We have kept it simple – yellow for days that are mostly sunny; blue (a lovely gold veined one) for days that are mostly rainy; grey (irridescent) for cloudy days; silver glitter tiles for snowy frosty days (we are expecting a few of those in the next week).  I will start working on the background soon (and hopefully finish the branches too).

Here’s how January looked!

Not too rainy for London! I have been spending the cloudy and sunny days being a very busy bee this month. On top of doing proposals and tax returns (done, yipee!), I have been working on a new commission for a local school making 6 large mosaic insects for the playground. The bases are now cut out and very nearly ready to mosaic on (wedi board on external ply for re-enforcement, edges and back with 3 layers of outdoor varnish).  As usual, scaling up and drawing (I do this freehand) takes longer than I imagine. On top of waiting for each layer of varnish to dry, I am itching to start sticking tiles but reminding myself that good preparation is paramount! Pics to come.

I have also started a new piece for an exhibition in the summer – I am loving it. Here’s a sneak peek and I will do a proper work-in-progress post later this week.

This week our precious girl turned 6 and I did not have to search too far.

This gift is a precious book of memories,  made over time by the people that she herself chooses. And it is modelled on a book that was given to me when I was 5 years old. At the time I was living in Italy…

…the “book of memories” is one I passed to special people, aunts, cousins who drew a picture and wrote some words in my special book…

…teachers like this one who wrote the message “Never give up” -  important words indeed…

…and some dear family members who have since died (way too young) and whose page of words and pictures have been so so precious to me…

And so it seemed right to make Isabella her own book of “Ricordi“, of memories.

She received it so beautifully (I later showed her my own) and tomorrow she will be asking her very lovely teacher to add to the pictures and words already in the book (care of mummy and daddy). I hope it will be as precious to her in her adult years as this book has been to me.

Talking of books, her little brother and I sat and wrote a story together as his gift to his sister. He was filled with glee doing this and felt so grown up, typing, and I smiled a lot as I saw his little stubby finger hover over the keyboard for half a minute per letter as he found where to press! It took a while but was so worth it, his own little book to his big sister (all about the antics of Chloe the cat!).

I decided that I would also make Isabella a heart brooch from (oh so blingy) glittering pink mosaic tile – when she opened the box and saw it she flung her arms round me “Oh thank you thank you mummy“. So precious…

Here’s my beautiful girl, growing so big (in this photo I asked her how old she was and – as kids do – always wishing to be older!).

On the eve of her birthday, for the 6th time, I sat and wrote to her. A letter about my memories of her from the last year, what she is like, what I feel towards her. It is now a precious ritual that I do for both of my children. You can read more about it here.

What are your ways of making birthdays soul-full? Would love to hear ideas to weave into future birthdays!

“People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are.”

Meister Eckhart

One of my favourite questions to ask myself – what am I being in this moment? – especially good in moments of struggle or stress. I can’t control all that happens around me but I can choose my attitude, my being…

What are you being today?

The brief was to create a mosaic on a theme of flowers, using an element of recycling. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while will know that that is just a teensy bit up my street! So, out came the reclaimed slate roof tiles  (love the worn look of these, which have been on a London roof for over 100 years, no less) and my pot of home made tesserae recycled from disused halogen bulbs (see here for how to do this).

Here’s a little zoom into the piece for you…

Its been hanging in our house for over a month and during Christmas we had lots of visitors…I have really enjoyed watching people’s reaction. There’s been a lot of “Ooooooh…I really like that!” kind of comments, and people stopping for quite a while, looking, taking it in.

I love the tone of this piece and the huge contrast between the matt and the shimmer of the glass …. and of course that cheeky little bee coming from nowhere (any guesses what he is?).

It’s always a magical moment seeing your work in the mass media (it is hitting the newstands in the USA any day now) and it was with glee that I leafed through the pages (such gorgeous content) and finally landed on my article…

The piece is a variation of my tutorial for making mosaic stones. Isabella and Toby were thrilled to see their work in print (That’s what we made together mummy! )

Create With Me is a resource-rich, beautifully photographed publication that celebrates Artistic Adventures with Children.  There are tons of projects to try (for all ages in lots of mediums) and a lovely article by Maya Donenfeld of Maya*Made (one of my Artful Living links). You can get it on the news stands in the USA or delivered worldwide.

If you are interested in trying mosaics with children, you can see a list of all our mosaic adventures and tutorials here. There are more child friendly mosaics brewing in my head, ready for my two lovely guinea pigs to try – coming on the blog soon!

We have had a Christmas full to brimming with social gatherings – all so good (and very different) – including yours truly marking another full lap round the sun. The fullness has meant very little time for reflection and reading (or even watching TV!). And so, January is my designated time for looking back and looking forward. We did manage to squeeze in a lovely ritual as a family on New Year’s eve. Sat around the fire,  we looked at all the photos of 2011. Lots of giggles caused by these:

Then we all took pen and paper and wrote quietly…

1. What we learnt in 2011 (yup, and they both said “to reed and rite“. How monumental is that?!)

2. Our favourite bit of 2011 (Chloe the cat and the new allotment where big features here…)

3. What we didn’t like in 2011 (stress was a big feature for mummy and daddy). We put these in the fire to let them go…

4. Our wishes for 2012. (Toby’s was simply  that “I love” – how beautiful is that?)

We were sitting in the middle of 30 balloons as we did all this and after we had finished sharing our reflections we did some silly jumping around balloon games (at Toby’s insistence) and then….

..on the count of 3… we popped ALL the balloons to welcome the new year in with a bang! Yay!  We used to do this ritual as kids and it was as fun and noisy as I remembered!

As for me, I feel the need to really stop in silence for a while to reflect. Regular readers will know how much I value reflection, acknowledging our achievements etc…but truly, the latter part of 2011 was lived at high speed.

So my journal is ready and I am gong to use these lovely questions from Mondo Beyondo as my starting point:

1. What do you want to acknowledge yourself for in regard to 2010? (What did you create? What challenges did you face with courage and strength? What promises did you keep to yourself? What brave choices did you make? What are you proud of?)
2. What is there to grieve about 2010? (What was disappointing? What was scary? What was hard? What can you forgive yourself for?)
3. What else do you need to say about the year to declare it complete? The next step is to say out loud, “I declare 2010 complete!” How do you feel? If you don’t feel quite right, there might be one more thing to say…

And to that I will add my own thoughts about my priorities, hopes and dreams for 2012 and what ‘flavour’ I want this year to have. Yes, I am letting the new year reflection period stretch deliciously over the whole month and that feels good.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak-peek at a new family mosaic project we have started.

This is an adaptation of a ‘weather tree’ from the Steiner tradition. The idea is that you create a tree throughout the whole year, each leaf marking a day of the year – colour coded for rain, wind, sun etc…  So (of course) we are doing it in mosaic!

We haven’t started sticking the leaves yet but have been noting the weather (for the record it has been rain, sun, rain and sunny so far today!). You can do this in mosaic, with beads or  collage / pencils / paints if you prefer. If you reading this into the new year already, there are weather sites that will tell you what the weather was so you can catch up, or you can run the year from the start of a month other than January.

We will have a lovely, family masterpiece by the end of the year!

This is us today…

…inspired by…

…we made stringed popcorn and seed-filled pine cones for the birds and animals

…and made our way to our lovely allotment

…and found the pine tree (which the children have now named Wisley!) to decorate for the birds and animals

…because they too need to feast on this precious day that is about to dawn…

…and when we had hung the popcorn and seed balls

…we each chose a Christmas song to sing…

…and belted them out across the quiet of the open space…

…the singing turned to dancing for Toby who just can’t resist a jiggle!

Afterwards we sat on the old upturned bath (that will become a pond next year) and had soup together.

And so has begun a new Christmas family tradition (we loved it!).

Wherever you are in the world, we send you wishes and prayers for a Christmas and new year full of meaning, connection and love.

On this shortest day, we are lighting candles, that eternal symbol. It reminds me of that precious, soulful, quote that has come to my mind many many times when observing or experiencing the darker side of life…

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness”.

We have been making these mosaic night lights for presents – quick, easy and very beautiful when lit. Tutorial here.

Wishing you light.

It is always amazes me to see what can be achieved with some know-how, enthusiasm and hard work – and those magic ingredients have transformed the walls of this children’s centre garden, wouldn’t you agree?

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Mosaic bauble with a secret heart...

Have a sneek peek, then maybe you can have a go too? There’s a long version (involving paper mache’!) and quick version of how to make these decorations, so you can choose. And remember, you don’t have to use mosaic tiles if you can’t get them easily. We have used glass nuggets (easily available from pound stores) and you can use beads, buttons, sequins, glitter foam….  The key here is to paint the background of the bauble black as this looks classy and dramatic when it shows through the ‘tesserae’ (tiles).

We took some polystyrene craft balls…

What can you see in the crystal ball...?!

…ripped up some paper (we used packing paper, but newspaper is fine)…

…made some glue, using the recipe from Amanda Soule’s Handmade Home. Half a cup of flour, 2 1/2 cups water, one tablespoon salt and (optional) some clove oil (I accidentally dropped half a bottle in – made for a very Christmassy smell during our making sessions!)…

…we covered the ball with some Vaseline before gluing about 4 layers of paper strips on to the ball (you don’t have to wait for each layer to dry). When dry you want it to be firm and solid…

…we carefully cut the ball open with a craft knife and took the polystyrene ball out. We then made a hanging mechanism with some wire (you can re-enforce the inside to prevent the wire from cutting through)…

…then here’s the special bit. We made some hearts with air drying clay, painted them, then wrote special notes to the recipients of the gift. These were put inside the bauble, and took a photo.

Of course, Granny & Grandad won’t see this but they will hear it and we will give them a photo of the heart & notes with their gift. That is a bit like life don’t you think? That we have to trust the love that other’s hold in their hearts for us, even when we are apart and we can’t see it…

… then we paper mache’d the two halves back together again and when dry, painted the bauble black. It was a little tricky lining up the two halves and keeping them steady so lots of grown up help may be needed here…

…now for the fun bit! We started sticking tiles and nuggets to the bauble.

The key here is to use a very tacky  glue that dries clear because you are not working on a flat surface. We use acrylic kitchen sealant (like silicone but low pong!). It is white when it comes out of the tube but dries clear.

Use a thick blob on the back of each tile so that it embeds nicely into the glue. It should not slide off. Don’t worry if some of the glue squidges out of the sides, as it dries clear. Just make sure you clean off any that goes on top of the tiles.

…I worked out a layout for the tiles and nuggets with Isabella and started her off so that the pattern coursed nicely round the bauble. If you have tile cutters, you can of course cut tiles up into smaller sizes or different shapes. The end result…rather stunning wouldn’t you agree?

You can make simpler versions of these by skipping the paper mache’ and heart bit. Just use polystyrene balls (painted black) or cheap baubles (there are some nice metallic colours available in hard plastic baubles which will show through nicely as a base colour). You can also glue straight onto polystyrene and once dry, grout the baubles with black grout like these ones….

Most importantly, have fun together!