A shiny top tip from a magical mosaic creation…

…one of my favourite creatures, the ever-magical dragonfly. Helped along in its glittery, shiny path by a top mosaic tip that I have used again and again (see below!).

Here’s a little one I knocked out as a practice run for a commission for 3 garden dragonflies which I am about to do.

Its not yet grouted so if you look closely, you can see the secret ingredient to make it shine…see it? Yes, silver foil. Scrunched up silver foil. Scrunch it up, then unravel it and stick it very, very well to the base then stick clear stained glass (or clear tiles) and the crinkly shine comes through, giving a wonderful depth to the piece. Top mosaic tip don’t you think? I have used this mosaic technique in endless (indoor only) pieces over the years and love it (have a scroll through my gallery and see how many you can spot).

More work new coming…I have decided to start several pieces at once – slow art like mosaics requires more patience than I have sometimes!

9 Responses to “A shiny top tip from a magical mosaic creation…”

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  1. Sy's Prints says:

    beautiful stuff C!!

  2. Kerri says:

    i love artwork of dragonflies- but not real ones so much. for some reason i sort of fear them.

  3. Concetta says:

    Thanks lovely people. Fortunately Kerri, they don't seem to want to come too near humans! x

  4. zeynep says:

    Hello, i am your new follower.i love your dragonfly which is so inspirational ! Especially it'blue colour wonderfull. I'll try to work dragonfly with clay 🙂

  5. Concetta says:

    Thank you zeynep – and great that you can make them with clay – do you fire and glaze them too?

  6. zeynep says:

    yes, i plan to fire and glaze it. If you wonder, you can see my ceramic works on my blog (http://mavisir.blogspot.com/)
    best wishes..

  7. Dana Barbieri says:

    Looks pretty Concetta. I just started this a.m. working on four pieces at once. How is the start to summer going?

  8. what do you use to stick down the tin foil and then to stick down the glass? (thin-set obviously wouldn’t be a good choice, and thats what I’ve used mostly) …

    • Concetta says:

      Hello Christine. I use PVA glue (if you are in the US, Weldbond is a brand name version, but its basically white builders glue). Hope that helps!