Christine Brallier Mosaics

First E-Newsletter Out February 1st

2012-01-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

I will be sending my first e-newsletter tomorrow, February 1st, so if you'd like to receive it, the sign up link is on the right side of this blog near the top. It will be a quarterly newsletter which will be filled with my mosaic news, mosaics I'm working on, and art by other artists I admire.

Are you on my book mailing list? Be the first to know when my book is available. I will send you a postcard with an image from my book on it. Scroll down and use the sign up form on the right side of this blog. :)

Update: I just sent out the newsletter, and if you haven't subscribed yet (why not?!) you can read it here.

New Work

2012-01-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

This mosaic was created for the mosaic salon at the upcoming SAMA conference in Lexington, KY, where it will hopefully be sold to the highest bidder! It is 7 3/4 x 8" and was made with stained glass, millefiori and fused glass which I bought from Helios Glass at last year's SAMA conference. The original design was of the cat playing with a ball, but when I started adding the spots to the cat, I thought it would be fun to have one of his spots falling off. I titled it, Now How Did That Happen?

P.S. Just finished my design for book mosaic #12 and am laying glass on it today!!

Finished 11th mosaic for children's book!

2011-12-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to finish this one by the end of the year and I just glued the last piece today! I'm on track to finish the book by summer, so continue to watch my blog for updates. I plan on having an exhibition of my book mosaics next fall or winter, so the early part of next year will be in finding a location to show them, most likely downtown Santa Barbara.

Happy New Year - may you have a wonderful 2012!

Mosaic #11 for Book in progress

2011-12-10T12:26:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited about how this one is turning out!! I might add elastic line for strings after it is grouted, if it doesn't look too busy. I hope to finish this mosaic by the end of this year. Next year I will be in the home stretch!!!

Small Works Show

2011-11-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

I will have a couple of my mosaics in "Close Encounters" Small Works Show at the Wildling Art Museum in Los Olivos, CA with the Artists Guild of the Santa Ynez Valley. They will be hung from November 30, 2011 until January 8, 2012. Come to the Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 3, from 3:00-6:00 p.m. as part of Los Olivos' Olde Fashioned Christmas Event. Free cider and cookies, make your own pinecone ornaments for your tree or as a gift. Singer-songwriter Teresa McNeil MacLean will be entertaining guests in the museum galleries. Artists' demonstrations, including Chris Hansen, Cathy McGavin, and Nicki Beltranena. Tree lighting ceremony at 6pm. Wildling Art Museum is at 2928 San Marcos Ave., Los Olivos, CA.

Mosaic #10 for book is done!

2011-11-21T12:03:00.000-08:00

Yippee! One step closer to finishing my book. It looks like I have four more large mosaics to go (15x24" each), plus one half the size for the last page. I will also do a couple mini mosaics for the front and back pages. I should be finished with them by next summer and then send them to print! Can't wait. Off to design #11. :)

Designs for SAMA Mosaic Marathon

2011-11-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

Yes! Me! I will be leading the mosaic marathon at the next SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Lexington, KY this coming February. I've created designs for three panels that will be made into mosaics by the conference goers in four days! The triptych will be installed in the lobby of the not-for-profit organization, The Nest: Center for Women, Children & Families. It will be the first time I lead a community built mosaic, so go easy on me, folks. :)

I knew immediately I wanted to use birds in the designs. I did research on the common birds in the area, as well as the trees. I asked the director of The Nest what birds were in the area and he told me that goldfinches were everywhere! I wanted to choose a bird that most people were familiar with so I went with them. When I looked up trees, I fell in love with the tulip tree, the state tree of Kentucky. What gorgeous flowers!!

Now that I had my bird and my tree, onto the design. I love the bird art of Hokusai (here's one of my favorites) and I really wanted to create something with that same kind of space. Once I decided on the size of each panel, I created small rectangles, 1/6 the size of the actual mosaics, so I could draw the flow of the branches first, which, to me, are the most important part to get right because it determines the underlying composition. (I work quite small when I design for large projects because I can see the overall composition so much easier.) Once the basic lines (very basic!) were decided, I could then go into detail and add the leaves, flowers and birds.

When my drawings were done, I scanned them, cleaned up the pencil marks in a paint program, and then printed them to color in. Once they were colored, I noticed a break in the flow of the composition. I realized there were too many flowers in the second panel. The flow of the branches wasn't working for me. Here's what I saw. When I took out two of the flowers, I was much happier with it. Because the panels will not be hung right next to each other, it didn't matter if the flowers connected from one panel to the next.

Once I fixed the flowers, I then began to play with the background in the paint program. For me, the background color is very important to get right, so I like to experiment with colors in the paint program before I actually color them with pencils. Here's some of the many colors I tried:

Once I decided on the periwinkle color, I printed the three panels very tiny so I could figure out the andamento of the background. I have much more control of the flow when it's so small. I draw right over the foreground so my lines are smooth and continuous.

I then colored one of the scans with these new andamento lines and wa la! Done. Here is where they will go. I was told the room is going to be remodeled around them! The first panel will be 2 1/2 x 3', the middle panel will be 2 1/2 x 5 1/2', and the last panel will be 2 1/2 x 4 1/2'. The mosaics will be made with Mexican smalti, provided by smalti.com, as well as a bit of millefiori, of course!

I am super excited about this project! I am really looking forward to seeing my designs come to life in February. If you're at the conference, please come by and lay a few pieces down! I'd love to see you. :)

Book mosaic #10 underway

2011-10-29T17:28:00.001-07:00

The book has been on hold while I was creating designs for a large mosaic project to be created in February 2012 (more details on that later!). Back to the book this week and it feels good! Once again, Raymi makes another appearance. She'll be in several more pages before the book is done. There are only a couple of main elements on this page so it is mostly background, which hopefully means it will go kinda fast. I have maybe five more mosaics to create after this one, so I need to get rolling if I want to be done by next summer!

Finished Mosaic #9 For Book!

2011-07-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy to be done with this mosaic. It took a very long time, my longest yet, AND it created more future work for me: I had to change a couple of things to make them work for this design, and now I have to change them in previous mosaics! It's times like these, I wish I were a painter!

Here are a few detail shots. I've been adding as many personal touches as I can to this book. Raymi, our cat, features heavily in this book! The guitar is my husband's. And all of the artwork on the walls will be of my already completed mosaics. I take photos of them and put them in between two pieces of glass. I then seal the edges with tape so the grout doesn't seep through later. Here's a couple of my cats!

I won't be starting mosaic #10 for a few weeks (but hopefully sooner) while I work on a design for an upcoming project. More details on that to come later!

Two Years on my Book!

2011-06-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in over a month, but trust me, I've been working hard on my book! This week marks two years since I started the process. Wow! I remember thinking I'd be done in a year. Now I'll be happy if I'm done in three!

I'm in the middle of mosaic #9 and have gotten the hardest parts done, so the rest should go much faster (famous last words, right?). Here's a little bit of it. Raymi makes her fifth appearance in the book. She's really small in this mosaic, about 1x2", and I struggled with cutting glass for her eyes because of that. However, I found this millefiori that fit just right! She looks a little bug eyed at the moment, but she'll look better grouted. :)

I decided after my last mosaic trade that I was going to focus on the book alone and not create mosaics for any other purpose, (unless a commission happens to come my way!) With that in mind, my ultimate goal is to finish one mosaic a month. At that rate, I would finish around January of next year. I would then spend a couple of months making changes to the mosaics. I have a long list of them, some very small, others will take a lot longer. I realize my style and skill level have changed and grown since I began, so that is making it a bit difficult because I'd do so many things differently now. However, I'd never finish the book if I kept making changes as I grew! So I will try and keep it under control, ha.

After that, transferring the mosaics on mesh to wedi and grouting them will take me a looooong time. Then photographing them and having Barb put the book together will be about another month. All in all, I'm hoping the book will be ready to go to print by summer of next year. I can hardly contain my excitement! But that is good motivation to finish as soon as I can. Thanks for following my progress!

New mosaic cats

2011-05-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

I took a break from my book to create two mosaics. While in Austin, during the SAMA conference, one of my favorite mosaic artists, Martin Cheek, approached me and asked if I'd do a trade with him! Well, I've done so many mosaic trades over the past few years and had decided I wouldn't do any more for awhile because they take time away from my book, but could I pass this up? No way!

Martin wanted a cat so we decided on a cat trade. I already own a mosaic of a mouse by Martin, which I bought a few years ago, and I was more than happy to add to my Martin Cheek collection! I went on his web site to look at the many cat mosaics he had already made. When I saw Skinny Cat, I immediately knew that was the one I wanted! He shipped it to me while I got to work on his mosaic. Blue Cat, which is 8x10", was modeled after our family cat, Raymi, who has appeared in more of my mosaics than I can count! Check out Skinny Cat! I love those wild eyes!

Then he told me his daughter, Mollie, really liked my cat mosaics and would I be willing to do a trade with her as well. She makes adorable fused glass jewelry, mostly of animals, including cats, ha. So I said, absolutely!! She's going to make me either a turtle or a cat necklace. See how wonderful they are?! If you want to see more of her jewelry, follow this link. Spotted Kitten is the mosaic I made for her. It is 4x5".

As for the book, I am currently working on the design for Mosaic #9. I hope to get started cutting glass in the next week and will keep you posted with the progress!!

Mosaic #8 For Book is Finished!

2011-03-18T20:16:00.001-07:00

Just finished my 8th mosaic for the book, so excited! It took me about 100 hours to complete. Here are a couple more shots. This is an indoor scene, and these are the artworks hanging on the wall. I used photos of actual mosaics that I created in the past, cropped them the way I wanted, and then put the photos in between glass. I then taped the sides so when I grout later, it won't seep into the photos. It was great that I have these three tree mosaics, all in a similar style and color scheme because they are noticable, but subtle. If I had used any of my cat mosaics, they would've taken too much attention away from the scene. I'll save those for later... :) Anyone recognize the tree with pink flowers? Anyone? Irit? LOL

I now have six more large mosaics to go (15x24") plus two to three smaller ones (15x12" or smaller). I think I can finish by the end of the year!! First, I need to make a couple of cheeky cats (more details later) and then, back to the book!

Progress on book mosaic #8

2011-03-14T11:36:00.001-07:00

I'm getting close to being done with this mosaic! I hope to be finished by this weekend. Here is a small, small bit of the entire mosaic. It's probably about 6x7". I had a lot of fun putting in the millefiori, making it much more playful than if there was none. The pink millefiori on the pillow was hand made and given to me by Gila Rayberg quite awhile ago, and I'm happy I finally found the perfect use for it. Thanks, Gila! And the millefiori on the blanket I just bought from Martin Cheek at the SAMA conference. They are little moons, but work perfectly for the edge of the blanket. The chair was such a challenge for me to make it appear 3D with just one color of glass, but I'm happy with it! I will post again once I finish this mosaic, which will be very, very soon, woo hoo!

SAMA in Austin, Texas!

2011-03-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

I’ve finally gotten a moment to breathe and post about my experience at the SAMA conference in Austin, Texas. It was great fun! I took three workshops: Mosaic Portraiture with Carol Shelkin, Designing and Presenting Sculptural Mosaics with Sherri Warner Hunter, and
Finding Your Voice with Pamela Irving.

I looooved Carol’s workshop. She is an amazing teacher. So warm, so personal, so smart and talented! I only got one eye done on my portrait of Jack, but that is what she expected of us. It was difficult for me. I had a hard time committing to gluing anything down. And then when I did, I’d pick it up and redo it again anyway. I was the only one doing a portrait of somebody I knew. The rest were using photos that Carol supplied. And in hindsight, I would have picked one of her photos instead of Jack because I wouldn’t care how the mosaic turned out of somebody I didn’t know. It would be more of an exercise, and practice. With Jack, I wanted it to be beautiful and perfect. So I think what I will do is make a portrait of somebody I don’t know first, to practice and experiment and play, and then do Jack.

Sherri was great and her class was very informative. I took it to see if I thought I might be interested in learning to make sculptural mosaics in the near future. While I would love to mosaic a pre-made sculpture some day, I’m pretty sure now that I don’t want to learn how to make the sculptures themselves.

Pam was such fun, so charming and talented. We worked very spontaneously on a portrait using materials we were to bring that had meaning, for instance, dishes that belonged to a loved one. I didn’t have anything like that to bring, so I brought materials that I didn’t generally use so at least I’d be doing something different from what I usually do. While this approach was fun, I prefer using stained glass and millefiori, as well as planning out my mosaics a little in advance.

I really enjoyed the mosaic salon where we got to bid on each other’s mosaics. My cat mosaic sold to a sweet woman from Kansas. (She happened to be visiting her daughter in my area today so stopped by to visit!)

I did spend more at the marketplace than I intended! I thought I’d just buy mille and be done, but there were a couple new vendors and I found some really beautiful glass fusions from Helios Glass and some pretty square tiles from Mosaic Outpost.

The mosaic exhibition was pretty nice. A bunch of us went a couple days early. Karen Ami did a gallery talk which was great – lots of participation all around. She wanted to know our thoughts, too. It was nice because it wasn’t crowded and you could really get a good look and take photos. Here's one of my favorites, Beautiful Day by Carol Shelkin.

There were some interesting presentations this year, including a panel talk on What is a Mosaic? It has brought up further discussion on CMA, if anyone is interested in following along.

I participated in the tesserae exchange and got some really unique pieces. I won at the raffle for the first time in three years! My prize was some green smalti, which was a particular green I wasn’t interested in, so I traded with Crystal Thomas for her win, a book by Martin Cheek that I didn’t have.

And what would a SAMA conference be without a PJ party and the closing party with lots of dancing! And of course, I had a great time hanging out with my buddies. :)

On my way home, going through security, my carry-on bag was subjected to a random search. (You need to know, I’m not a big traveler at all!) The first thing she asks me is, “Do you have anything sharp in here?” Hahahahahaaa. Um, yes. A few tools and lots and lots of stained glass… I said, “Maybe a tool?” I tried to point to where the tool was and she yelled, “Don’t put your hands in there!!” Yikes! So she confiscated one of my pairs of nippers (for ceramic tile, which I never use), but not the other one (my favorite!), which was about ¼” shorter! The funny thing is the nippers were in a bag with all of my stained glass. She didn’t even see the glass! It just goes to show, if you lie to security, you might get away with it, hahaha.

Recap of SAMA Chicago 2010

2011-02-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

As I'm packing and getting ready to go to SAMA's (Society of American Mosaic Artists) annual mosaic conference this Tuesday (in Austin, TX), I realize I never did post about my experience last year. Last year the conference was in Chicago and it was my first time there, and wow, what a city! I loved it! I don't care for large cities (having grown up in and moved out of Los Angeles) but I adored Chicago. The conference was four days long of mosaic heaven. I took three workshops: a smalti/millefiori/glass fusions class with Martin Cheek; an andamento class with Gary Drostle; and a design class with Sue Giannotti. Here's the mosaic I started in Martin's class and finished when I got home. I loved working with the Mexican smalti and fusions, which I had never used before.

One of the highlights of the conference was the mosaic walking tour. Saw some gorgeous mosaics, my favorite being Marc Chagall's Four Seasons. I could've spent all day looking at it.

The mosaic marathon was fun, as was the mosaic art salon, where you get to bid on another's mosaic art and sell your own. Here's mine, which sold to a woman who also bought my mosaic at the mosaic salon at SAMA, San Diego, 2009! I'm bringing another cat mosaic to this year's salon, so we'll see if it sells or not. :) Had a great time browsing the vendor marketplace, hoping for a winning ticket at the raffle, and listening to some intriguing panels of speakers. There was also a group trip to Chicago Sici's as well as end of the week dancing and pj party!

And one of the best things about these conferences - seeing all of my online friends and meeting new ones! Looking forward to catching up with my buddies in Austin in just two short days!! Will give a full report upon my return!

One of the challenges of the book mosaics...

2011-01-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

Last week I started the 8th mosaic for my children's book and have just come upon this particular challenge I have been expecting since I first started making the book. This is one of the reasons I haven't been grouting the mosaics as I go - so I can continue to make changes.

My challenge is this: re-creating an object from one page to another, but in a much smaller size. I have been consciously aware of this as I've created each design and have therefore attempted to make it work in advance. But some things are bound to be unexpected! So I can't show a photo of what I'm talking about, but three mosaics ago I made an intricate design and now I am stuck because I can't repeat that design at such a small scale. So I will have to go back and redo that first design so it will work in this mosaic. The good thing is, I didn't particularly like the first one so now is my chance to make it even better!

The clock was okay to do since there wasn't great detail in the first place and eliminating a couple of details doesn't change it too much. In the photo on the right, the clock is about 5 inches long. In the first photo, as you can see, much smaller! And check out the teensy tiny millefiori that I am using for this mosaic. It gives you an idea of just how small some of the elements are!!

I'm having a great time, by the way!!

Another Santa Barbara Mosaic Artist

2011-01-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

Since I started making mosaics in 2005, I have been looking for other mosaic artists in my area. I know maybe four in town, in the five years I've been looking! This is an area that is in serious need of a mosaic community! I didn't even have a place to go to learn how to make mosaics when I was first starting out. The closest classes were 90 miles away.

Just last year I found Tami Macala, who lives only a few miles from me! We visited each other's studios and have quickly become friends. Today an article came out about her in our local online paper, the Noozhawk. Yay Tami! A year ago she opened the Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art so now there is actually a place in town to learn mosaics! So if you are living in or near Santa Barbara, CA, (or want to visit!) and wish to learn the beautiful and incredibly addicting art form of mosaics, sign up with Tami. And contact me, too! I'd love to meet more mosaic artists!

My mosaic won 2nd place!

2011-01-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

I entered my mosaic, "Please, Can I Come In?" into the humor competition on the mosaic forum, CMA (Contemporary Mosaic Art), and was awarded 2nd place. I won a $50 gift certificate for Maryland Mosaics, of which I spent immediately, haha. The judge, Martin Cheek (who has long been one of my favorite mosaic artists!) said this about my mosaic:

"I’ve long been an admirer of Christine’s cats - of which, this is a great example. I love the limited but PRECISE palette that works so beautifully here. The wavy lines in the sky add an interest to the background andamento- which must represent about 90% of this piece. This would have been a worthy contender for the earlier challenge: Comp 1 on SPACE because compositionally it fulfills that brief...AND it would also qualify for Comp 2 - which was 20 x 20 cm. (8 x 8 inches.)
I love the way that the cat’s paws are lined up with his eyes - the whole face is completely symmetrical - which is what gives him(?) such a humorous look. The little paws overlapping the simple frame are an inspiration.... which reminds me: What is the difference between a cat and a comma? One has the paws before the claws and the other has the clause before the pause."

If you are a mosaic artist and are not currently a member of CMA, I HIGHLY recommend you join (it's free). There is an enormous gallery of beautiful mosaics to which you add your own, as well as an ongoing competition (current one is Medieval beasts), discussion forum, and a great place to network. Check it out!

2010 in review

2011-01-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

At Flickr, it is a tradition for some mosaic artists to post a compilation photo of the work we did that year. Here is mine. In 2010 I made 16 mosaics: 5 trades, 4 commissions, 3 sold artworks, 1 gift, and a partridge in a pear tree, haha. Three of the mosaics have not yet sold. Two are in galleries and one will be coming with me to Austin, TX for the SAMA Conference and Mosaic Salon. So I'm pretty happy with this year's accomplishments!
In addition to these mosaics, I also made some progress on my book.
Here is a compilation photo of my book progress. I was able to finish four mosaics for the book, each 15x24". I'm hoping to get at least that many completed this year, if not more.

My other successes for 2010:
I exhibited my artwork in 10 shows, and for the first time, two of the galleries were outside of California (Ciel Gallery, Charlotte, NC and Maplestone Gallery, Ontario, Canada).
I attended my 2nd SAMA Conference in Chicago where I took three workshops to further my art education.
I received two people's choice awards, one for Beautiful Anyway and one for Toby the Goby.
My mosaic, Portia, was published in the new book, Mosaic Fine Art Portraits.
And I am awaiting the next steps after learning I have moved on to the design phase of a project I applied for at my local hospitals! Will keep you posted. :)

All in all, 2010 was a great year. I look forward to much more success and many more accomplishments in 2011 and I wish all of you the same!!

Detail of 7th mosaic for book

2010-12-31T20:50:00.000-08:00

Nearly done with the 7th mosaic! Just a couple more days and I'll be finished, but here are a couple of detail shots. It went really quick compared to the previous two. This design was much simpler and no people or animals to slow me down. I'm excited to get to the next mosaic because the rest will be indoors and I can't wait to plan out all of the details of the furnishings!

My artwork has been published!

2010-12-30T15:08:00.001-08:00

My mosaic, Portia, has been published in a new book called Mosaic Fine Art Portraits by Irit Levy and Pam Givens (Mosaic Fine Art Books, 2010). It is a beautiful book with some gorgeous portraits, many by mosaic artists who are new to me, so that was a nice surprise. The next book in the series will be Mosaic Fine Art Abstracts (tentatively named). There is currently a call out to artists to submit for this book. If you're interested, click here for more information. Deadline is February 10, 2011. I won't be submitting for that book as I don't create abstract art, but I hear one of the future books will be on animals and you can bet I will be submitting to that one!

This is the second time Portia has been published. The first was inside and on the cover of Mosaic Artist's Bible of Techniques by Teresa Mills (Quarto Publishing, 2009).

Also, last year, one of my cats, Pounce, was published in Laurel Skye's book, Mosaic Renaissance (North Light Books, 2009). This is one of my new favorite books, all about using millefiori in mosaics, so I'm very proud to be in it. If you work with millefiori in mosaics, you will love this book!

Happy Holidays to all!

2010-12-27T14:37:00.001-08:00

This is most likely my final mosaic of 2010. It is called In a Pear Tree, it is 7x8" and is made with stained glass and millefiori.

Also, an update: I am getting close to finishing the 7th mosaic for my children's book. I should be finished with it by the end of the year and will post photos soon!

Happy New Year and thank you so much for following my blog!

Mosaic #6 for book is done!

2010-11-22T19:41:00.001-08:00

Yay! Another mosaic for my book has been completed. I am now almost half way there! This mosaic took about 100 hours in a two month time span. Unfortunately I had many things slowing me down on this one. I'm hoping to pick up the pace on the next ones. It would be so great if I could have it ready to print by next summer! It is doable if I do nothing else, but that is not likely to happen. I had a lot of fun with the millefiori in this mosaic. I browsed Laurel Skye's book, Mosaic Renaissance, for inspiration in cutting the mille in different ways. Very fun! Here are a couple of detail shots. I will be able to show more in mosaic #7 so stay tuned!!

Day of the Dead ATC mosaic swap

2010-11-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

I swapped mosaic ATCs with my super talented friend, Rebecca Collins! Rebecca creates such fun and creative mosaics with the most incredible eye for color I've ever seen. And I love her choice of subjects from dogs to beetles to octopi to robots - so playful and unique! Rebecca started a mosaic ATC swap blog if you're interested in joining in. The next theme is hearts or the color red. Here is the dog I received from Rebecca and the skeleton face I made for her.

Not only does Rebecca create awesome mosaics, but runs a fabulous computerized pet portrait business of which I took advantage of directly after adopting our cat, Raymi! She so easily and beautifully captures the essence of the animal and her skills in composition and color, I'm telling you, are to DIE for! I admire her talent so much and am so lucky to own two works of art by Rebecca. And I do intend on my collection of her art growing in the future. :)

Here's Rebecca's portrait of Raymi. Beautiful, huh?!!

Mosaic 5 of book is done!

2010-09-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

This was a very challenging mosaic for me, so many details, I had to really stretch myself with this one. While the previous mosaic took 105 hours, this one took 120 hours - twice as long as the first two in the series! There were so many decisions to make each step of the way. I also redid some things once I finished gluing the final piece, so that stretched it out longer. Here's one more detailed shot. I'll take a little break and work on a couple of small commissions and then onto mosaic #6! (I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the book - woo hoo!)

Book progress! 5th mosaic well underway

2010-09-02T11:48:00.001-07:00

I am so happy to be back at my book! I was away from it for about 4 months creating work for shows and small commissions. At the beginning of August I began working on the fifth mosaic and while I still have a lot more to complete on it, I thought I'd share a couple of work in progress photos. This is by far the most detailed mosaic I've done for the book and already I have spent more than 100 hours on it. The most detailed parts are done, so I'm hoping that, even though it's mostly background fill to do, it will go faster than the first half! Wish I could share more (boy, do I) but here's a little for now. :)

Second cat done

2010-07-24T13:26:00.001-07:00

Finished just in time for the group show I am participating in at the end of this month. This mosaic, entitled Please, Can I Come In? is 8x8" and made with stained glass and millefiori. I was originally going to do the background in blue, which would've been gorgeous against the brownish orange of the cat, but I thought the cat would rather want to come in from a snowy, cold outside than a beautiful sunny day! I worried about that choice, thinking it would be too white or too stark, but now it makes the composition interesting to me. Plus the different shades of white, the mille, and the andamento keep it from being a boring background. I like it!

This mosaic and the other mosaic cat will be at the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion in Santa Barbara, CA from July 27 to August 29. If you are a local or are in the area, stop by! I will have three or four of my older pieces there as well.

New mosaic: Lookit What I Can Do!

2010-07-23T12:33:00.001-07:00

I'm participating in a local group show next month (details coming soon) and so will have two new cat mosaics to show. This is the first, inspired by the funny things cats do to get your attention. Sometimes my cat rolls over and just acts cute (well, IS cute) to get me to come over and pet her. Other times she does amazing acrobatics, then looks at me for approval and applause. Well, she IS talented. Second mosaic to be posted soon. Just adding the whiskers. :)

Burano: New Mosaic For Donna

2010-06-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

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!!

New Mosaic, New Trade!

2010-05-10T10:36:00.001-07:00

I created this mosaic, "Gila's Tree," for who else, Gila! Gila Rayberg to be exact. She asked for a tree and I asked her for an animal, her choice. She picked a chameleon, well, actually, two (see the hidden one?). Another fun trade. Thanks, Gila!

Awakened One in Buddha Abides Exhibition

2010-04-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

A little mosaic, Awakened One, is 5x5" and made with Mexican smalti and millefiori. It was created for a group show, Buddha Abides, which will open Saturday, May 1, 2010, 5-7 pm, at The Frameworks Gallery, 813 Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara, CA and run until May 29. If you're a local, come on by!

New Work: Beautiful Anyway

2010-04-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

My newest mosaic, Beautiful Anyway, got its start in a Martin Cheek workshop I took at SAMA in Chicago last month. The class, using Mexican smalti, millefiori and fused glass pieces created by Martin, was an opportunity for me to use some materials I've never used in mosaics before, as well as to meet one of my favorite mosaic artists! He was great fun and I loved trying out the smalti. It is so beautiful and much easier to cut than Italian smalti, though tricky still when I am so used to stained glass. The mosaic is 8x12".

The title of this mosaic can be interpreted in any way you like, but for me, after it was grouted I looked at it and had to laugh because the eyes (fabulous eyes created by Martin) were looking in slightly different directions. Though I did this on purpose, it wasn't until that moment that I realized that the cat and I had something in common: when I was four, I had surgery on one of my eyes because it was "lazy" - it didn't look in the same direction as the other one! This made me think about how else I am different from others: I've never felt like I fit in anywhere, and as a teen, hated that, but as an adult, embrace it! Although since I've discovered other mosaic artists, I'm finding a place I fit, while still being uniquely me. And despite all my differences from others (or because of them) and my crazy eyes, I think I'm beautiful anyway. :)

Mosaic Trade!

2010-04-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about knowing so many fabulous mosaic artists and having them as friends is the trading we get to do! This is my fourth trade now and oh, am I a lucky girl! This beautiful mosaic is by the ultra-talented Jane Denison. As soon as she posted it on Flickr I fell in love with it. I thought it was made for somebody else, so I quickly decided it couldn't be mine. I did, however, let Jane know how much I loved it, and lucky for me, it was available! Isn't it gorgeous?!! It is about 5 1/2 x 8 1/2", entitled "Bursting at the Seams," inspired by Hundertwasser's work. I love the colors, the fabulous Mexican smalti and millefiori cleverly cut in half and using the centers for the windows, the fused glass door! I love it all. And now I own two mosaics by Jane!

So Jane suggested we do a trade, and asked if I'd make a mosaic of the little orange cat who starred in "I Gotta Be Me." This is the mosaic I made for her, entitled "What a Glorious Day!" also 5 1/2 x 8 1/2," and made with stained glass, millefiori and vitreous, with gold wire for the whiskers. It was a joy to make and I'm so happy Jane now owns one of my mosaics. Thanks Jane!!

P.S. Two more trades are in the works with two more of my favorite artists. Who could they be? Stay tuned..... :)

At last Mosaic #4 for book is DONE!

2010-02-24T16:30:00.001-08:00

I'm not really sure why this one took so long to finish! Started it in December and took a month off to make "I Gotta Be Me," but still took more than 100 hours to make. There were a lot of details in this and way more decisions to be made than in the previous three. This mosaic and the next three or four take place outdoors, and then it will be back inside again. I so wish I could share more details but I'm hoping the wait will be worth it! I'm having so much fun putting millefiori every place I can in the designs but with restraint! I don't want it to be TOO millefied :-)

I have a small mosaic to make now and then it's off to Chicago for the SAMA conference - can hardly stand the wait!!! So I'll start mosaic #5 at the end of next month. Guess I won't be finishing the book this year..... oh well....

New Work - I Gotta Be Me

2010-02-08T09:41:00.001-08:00

I am still working on the book, I promise! Nearly finished with mosaic #4, but I had to take some time out to create this mosaic for the SAMA mini salon in March in Chicago (can I even express how excited I am to go?!). It will be my second conference and I've never been to Chicago but have always wanted to. Can't wait to reconnect with all my mosaic buddies and meet some new ones!!

I'm glad to finally make a mosaic with this theme. Not only do I feel strongly about being yourself in your art and not creating for others, only YOU, but too often I see people being affected by the judgments of others and letting them dictate how they feel about themselves, how they act and what they choose to be and do. I like to live like the little orange cat - knowing who I am and not being swayed by what others think I should or should not be, spoken or unspoken! It's a much happier life and I wish the same for all of you!!

The Kitty Bunch

2009-12-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

I participated in a Facebook game where the first five to respond receive something created by me. I ended up taking nine names. This was back in April and I have just now gotten around to creating these little guys. After I finished making them, I took a photo of them all together and they reminded me of The Brady Bunch, all looking around at each other, so I thought it only appropriate to name them The Kitty Bunch. They are made with stained glass, millefiori, gold wire, and are each 4x6".

And I'm very happy to say that I am back to working on the book! The next design is in progress and I hope to start cutting glass for it very soon!!

Mosaic Commission Completed

2009-11-10T16:25:00.001-08:00

Oh! I'm done with my mosaics for the Central Texas Medical Center! It was a two month project that kept me from working on my book, but I was so happy to do it. It is my first public commission out of state, so I'm very proud of it. The five panels (large one is 24x36" and the four small ones are 18x24") will be hung in the labor and delivery waiting room so they will be super visible and will hopefully bring a sense of calm to the expectant mother and her family and friends. :-) They are made with stained glass, millefiori and vitreous. I am anxious to get back to my book but have one more project to get done first: I participated in a game on Facebook where you create something for the first 5 to respond. Well, I took nine names so I'd better get to it! But after that, THE BOOK!!

Okay, where have I been?!!

2009-09-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

I unfortunately (or fortunately?) had to put the book aside while I completed a commission for my wonderful (YES! Wonderful!) dentist. Everybody should have a dentist like mine. If you're in the Santa Barbara area, sign up with Sonia Kim and her husband, Calvin Kim, immediately! They have the friendliest, warmest staff as well, and it is a pleasure to go.

So the past few times I've visited her, she has pulled up my web site on the monitor above me and praised the mosaic trees I've done (yes, while she cleans my teeth!). Last visit she asked me to make her two trees, one for herself and one for her in-laws. Here are the results. The one with the white and blue flowers, Sonia's Tree, is 8 1/2 x 16 3/4" and the other one, Spring, is 6 x 11 1/2".

It will be awhile before I get back to the book as I just started working on a large public commission for Central Texas Medical Center! Woo Hoo! Pictures to come soon...

Finished Mosaic #3!

2009-08-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

It took me awhile, but I finally decided on which mosaic to use for the framed picture. It had some of the same colors as the rest of the mosaic and isn't so detailed that it distracts from the action on these pages. What's great is I'm keeping the mosaics on mesh until I'm done with all of them and every once in awhile I'll peek at them again and see little things I'd like to change, and I am still able to do it. So I can refine them as I go along! I printed out a photo of "Brown Kitty" and glued it to a piece of clear glass. Then I put a second piece of clear glass over it and "taped" the edges with Deco Tape so that the grout would not seep through later. I did this once before with a wedding invitation and it worked great!

This mosaic took me 70 hours and like the others, is 15x24". It took me 23 days straight, some days I worked only one hour, others I worked 6 or 8 hours, but it all averaged out to about 3 hours a day. Hmm... I think I need to do better than that!

Mosaic #4 is going to be chaaaaaaallenging!! But first, the mosaics for my dentist! I'm actually looking forward to a little break and doing something a little more simple and smaller!

Nearly done with mosaic #3!

2009-08-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

I should be finished with it today or tomorrow. Here's a picture of some of the progress. I was going to make a jewelry box next to the vase but decided to go with something personal, which is a bowl that my son painted for me for my birthday when he was five. The characters in the book will closely resemble me and my family, so the items in the house will, too! I will put a picture of one of my older mosaics in the frame above the bowl and vase. Haven't decided yet which one, but when I am close to done, I will know what works best. I want to do that throughout the book - mosaics within a mosaic! Oh, looking at the photo, I think I need to re-work the inside of the bowl...

After this mosaic I will take a break to complete a commission for my dentist (trees). Though I am waiting for a glass order to start them and if it doesn't arrive soon, I guess I'll have to start the fourth mosaic for the book! Oh well.... :-)

Mosaic #2 is done and onto #3

2009-08-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Mosaic #2 went pretty good! I'm really happy with it. Took me 60 hours exactly (my goal) and only 16 days. I will be done with the book by next May if I keep this up!!

The design for number three was another challenge for me. I had more perspective issues and many other problems with the composition that stretched the designing time out to 18 hours! (compared to 10 or 11 for the other two). I’m working on mesh and will not grout the mosaics until they are all finished so that I can make last minute changes if I need to.

This mosaic features my husband and our cat, Raymi, both of whom had to pose so I could take photos of them and use them as reference! Hopefully I can make the mosaic look enough like Greg – I haven’t done too many mosaics of people yet, and none of them were men. Here’s what I’ve done so far of Raymi.

Update on Mosaic #2

2009-07-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

Making some great progress on mosaic #2, pages 3 and 4. What I am loving about these mosaics is the detail, and, of course, the mille! I'm big on detail, and these mosaics will be even more detailed than my usual detail, which is really making them fun to do. I get kinda bored if a mosaic design is uncomplicated (or if I have to make 40 of the same design, aka San Diego trivets, haha). Barb has been researching printing costs (thanks Barb!) and I think I've decided to go hard cover on my book. Yes, it will be a higher price, but I think it will be so worth it!

Can't wait to see this puppy finished!

Got started on second mosaic of book, pages 3-4

2009-07-24T17:33:00.001-07:00

I finished Lin's puzzle piece and I haven't heard back yet from the woman with the 2 portraits, so I'm back to working on the book. Yay! (Thanks for the photo, Lin!)

The second drawing took some doing. I had some perspective issues! I'm not the best drawer so I had to redo and redo and redo the drawing. I like my compositions interesting, and for this book there are several pages with a bit of a crooked perspective, I guess you could say. Anyway, I finally got it to where I am happy with it and I think it's going to be really sweet!!

So the first bit I mosaiced today was..... hmmmm.... a cat! (Bet you didn't guess there would be a cat in this story, haha) And who am I modeling her after but our family kitty, Raymi. I've already made two mosaics of her since we adopted her a year ago. What can I say, she's a beautiful cat and a great subject for mosaics!

Here she is! She will figure prominently in the book, so look for more mosaics of her. I'm soooooo excited about this book. On the one hand, I can't wait for it to be done, but on the other, I am really enjoying the process, too, so it will truly be a "labor of love!"

Finished 1st Mosaic of Book!!

2009-07-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today I finished the first of the mosaics for my children's book - woo hoo! It is 15x24" and will be the first 2 pages of the book. It took me almost 70 hours, which is close to what I estimated, so I'm happy. What surprised me was that I was able to put in mostly 4-7 hour days, despite it being summer and having my son home with me. Although it took exactly 4 weeks, I worked only 18 days of it (due to vacation or simply needing a day off!). Imagine if I were to work completely uninterrupted! I could be done in 7 months! So that's not gonna happen. Moving on...

Here is a teensy peek at the mosaic. I know it isn't much at all, but this particular mosaic gave me little to share because any part of it gives too much away on what the story is about. I promise to share more with the next mosaic!!

Unfortunately I won't get started on it for maybe a month as I have a mosaic puzzle piece to make for Lin Schorr's collaborative jigsaw puzzle mural, as well as a commission I just got yesterday for a cat and a horse. I'm really excited to start the next 2 pages of the book (there will be people in it and that will be my greatest challenge for this project), but I'm happy to still be making money, too. :-)

The Start of My Children's Book!

2009-07-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

So.... I've embarked on a project I've wanted to do for nearly ten years: illustrating a children's book! Before mosaics I painted and thought, one day my paintings will be good enough. Wrong! At least in my eyes. So I kept painting, hoping to get better.

In 2005 I discovered mosaics. After creating mosaics for almost 2 years, I suddenly got the brilliant idea of doing a children's book in mosaics! I was so excited because I had never seen it done before. I went online to see if I could find such a book and who do I find but Barb Keith! Her book, The Girls and Boys of Mother Goose (Brownian Bee Press, 2006), is a collection of nursery rhymes illustrated in stained glass mosaics. Since then, her second book has been published, Mosaic Zoo, An ABC Book (Brownian Bee Press, 2008).

I was so impressed with the book, all of the wonderful details, the different borders, how she did the faces. I wrote her immediately to tell her how much I admired her work, and to order a book, of course. From there, a new friendship began.

So Barb, amazing and talented in so many areas, published the book herself through her own company, Brownian Bee, and offered to publish my book, should I ever get to it! But, I still didn’t have an idea.

Well, about 9 months later in December 2007, I got an idea! I wrote Barb and said, “You should do this!” She wrote back saying, “It’s a great idea. YOU should do this!”

Yes, a year and a half went by before I started. I got distracted with marketing myself in every way possible, which included producing as many new mosaics as possible so I could get my work seen in galleries.

Last month I posted two new works on Flickr: a skunk and a mouse. Among the feedback were many comments telling me how perfect they’d be for a children’s book. Wellllllll, I have to say that lit the spark that made me say, “If I don’t start, it will never happen.” I knew it would take me a year to three years to finish it (depending on other projects that would come up meanwhile) and I like to focus on one thing at a time, so this thought contributed a lot to me delaying this project.

So I want to say a huge thank you to those who posted on Flickr for getting me started on this, as well as Barb, who continues to encourage me and support my ideas. Thank you!

Now, as many of you know, I am a FLICKR ADDICT! And I am a lover of documenting my works in progress. I post almost daily the work I accomplished that day, as well as my thought processes and decision making as I work. Therefore, this book is going to be a huge test in self discipline because I really want the book to be a surprise - soooo I won’t be posting daily WIP photos. :-(

However, I WILL post cropped bits of my mosaics every so often. I simply cannot NOT share! I’m too excited! Plus, I hope by having an audience, it will continue to motivate me to finish the book even sooner. And it will definitely make me blog more frequently.

I can’t share too many details about the book but I will say this:

There will be 15-18 mosaics, each 15x24”
The printed book will be 10x16” when open, so each page will be 10x8”
I’m estimating each mosaic to take about 60 hours
They will be made of stained glass and millefiori (lots of mille!)

And that’s pretty much all I can tell ya! Here's my first photo to share, a teensy part of pages 1-2. I am nearly done with this first mosaic and have spent about 45 hours on it so far. (That is another OCD thing I do – log each and every minute I work on a mosaic. But in the end, I can tell you exactly how long it took me!) So it’s possible I can finish sooner than I am estimating. We’ll see! Stay tuned for more on this exciting adventure of mine ….. :-)

A Fun and Successful Month!

2009-05-11T16:45:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I didn't feel I had anything exciting to say or any fabulous new work to post (though I haven't stopped creating stuff!). However, ever since I got back from SAMA, it's been quite the exciting month for me! Here's what's been goin' on!

First, SAMA was awesome! It was my first time going and I intend on making it to each one from here on out! Unfortunately, I had to leave two days early, but the highlight for me was meeting my online friends in person - oh my god, what fabulous people! They were just as I imagined they would be. Fun, funny, sweet, weird, all good stuff! I miss them already! Here's just a few of them. We joked that ours was the kiddie table - all we did was play, laugh, and have a great time!

When I got back from SAMA, I immediately went to work on a new installation. I had about two weeks to get it done so I worked pretty much non-stop! A local church found me online and asked me to create a mosaic for one of their members who had done so much for their church. They wanted the words "Wittman Patio" and live oak leaves, since the church is Live Oak Unitarian. I finished in time to install, but because of rain, didn't get it grouted in time for their Easter services. However, the mosaic was still revealed on Easter and Mr. Wittman and the congregation were very touched. :-)

Next up, publication!! I had submitted a few of my mosaics for a new publication on mosaic techniques about a year ago and completely forgot about it. Not only did one of my mosaics get selected to be in the gallery section of the book, but was one of several mosaics chosen to be on the cover as well! Woop woop! Check me out next to Irina Charny :-)

After I got over that excitement (okay, I'm still not over it) I found out that I made my first gallery sale! While down in San Diego, I took my four cats to Solana Beach to be in a mosaics show at the Trios Gallery with Irina Charny, Luz Mack Durini, Laurie Mika and Carole Choucair Oueijan (how lucky am I?). Just as the show was coming to an end and I was thinking about making a several hours drive to pick up my work, I got an email that somebody bought all four of my cats! These are among my favorite mosaics of mine and so I was very happy that somebody else loved them, too! I was invited to submit more mosaics to this gallery so off I go to create!

Finally, I have just been chosen to be the featured artist for the month of May at Gallery Los Olivos in California. I just hung up my work and it will be there until June 3. It ended up that I had the perfect amount of work available to fit their wall! Now if I can just create enough for a solo show, that would be awesome! (It sure isn't easy, being as slow as I am, but I'm working on it!)

So....does all of this make up for the lack of posts over the past few months? :-)

Tree Trade

2009-02-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

I just finished another mosaic entitled Trees For Irit. It is 12x16" and is made with stained glass, vitreous, millefiori, beads, and jasper. It was created as a trade with one of my favorite mosaic artists, Irit Levy.

Now check out the tree that is on its way to me! It is also 12x16" and is titled Chez Christine. I completely adore it! She is so good at using color and her backgrounds are amazing. I only hope to be as good as her some day!!

New Work

2009-02-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

My first post! My blog has been sitting empty until I had created a new mosaic. This mosaic, entitled Summertime, was created for a poster/t-shirt competition for our local Summer Solstice celebration here in Santa Barbara, CA. I only had a week's notice to make it, so it isn't as detailed as I normally do, but sometimes less is more! Especially for printing purposes. But if it doesn't win, I didn't invest too much time so I won't be (too) disappointed. Next year I will get a jump start on it!