Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My Mosaic Mural

Those of you that have been in my garden know that art abounds around here. I think one of the things I love the most about having a big yard is having space to decorate outdoors. I love me some color and even more, I love mosaics! (Remember these and this? Oh! And who could forget him?) I was blown away by Gaudi's mosaics when I studied abroad in Spain during my college years, so when I came back to the states, I immediately found a mosaic stepping stone class. That class created a monster and I have since been mosaicing an abundance of surfaces around my home, inside and out. Well, this month marks the three year anniversary of my biggest project yet, a 12 foot by 5 foot tumbled stained glass mosaic mural, which adorns the back wall of my detached garage and is the backdrop for my patio. It took me exactly 31 days to complete, the whole month of July 2007. I worked for six to eight hours a day putting up every piece by hand, and three years later, I'm still loving every one!

The blank canvas, before

Tile backerboard and a quick sketch

Mountains and a tree line, an idea which didn't come about until a quick trip to Bedrock for more glass. I was driving over the hill towards Ballard, saw the beautiful Olympics in the distance, and thought, Yes! That's what I need! A tree line!

Treeline complete. The interminable application of grass blades begins.

Filling in the tree and...more grass.

Another tree!


Blue skies with pieces of mirror to reflect the natural sunlight

Yep, more grass

Sunshine and Ria's bluebird, a little tribute to my bff, Radhi.

Complete!

Thousands of blades of glass, which I cut by hand out of four different shades of green stained glass


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Wow. Wow. Absolutely stunning! I love it!

Carol Whitaker said...

OMG. This is incredible! First, for the patience it took to create it and second for the sheer beauty in the result. Wow! You're a real talent. You should market yourself to do this for others and charge them a bundle! Might find a new career!