Thursday, January 29, 2009

Mosaic in Clay





"Five Maids a Laying"


From scarf pin to wall art, one technique leading to another, between changing and feeding my daughter, the desire to paint and making something big enough to hang on the wall, combination of mosaic and quilting, and everything else in between, I came up with this, what-should-we-call-it, Mosaic in Clay.

This piece is 6"x12" in dimension, the small square mosaic pieces are 1 cm. x1 cm. Some pieces were made with canes that I made and some with canes made with my friends. Look closely for the details.

I wish I had more canes but it is not the thing I like to make. Each mosaic was formed by my fingers. Most of them are different but there are a few "look alike". It's perfect for me who "get bored easily and hate repetition, and can't sit still very long". I can work on one color at a time, get it done and start on another color the next day.


I start out by making a small piece, 6"x6", baked and mounted on the board. Here's the pictures of the first 2 pieces.
















After baking, I found out that the colors got darker and all the details in each piece made it looks "too busy". So I decided to try a bigger piece which I ran in to a small (or big) problem of baking it. My clay oven is too small, I have to sneak it in the "real" oven.


I can make each pieces, bake them and glue them together, like a real mosaic", but the way that the pieces fit together gave out the result that none other material can do. I can also burnish them together and it will look more like painting (go back and see the pin from the last post).

Again, this is just the beginning of some thing big and fun that I will be making. Hope you come back and visit more often.
Hugs

P.S. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK.............



Most of the flower canes I used were made by Keila Hernandez, some are from C.A. Therien and some from Scott Mizevitz. The bull-eye and geometric canes are mine.
Before I start, I made up a bunch of little pieces 1 cm x1 cm. with different colors, many from scrap clay, skinner blend sheet, slides from Mokume gane, and many I make at the spor to make sure get the piece with color that I want.


Here is the piece with random color which is more fun and easier to make.

If you have some canes left over or canes ends that you don't ues, you can send them to me. It would make the piece more interesting details.






P.S. I will offer the "Mosaic In Clay" for sale at my ETSY store (Silastones) as soon as I think they are good enough for sale. So far I only finished 3 pieces and not totally happy about them. Different designs are in the process. Thank you

Saturday, January 10, 2009

I thought you would never ask

Anonymous said...
With no pins, how do these stay on?:)Thanks.
Finally,
someone had read my blog again. Yeh. Here are pictures of the back of the pin.
I embedded the wire into the back of the pin, and bent it into 2 hooks. Then I tied the elastic hair tie to one hook, wrap the pin and elastic around the scarf (second pic.) then hung the elastic to the second hook. Val la!
The elastic holds the scarf snugly so you can use it with thicker or thinner scarf, and if you lost the elastic, you can easily replace it.
Now, I promise, I will write the tutorial, someday, when I have more time. :)