A Couple Beaded Mosaics

I made these two little guys for Christmas gifts for my husband and son. They were little wooden items I got from Michaels that I covered with seed beads and millefiori and then grouted. They're pretty tiny (the penguin is only an inch and a half high) so they were tricky to handle. I then crocheted them a couple little scarves to stay warm!

Still working on book design

Here's a detail of the page next to the copyright page at the front of the book.  Should be only a couple more weeks until the book goes to print!  Barb is doing an awesome job putting it all together.  I'm very lucky to have her on my side!!

Professional photos done for book!

I'm getting more and more excited about the book being done, now that the mosaics have been photographed!  What a beautiful job my photographer, Mehosh Dziadzio, did!  And he was a joy to work with, for any locals looking for a photographer.  :)  Here is a detail of one of them.

8th mosaic for book grouted

Detail shot.  Love these colors.

7th mosaic for children's book grouted

Nearly half way there!  Here's a detail.

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!

At last Mosaic #4 for book is DONE!

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....