Ep. 140 THE LOWER MOSAIC MANE, A MOSAIC FIELD TRIP & MAKING MOSAIC PEONY PENDANTS!

Ep. 140 THE LOWER MOSAIC MANE, A MOSAIC FIELD TRIP & MAKING MOSAIC PEONY PENDANTS!

Welcome to my studio!
0:40 First things first! It is off with his head! Using an exacto & cutting very carefully and close to the glass, I cut the mesh holding St. Mark's head in place. I have to make more than one pass with the knife to make sure all the fibers are cut. Then I pry the mosaic from the plastic and separate it. This head will be installed as one of four pieces of this 16"x16" mosaic!
3:20 I've pulled some darker browns that have already been used in the mane. Before I begin, I use a Sharpie to outline the tufts of mane so I can see them better. Then I start laying in glass from left to right. This works best for me as I tend to shoot shards to the right when working, and I won't be sending any into the mosaic as I go.
4:25 FIELD TRIP! I'm in Duluth, GA at the home and mosaic studio of Jennifer Freeman, a mosaic colleague. She has agreed to share her large bench commission work in progress with us! The bench is 43 feet long for the City of Snellville, featuring elements from nature. It will be on the periphery of a splash pad in a new city park.
Jennifer is staging the finished pieces in her garage. She has five completed panels out of fifteen! The mosaic elements include a turtle, chipmunk, grass, bees, a blue jay, etc. The back of the bench seat has a branch running across it with some bigger elements like a butterfly, a giant cocoon, a caterpillar and flowers. She said she makes some of the mosaic elements in the car. We head back to her studio to see the finished elements that are added with the background. She still needs to add leaves to some of the flowers. There are more birds, bees, a frog, an unfinished dragonfly, and flowers. Then I look around at what is on her shelves and walls. For such a big project, the mess is pretty much under control.
10:24 Back to the dark mane! As I was scooting out the door to go teach, I took another look and decided to pop out some of the darker glass before the thinset set up. Now that I am back to work, this is the first part of the mosaic that I tackle. The area was too dark before and did not tie into the upper mane. Just replacing the dark bit with a lighter tone helps tremendously! Then I get after the rest of the dark mane, working one tuft at a time.
12:22 I decide to make a peony pendant with a yellow center, with white, pink and dark pink. I do a simple sketch to keep me on track. I use Apoxie Sculpt in Natural, mixing equal parts A and B. The two parts are mixed by hand for two minutes, then smashed into the bezel base. Starting with the center of the flower, I build outward adding little filati petals one at a time. Once the flower is done, the green leafy background goes in. As soon as I finish I make another one!!! This time I put dark pink in the center and move to lighter petals near the edge. I make the 2nd one super big and fluffy.

That's Putting It Together Ep. 140! Thanks for watching. See you next time!
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