Mosaic #14 for book is done!

I have just finished the final large mosaic (15x24") for my children's book!  It was one of the faster ones, which feels really good coming towards the end of the project.  I have one more design to go, a half size mosaic (15x12") which I hope to finish this month and then I will move onto the changes.  I have kept a list (quite long, actually) of what I want to change in my earlier mosaics.  Most are pretty small, but there are a few that will take some time.  I will post those later, as I complete them, to give an idea of what I'm doing.  As an example, this brick house was a grey house (my house) in an earlier mosaic, but it works better as brick, so now I need to go back and change the earlier one to brick.  I wanted the book to reflect as many personal things in my life as I could, but for the betterment of the book, my house won't be grey.  There will also be some areas I change in the first three mosaics I made where I wasn't sure how to cut the glass for those areas and just went with what was easy, crazy paving.  In the three years since I made those mosaics, I've grown and improved, so I'm going to take the crazy paving out and redo it nicer. 

And....here's Raymi completed!

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. :)

Mosaic Commission Completed

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!!

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

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!"