Detail of 7th mosaic for book

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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. :)