. I wanted to do a light wash in case I hated it or it came out looking like it had been painted. For me, that would be the equivalent of slapping a coat of paint on a brick wall. Yes, it serves a purpose but it looks like crap.

I mixed the paint and water in a 2:1 ratio so it would be somewhat thin. It looks fine but it's still pink, just an intense, darker pink now. I'm going to go over it again with a 1:1 ratio and see if I can get the color right this time. If not, I'm going to call it good and let it go. That's harder for me to do than it sounds because I'm so critical of my work and I tend to be harder on myself than anyone else ever could be. Don't know if that's because others don't want to hurt my feelings or if I've got higher expectations of me than they do. 

All right, I tried a second paint wash but couldn't see a difference from the first attempt. At that point, I called it done and painted the outside of the heart a candy apple red. It will take a couple of days for the paint to thoroughly dry and harden before I can add the finishing touches. Here's the most current look at work-in-progress Key to My Heart:  


It's very personal to me so I'm anxious to see it completed. I'll post pictures later this week.  








My friend Mary over at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/poppins/  

Mary's GOG (glass on glass) works are absolutely beautiful and I promise you won't be disappointed. Go on, have a look!

From Mixed Nuts to Mélange Art Glass

Not all change is bad. Yes, I realize that Mixed Nuts was supposed to be an assortment and that mélange means assortment or mix; so, in a way, things really haven't changed that much. I've just narrowed the focus a bit from everything to art glass. Now I'll be talking about what I'm learning (sometimes on a daily basis), trying new techniques and showing the results of my efforts. For example, the Log Cabin Sun-Catcher at the top of the page is a recent creation of mine. 

I hope you won't be disappointed in what you find here now. This is only another stone in the path on the way to the future.