Ep. 200 STARTING THE MOSES MOSAICS!

Ep. 200 STARTING THE MOSES MOSAICS!
Hey Everyone, welcome to my studio!
I am starting the glasswork for a large mosaic project this week! I have been commissioned by a church to make three mosaics that will go around the sides of a fountain, in between three spillways. They are all in the theme of Moses. Because the fountain is round, I will be working on AR fiberglass mesh with silicone as my adhesive. I am using stained glass and 24k gold smalti.
0:05 Recap - I show the design for Moses Striking the Rock. I am starting with Moses.
0:50 I will start with Moses's eyes. I will be using dark brown glass to give it a rick look.
1:00 It takes a ridiculous number of nips to get the first few pieces just right. It is so important to get them right since he is the main character. It is not a micromosaic so I need to simplify his features and details.
3:10 It looks funny when I am halfway finished because the tone of the glass is so much darker than the tone on the base design. Once all of it is done it will make more sense. I decide to use the face tape method for portions that have lots of small pieces like Moses's face.
3:55 Working on shelf paper with the sticky side up allows me to position the little pieces without them shifting all over the place. As a final touch, I add a small sliver of glass next to his nose to give it more definition.
4:58 I end up putting in half an ear, which works well since I can't add detail there. Then I add the face tape and cut it out.
5:45 I add silicone to the bigger face pieces and flip the whole thing into position over the mesh on the design. The facetape holds the smaller pieces in place until installation.
6:12 Next, I start adding Moses's hair. He's got a full head of nice light gray wavy hair! I put dark gray near his face to indicate shadow of the hair.
6:27 I realize I need to work on the hand since it is in front of the hair. I use my template since I made some minor changes. Then I transfer the glass and add silicone to adhere it.
7:18 Then I work on the staff since it is also in front of the hair. I picked two colors - one for the shadowy side of the staff. I keep the streaking as it looks very woody. I use a piece of straight glass to align it once all the pieces are down.
8:11 Now I can finish his hair and his beard!
Not shown: How much I stared at it, trying to decide on the skin tones.
9:55 I also went to a glass shop, which took about a half a day. I was looking for skin tones that would work on Moses and did not find any. So I dug through my glass again and found more that would work. I also picked out the tunic and other clothing.

That's Putting It Together, Ep. 200. Thanks for watching! See you next time.

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MOSAIC IN PERSON CLASSES (Atlanta metro area)
Spruill Center for the Arts: https://www.spruillarts.org/
The Art Place Mountain View: https://www.artplacemarietta.org/