BIG BANG MOSAICS

Although I planned to alternate posts on soft mosaics (fabric, scrapbooking, and quilting) with ones on hard mosaics, here’s a look at another ceramic artist.

I thought you might enjoy viewing some of Cynthia Fisher’s highly detailed mosaics.
Cynthia first came across mosaics in a photograph in the Practical Encyclopedia of Crafts when she was 12 years old. However, she says it took nearly thirty years before she started making them. After filling her home with her creations, Cynthia decided to sell her works under the name Big Bang Mosaics.
“This medium is always challenging,” says Cynthia. Every time I start a new piece, I must solve new problems, such as how to make water look reflective or how to create perspective.”

WHO LET THE DOG OUT? Cynthia made this mosaic for a retiring Latin teacher. “It was fun making this 'beware of the dog' mosaic. I put in lots of Roman mosaic patterns - from the wave border to the Opus Tesselatum of the dog's body, Opus Circumactum of the background, and Opus Vermiculatum which hugs the body.,” says Cynthia. The dog is Echo, a Springer Spaniel owned by the Latin teacher.

TREE OF LIFE: Styled after Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life, this vitreous glass kitchen mural includes special rocks, marble pieces, and pretty bits in the branches.
Her advice to mosaic makers would be to jump right in and try making a mosaic. Get some good books and just do it!
Can’t wait to buy a book?

Here are some MOSAIC MAKING tips from Penny Carlson (you can see Penny’s gorgeous mosaics on my December 16th post).

If you are interested in creating a mosaic piece, your only limits are your imagination. If you are new to mosaics, I would suggest starting with something small, with a flat surface. A good beginning piece would be a silver tray. Although mosaics can look complicated the techniques can be simple and easy to learn.

Materials Needed:
* Vintage plates, stained glass
* A silver tray - or whatever you want to mosaic
* Tile Adhesive,
* Grout - Sanded
* Tile nippers, rubber gloves, blue paper shop towels
* Grout sealer

Instructions:
Gather the plates, stained glass your surface, adhesive, grout nippers and sealer. Breaking the plates and stained glass is simply done, by using the tile nippers to nip away at vintage china plates, stained glass, etc.

After you have your plates and stained glass broken, you begin to apply it to the surface you have selected with the adhesive. This can be in a pattern or random placement. Work on small areas at a time.

Apply the adhesive with a putty knife or a flat wooden craft stick to each piece of china - or apply the adhesive to the surface in small areas and lay the china on the adhesive.

Allow 24 hours after the adhesive has dried, then mix grout according to the package directions and apply with your hands wearing rubber gloves.

Wait about 5 minutes and then remove the excess grout with a blue shop towel. Let the grout dry for 24 hours, buff with a dry shop towel and then apply grout sealer according to package instructions.

You now have a wonderful piece of art that can become a family heirloom.

Note from Barbara:
* You can buy small bags of tesserae (pre-broken shards) at most craft shops or purchase bulk quantities from a wholesaler online. But breaking plates and tiles yourself, however, lets you create more intricate and unique pieces.

Ask a local tile shop or vintage boutique if you can buy their broken goods. Often, they will be happy to let you have damaged goods for free.

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***
I’ll be away for a few days but Mosaik, an amazing blog will keep you amused. You’ll find the best mosaics from all around the world. Donna is obsessed with this ancient art. Be sure to click on faqs to learn more about the “who, what, where and why” of this wonderful site. Have fun exploring.

PRAY FOR PEACE

No, you haven’t arrived at the wrong blog. Today’s topic is still Mosaics, but it was impossible not to make note of a world in turmoil.

Just in case you haven’t heard, Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister and a candidate in her country’s next election, was murdered today.

The first woman to head the government of an Islamic country, she has championed democracy and moderation in an area of the world where both are often in short supply.

Pray for peace.

And now we continue with our regularly scheduled program…

STOP AND SMELL – THE ROSES
In my opinion, the urge to create mosaics is truly universal. Siobhan, an Australian artist, proves my point.
This Melbourne resident makes mosaics with a passion … a passion for roses.

Her romantic creations all feature pretty pink roses as depicted on English, Bavarian, Austrian, and French Limoges china.

Siobhan loves to shop for vintage goods and pretty bone china.

Some of her old world finds she sells online, others she uses in her mosaics for tables, lazy Susans, birdhouses, photo frames, or jewelry boxes.
You can join Siobhan on her shopping missions on her blog Vintage Mosaic Boutique:
Her most recent venture is THE ROSE TRELLIS. Similar in concept to America’s MAKE MINE PINK boutiques, this online directory is a central hub catering to Australian (as well as worldwide) romantics’ shabby chic needs.

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***

How could you resist a blog written by a woman who introduces herself as follows:
“Hi my name is Mary. I am a 50-something reluctant housewife (I’d rather be an international supermodel or a forest ranger or a jockey)…. ? Don’t resist. Visit Little Red House today.

A Kaleidoscope of Color

In case you are recovering from too much eggnog, I won’t post anything too taxing today.
(I'll explain the above divine photo later in this post)

I spent Christmas Day, cooking up a storm. It was lots of fun with family members dropping in and out of the kitchen to lend a hand and taste the results.

As we have for the last few years, our friends brought their Christmas rib roast to our house (my husband is allergic to their pets) to be consumed with whatever I whip up. This year I was feeling ambitious.
The homemade soft bread sticks with an olive, chickpea, eggplant tapenade made quite a hit.I also served pico de gallo, shown here before the avocado was added.

The sit-down part of dinner started with fresh tomato soup with tiny jalapeno-flecked meatballs, a mushroom ragout, and cioppino (with lobster, clams, squid, monk fish and shrimp)
For dessert, I baked Sicilian fig cookies from a recipe given to me by a next door neighbor when we lived in NYC. He made them every year at Christmas.

MORE MOSAICS
Today, I’d like to introduce designer extraordinaire Kaffe Fassett. If this seems too much for you today, feel free to come back tomorrow when you’re feeling up to it.Whether working with yarn, fabric, paint or harder materials--glass and ceramic tesserae, broken china, mirror fragments, pebbles, seashells, and even faux pearls -- Kaffe sees the world as a kaleidoscope of color.
Kaffe grew up in California before moving to Britain in the 1960s. In London, his still life paintings drew attention for their decorative surfaces, depicting patterned china on patterned fabrics.In the 70s and 80s, Kaffe designed knitting patterns, needlepoint canvases, and quilts. His books on these subjects by Taunton Press topped bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the 90s, he turned his attention to mosaics.
“Mosaics first excited my vision a long time ago. All through my early years in California I was aware of mosaic on eccentric structures like Watts Towers in Los Angeles and small examples in San Francisco's Chinatown.
"But what impressed me the most in those days were the personal mosaics of Zev Harris, an artist friend of my family who covered walls, tables and window sills with keys, bottles, tinselly glass, beads and other unrespected materials,” says Kaffe.
"Zev built his whimsical palace of a house on a sand dune in California in the 1940's and it contained walls that used colored wine bottles instead of bricks, and a floor of up-ended blocks of wood in a variety of shapes." Kaffe recalls.

Years later, after visiting artist Candace Bahouth’s mosaic-filled home in the English countryside, Kaffe began making mosaics of his own. The two teamed up to do an amazing book -- a must-have for anyone interested in this art form.Recently, Kaffe created a collection of home textiles, as well as a new book of knit patterns.
As always, he brings his mosaic-like sense of color to yet another facet of the design world.
You can view his bedding at Pine Cone Hills.

Photo Credits:
Food shots by moi, all others courtesy of Kaffe Fassett.


*** BLOG DU JOUR ***

While changing 'colour' to 'color' in Kaffe's quotes, I decided that today's Blog Du Jour should be British. Here are two very different ones. For a design blog with style, go to Print & Pattern. For a peek at British country life, I suggest Mutterings & Meanderings.

PAPER MOSAICS

When I first planned a Mosaic Madness festival, creations crafted from “hard” mediums, such as ceramics, tile, and glass were what I had in mind. But somewhere along the way, all that changed.
I realized there were artists out there working with paper, fabrics, and even food items to create mosaic-like designs. Quilters and scrappers are mosaic makers, too!

In my post about Steve Coenen, I challenged you to guess what Steve used to create the mosaic on his bathroom doors. You won’t believe it…. He used seed packets!

When confined to bed due to a near fatal accident, he realized cutting tiles and breaking up ceramics was impossible. Not one to stop designing, he noticed some seed packets lying around and started snipping.For several months, a local nursery and a worldwide network of friends kept him supplied with seed packs for his pictorial and abstract mosaics. When Steve was well enough to walk around, he created the doors.
Tera Leigh also uses paper in unusual ways. Her designs mimic traditional mosaics. To learn more go to Tera's website.

Photo credits: Seed mosaic in the making by Dan Mayers, turtle from www.marblemosaics.com

MEET MOSAIC ARTIST: STEVE COENEN

A landscape designer by profession, Steve Coenen’s New Orlean’s Creole cottage is a rainbow of colorful mosaics.Inside the house, mosaics cover the bathroom walls, the fireplace and kitchen counters and backsplash. Outdoors, the patio garden is a wonderland of plants and one-of-a-kind mosaic ornaments.

Steve started small, covering pre-fabricated stepping stones in broken tile and pottery. The projects, and his vision, expanded.

The bathroom took two months, and virtually every surface is covered – even the inside of the medicine cabinet. A broken ceramic urn houses the shower head. He added in shells, smooth aquarium stones and fist-sized chunks of amethyst from a friend’s lapidary shop. (sorry no photos!)

This is a photo of his bathroom door. It's not created of ceramics. Instead of telling you what it's made from, I'll let you guess. I'll share the answer in my next post.
“I am fascinated by turning something thrown away into something better. My grandmother Mary Ricard would pick up 10 hubcaps and make a fountain. Like her, I’m a picker,” admits Steve.

“While I was working on my bathroom mosaics, I found yellow and blue Mexican tile in the trash outside of actress Delta Burke’s nearby French Quarter home!”

Several years ago, Steve traveled to Chartres, France to visit the La Maison Picassiette. The work of Raymond Isidore, La Maison Picassiette (the name translates from French into “stolen dishes”), is entirely covered in mosaics of broken glass and crockery.

Raymond spent 30 years encrusting his entire house, inside and out, along with its courtyards and walkways. Even the sewing machine and coffee grinder are covered in shards of crockery.

Photo Credit:
Photos by Dan Mayers

On a completely different subject: My chickens are staying inside for the next few days. Guess who was sitting on a branch above their coop yesterday morning? Hawks generally travel in pairs and sure enough, there were two! Photos are of same one, however.

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***
Can’t make a trip to France? Steve suggests visiting La Maison Picassiette.

Michelle of Cowboys & Custard fame turned me on to artist Cleo Mussi. She definitely pushes the proverbial envelope with her witty transglobal mosaics. I think you'll enjoy taking a virtual gallery of animal and human life-size and miniature sculptures and wall art.

MEET MOSAIC ARTIST: PENNY CARLSON

Judging from your comments, many of you are already fans of Penny Carlson. I am, too. Her ceramic mosaic designs, which she sells online at Lavender Hill Studio, are truly special.
One of the reasons I am attracted to Penny’s work is the way she incorporates plates into her mosaics. As you scroll down, notice the different ways she uses dishes in her designs.

Whether it’s a shabby chic coat rack or an English tea caddy, a teacup chandelier or a vintage vase, entire plates, saucers, even tiny butter pats, play a prominent part in her designs.
Penny and her four sisters were born and grew up in Michigan.

“My father was an architect. My mother stitched gorgeous quilts. I grew up around very creative people,” says Penny.
Peek into Penny’s studio and you will see shelves filled with vintage dishes, teacups, sugar bowls, old buttons, vintage jewelry and many different colors of stained glass.
“When I start a project I love going through my collection of plates and working out the design in my head. I never lay out or draw a design on paper. I don’t measure anything out - it is all freestyle design,” she says.

“I love working on commissioned pieces. China can be passed down from generation to generation, and over the years some pieces can be damaged, with chips and cracks, and are no longer usable. Often, the damaged ones end up forgotten in a bottom drawer of a hutch,” Penny notes.

“When I transform that broken china into mosaic wall art, a mirror, birdhouse or tray, instead of being stored away, it can take a place of honor in the house.”

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***
Penny’s favorite blogs are Dear Daisy Cottage and My Romantic Home.