Burano: New Mosaic For Donna

I created this little mosaic (about 3x8") for Donna Van Hooser, an amaaaaaazing mosaic artist I met on Flickr. It is inspired by the wonderfully colorful houses of Burano. I just love how they are situated by the water with the little boats. As soon as I drew the design, I knew exactly where the mille was going! I even found some teensy, tiny, seriously almost microscopic mille for the door knobs! I'm finding one of my favorite parts of creating my mosaics is determining where I will be putting millefiori. :) And I have been saving these two shades of fabulous mottled blue glass for just the perfect occasion and found it with this mosaic. I really like how it gives depth to the sky and water. The sun is a little fused piece of glass, given to me by Jane Denison (master mosaicist of houses, who I thought of often as I made this piece!).

Donna made me this mosaic, with lovely, lovely blues, my favorite color, and look at the andamento!! She does the most perfect cuts. And of course I love the mille. I don't know if she meant it or not, but I see a leaf blowing in the breeze - maybe because it is a recurring theme in my mosaics of nature! She framed it, too, and I always appreciate when artists do that. Thanks so much, Donna!!

A Trade With My Buddy Barb Keith

I have long wanted a mosaic by Barb and finally I've got one! And oh how much I love it. She made me a mosaic of our family cat, Raymi, and it is just beautiful. The colors are fabulous, and the expression is so her. I love the whiskers! And she framed it and got cards of the mosaic made for me, too. So cool! She put so much thought into it all and I just adore it.

It's funny because I had considered making a mosaic of one of her pets, too, but since she has a few, I didn't want to single one out and make the others feel bad, haha. So I picked birds, as Barb has made many mosaics of birds and so I felt pretty confident she loves them. :) When I was getting close to finishing the mosaic, Barb and I had an email discussion about how long we've been penpals and friends. We came to the agreement that it was sometime in the beginning of 2007. The next time I worked on the mosaic, I saw us in the birds, and then it was only fitting to name the mosaic, "To Friendship." Thanks Barb, for the mosaic and the friendship!!