Meet our little Tink!

Have I shown you this? It is the first of a a range of 3d pieces that I have had in my mind to do for quite a while. I want to create a whole load of mosaics that can be used in the garden (or indoors or both!).

This chicklet was the first of an experiment – sculpted over time from leftover cement adhesive. He grew layer by layer over several months and sat in the rain and wind and snow to prove his weather-hardiness.

I made him with a sense of play and naivety – like a slightly ruffled new chick not quite sure of his place in the world. He is currently in an exhibition at Opus Mosaic in Exeter until 29th June, amongst other wonderful mosaic pieces, including this AMAZING mosaic by one of my students, Izabela.

Watching Izabela make this left me beyond a doubt that her work is a total labour of love – and she won the Opus Mosaic Exhibition award for the best newcomer! Very well deserved don’t you think?

Another big learning curve…a big one for us this weekend… is allowing  mixed feelings to co-exist in you at the same time. You can have happiness and sadness, excitement and fear, all bundled up in the same experiences.

We celebrated a certain little boy’s birthday this weekend – 6 years since this little ray of sunshine came into our lives (on a very sunny morning, born in the peace of our home). We danced, partied, saw a show with lots of little friends, had a family tea and went out for dinner as a family. Toby continues to meet life with 110% enthusiasm and a huge dose of cheekiness (hard to keep a straight face when one is supposed to be cross with him!). I am full of gratitude for his presence in our lives.

In the middle of it all, we tried to take in the news that our sweet cat, Chloe (whom blog followers will be well acquainted with) was hit and killed by a car. Chloe was no ordinary cat and people who met her would comment that she acted as though she was  human! A Burmese, the breed is nick-named “cat-dog” as they bond with their owners in a very dog-like way and want to be with them all the time. She jumped on our bed every morning. She greeted us on our return from school, either waiting by the front door or running at full speed down the street to meet us. She sat right on our chest as we read bedtime stories each night and she slept snuggled up with the children.

She was well known by the whole neighbourhood – so many people have stopped to say how sad they are. She was a true companion, especially to our daughter.  A member of our family is now missing and we are really feeling her absence (especially for me, as working at home most days, she was my studio buddy, always sitting on my work bench – and on my mosaics!).

Telling the children was heart-renching – and we now watch them process through grief – real grief – and I understand that the death of a special pet is such a landmark moment in a child’s life. It is the loss of connection and the impact is profound – for it is connection (to people, animals and place) that makes us who we are. It takes me back to my own grief and I am full of tears at the moment – for the loss of this little animal who made herself such a strong presence in our home, and for other past losses.

This is life, the goodness and the sadness living alongside each other. And so we teach our children that their feelings are ok, not to be frightened of them but to let them ‘be’, to ‘lean into them‘ as Pema Chodron says in her book. “Taking the Leap“. But neither to be totally collapsed into them because the rest of life – goodness, creativity, fun and love – all continues in the midst of  hard feelings.

I was proud of my kids when we buried Chloe in the back garden on Sunday. They both wrote beautiful, precious words and read them out to her. We wrapped her box in one of Isabella’s jumpers and put Chloe’s favourite toy in with her. Isabella put the soil on her little box, not stopping until she had covered her right up. Then we created a beautiful bowl of floating flowers and candles – which Isabella keeps coming back to when she needs to.

We have also done a slide show picture frame of all the photos we took (there are many!) and keep reading the story book about Chloe which Toby and I wrote for Isabella’s 6th birthday. All little steps in learning how to deal with grief and loss for the first time. “This is the saddest thing that has happened to me mummy. She was my best friend. She was in our family…”

In the sadness, we are grateful for the wonderful experience of having this amazing little animal  in our lives (I think we had 10 years worth of cuddles in 2!). We are slowly letting her go.

Bye bye sweet Chlo Chlo. Thank you for all that you brought to our family.  You are missed and will never be forgotten.

an unusually long blog gap for me – Easter holidays combined with a stream of wonderful visitors and house guests meant that blogging was put to one side.

But in the midst of it, there has been a surprising amount of mosaic making considering the hectic, go-with-the-flow nature of the last few weeks! When I don’t have stretches of time free to mosaic, I am trying to do a little here and a little there instead and it has been happily adding up in the last few weeks…

This little bird is now finished and is winging its way to the Opus Mosaic Exhibition this week. Any of you near the Exeter area will be in for a treat if you visit the exhibition. It is open 6th May – 29th June.

The bird is good for outdoors – I had fun sculpting it with concrete and wanted it to be ‘naive’ looking – like an innocent, slightly dishevelled baby bird…

A new commission is also now finished and has been delivered to happy owners. The mosaic “Oran’s Star” has a beautiful and sad story behind it and I will dedicate a whole post to it soon.

I realised recently that I sometimes feel a little bereft in my mosaic life because, due to time limitations, making my own mosaics often gets put aside. So I decided to do something about it. I have had this vision in my head of a large angel mosaic to go above the fireplace in our kitchen diner.

And so…an angel is being born…it’s going to be a long gestation for sure.

Today I finished painting part of the background (it will be an ungrouted mosaic so I want the silver to show through) and I have been playing with the colour palate.

I adore these irridescent tiles – they have so many different hues and colours when you move past them…

Lastly, work continues on 12 more of these mosaics – for a regional firm of solicitors.

They were so impressed with the first one that they want the rest made for the outdoors so they adorn the entrance to each office – what a lovely compliment! I am still collecting votes for this mosaic to be in a chance to win a Topps Tiles competition so if you would spare 15 seconds and one click to vote fore me, I would be so grateful. Click here to vote – THANK YOU!

Here is a piece I have just finished that is unusual for me as those of you who follow my work will easily spot!

This is the first of 15 mosaics for a regional firm of lawyers, so the feeling had to be one of reliability, stability, established presence – more decorum than I would normally embody in my mosaics perhaps! So I chose stone, in a classical, neutral colour and I laid out the background in the opus tesselatum andamento (flow of tiles). That rings true for a lawyer’s firm doesn’t it?!

However, I could not stop there – I had to add a little something – so I chose to use stained glass to cut out the logo, using my gorgeous new Taurus Ring Saw. And the burgundy strip just had to be irridescent because this girl loves a bit of bling even in the midst of the corporate respectability. It is an ungrouted mosaic using cement adhesive – it adds to the ‘brick wall’ feel and I could build the glue up under the stained glass so it was not too recessed.

The tiles are made of travertine stone from Topps Tiles and because of that, I have been able to enter it into a competition.

Would you vote for me?

I promise it won’t take you more than a few seconds!  Just follow this link then click on the vote button – that’s it! If I get into the top 10 by 17th May, I will go into the judges finals! Please do share the link on your FB / Twitter too. Thanks friends!

We have been enjoying making these little mosaic beauties to celebrate Easter  (mummy has been using her two little ones as guinea pigs for the workshop that I am running at St. Paul’s Cathedral this week!).  I feel very excited to be running a workshop for children in this amazing place (which is filled with the most stunning mosaics did you know?) so a practice run with my two seemed quite appropriate.

I had the privilege of having a very up close tour of the mosaics at St. Paul’s when I visited staff at the Cathedral last year – so close that I was up in the dome of the Cathedral, able to touch the 19th century smalti mosaics whilst looking down on the ant-sized people below. My heart rate was up for an hour afterwards!

Do you want to make some of these, for Easter or otherwise? (Making a mosaic cross or own Faberge’ egg seems appropriate at any time of year, I think…)

Here’s what we did:

You will need

Base for cross- in our case we used small crosses made of thin plywood (quite flexible so we used flexible, transparent kitchen & bathroom sealant as our glue). You can cut your own base from MDF wood or order them online. You an also make bases from FIMO/ Das type clay.

We sealed all the bare wood with a watered down solution of PVA (white craft) glue (1 glue: 4 water). The cat didn’t help….

Base for egg – polystyrene. You can also make a ball rather than egg shape – all easily available from craft suppliers.

Again, as polystyrene is slightly flexible, I use flexible glue (silicone or acrylic kitchen & bathroom  sealant – with kids I use acrylic as it does not smell).

Mosaic pieces – cut into small, irregular shapes (two days worth of cutting for this workshop!).

I have used a mix of vitreous tile, mirror and broken crockery. You can use stained glass offcuts too, as well as beads, stone etc… Or if those are not available, try your hand at broken egshell mosaics – colour then smash eggshell and to use as your ‘tesserae’ (put ‘eggshell mosaics’ in a search engine and you will see lots of examples).

Glue: you can use ordinary PVA glue for the crosses. As mentioned above, we used acrylic kitchen / bathroom sealant (that dries clear) because are surfaces have slight flex.

This glue is also great for 3d projects like the mosaic egg as it is very tacky so the pieces stay in place and don’t slide off while you are making the mosaic.

Grout: you can use white and then colour the grout as shown below. Or use a different colour grout if you prefer .

Get plenty of kitchen roll, aprons to project clothes, gloves for grouting, spreaders etc… ready too.

What to do

1. If you are using the sealant type glue, I buy it in the bigger builders tubes (cheaper and I use lots of it!) and then squeeze it into a sandwich bag, snip a corner off and pipe to glue out as a I need it – much tidier as this glue is really tacky.

But you can often buy it already in squeezy tubes (see pic above). Or you may have decided to use ordinary PVA for your crosses… Either way, glue at the ready!

2. To make your mosaic cross:  choose your colours, and spend some time playing around with the pieces, laying them out so that you like what you see. You can choose to not grout your cross at all – if so, just put the pieces touching each other.

If you want to grout, leave a small gap between pieces for the grout to go in. Pay particular attention to making sure the edges of the mosaic pieces line up with the edges of the base.

Before we moved pieces around to make them fit...

Keep an eye on the gaps. If you turn pieces round and round til they fit nicely, you will avoid big gaps and it will look better.

After we moved the peices - edges lined up and gaps closed...spot the difference!

Once you are ready to start sticking, you can either squeeze / spread glue on the back of each mosaic piece (I prefer this as its tidier) or spread glue on your base then pop the mosaic pieces in place.

Make sure you use enough  glue so that pieces don’t fall out when you grout, but not too much that the glue squidges right up and closes the grout gap. A big fat blob of glue is what you are looking for, so that the glue ‘hugs’ the tile nicely.

If you get any glue on top of the tiles it should come off OK when you grout.

3. For the egg:  use an egg cup or old toilet roll to hold the egg while you work.

Work one half first then turn the egg around and work the other half. Tip the egg gently into your hand when you are ready to turn it over.

Remember to use  enough  glue  but not too much that the glue squidges right up and closes the grout gap.

Egg before moving pieces round to close the gaps...

Egg after we moved the pieces to close gaps...spot the difference!

Again, remember to turn pieces around to find the best way of placing them so you avoid big gaps.

Ta da! All glued. Now you have to wait for it to dry (usually overnight) before you grout.

4. Grouting: aprons, gloves, kitchen paper, masks newspaper at the ready! I always use powdered grout that I mix myself, but if you can use premixed if you prefer (buy a small tub so you use it all up in one go).

If you are doing this project as part of a larger school / club group, you can either do this activity with children (always fun!) or teachers / group leaders can do a mass grouting session of all the pieces.

Before you work with  grout, some notes of caution. Firstly, when it is in powder form, wear a mask. Secondly, never wash cement based products like grout down your sink – it will block your drains! Thirdly, wear gloves if you are getting it on your hands a lot, especially if you have sensitive skin. If you do get any on your skin, wash your hands with vinegar when you are done – it will restore the pH balance of your skin.

Ready?

Pour you powder into a container (mask on) and slowly add water until you have a paste that is the consistency of smooth peanut butter. Then leave it for about 15 minutes (this is called slaking).

When you are ready, spread the grout into the mosaic with either a spreader or your fingers, pushing the grout into the gaps. Don’t worry if the mosaic gets covered in grout at this stage.

Make sure you push the grout into the edges of the cross.

Using kitchen paper, start wiping the excess grout off the mosaic. Keep doing this, using lots of clean paper, until most of the excess grout is gone. It can take up to 15 minutes of wiping!

While you are cleaning the grout off, if a piece falls out, just put lots of glue on the base (clear any grout off it first) and put the piece back then gently push grout round the edge of the piece and leave it…(it will be fine!)

You might also spot some cracks / pinholes in the grout as you are cleaning – just fill these  with grout as you go along.

When you think you have removed as much of the excess grout as possible, leave it overnight. There will be a thin film of grout that you can’t remove til its thoroughly dry.

On the next day, you can now do a final clean up of the mosaic – scrub it with water and a nail brush / scourer then buff it dry and shiny!

5. Colouring your grout: if you want to change your grout colour, you can use ordinary paints (not too thick). Metallic paint works well (as does glitter paint).

Simply paint the colour over the grout – don’t worry if you get paint on the tiles, it will wipe off easily.

Clean the mosaic up with kitchen roll, making sure you remove all the paint off the tiles.

6. Display – you can add a hook on the back of the crosses to hang if you want. How about making 3 or 5 of the eggs in different colours and display in a bowl (or in eggcups?).

Family heirlooms in the making…

Have fun and Happy Easter!

One of the main threads is that I don’t believe in limiting what people can achieve because they are ‘beginners’. Instead, I give students all I know and  trust them to jump in at whatever level they are comfortable. It leads to an adventurous approach to mosaic making, where (most) things are possible, experimenting (and making mistakes) is totally encouraged and the hard work of mosaic making becomes play.

Right from their first mosaic, I am encouraging students to use unusual materials, try 3d and textural techniques and attempt stuff that maybe is a bit challenging. And it works!

Take a look a these examples, all of beginner mosaics:

Use of tempered glass, stacked slate and several grout colours in this stunning mosaic  by Janet:

A mosaic of a bird with a 3d effect (stained glass and cement) by Jen. The last picture is just grouted so yet to be cleaned and polished but the accomplished nature of this first mosaic shines through…

This horse mosaic, made by 12 year old Abi during a one day bespoke workshop  (with just a little help from me on the horse).

It is yet to be grouted and I can’ wait to see the finished mosaic!

The common refrain in my studio is “Yes, you can!“.

To borrow a phrase from artist, Kelly Rae, I think I am a mosaic possibilitarian.

Being a mum is so intense – you are thrown in at the deep end.

And yet it is also a slow unfolding, like wearing in a new pair of shoes (I guess by the time they are about ready to leave home I shall have got the hang of it…).

They certainly treated me, including the most amazing fish platter – lobster, oysters, langoustines, crab  (discovered that Isabella loves oysters, that’s my girl!).

The sweetest note written to me by Isabella (I love this part of being a parent, I have a box full of notes like this)…

I was particularly tickled by “everyone recommends you...”. Too sweet!

And after our luxurious meal, we did one of our favourite things – music on very loud and dancing, dancing, dancing til we dropped. All to mummy’s favourite crazy dancing tunes – Supertramp’s Logical, Queen’s We are the Champions and Don’t Stop Me Now to name a few. Just the best…

• You know you are a mosaic artist when you find bits of broken tile in your clothes at night…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when, on an evening out, you realise that you still have cement under your finger nails…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when you buy a plate with the only purpose of smashing it…
• You know you are a mosaic artists when you find yourself spotting tessellations and andamento’s in public toilets (go on admit it!)…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when you have a strange fascination with cement…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when you don’t throw anything away because “I might be able to mosaic with it”…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when your eyebrow tweezers have got glue on them…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when your friend breaks their car windscreen and your say “Bummer -  can I have the glass?”…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when your fingers are covered in plasters…
• You know you are a mosaic artist when you take half the beach home with you (11kg of stones once -on the plane!)…

I have been doing this series on my Facebook Page. Do feel free to add more (click on comments under the title of this blog post)!

Have a great week, whatever you do…

It is our second year of being allotment holders. Any of you who are veg growers will know that its time…

Time to get the seed packets out..

To sow…

To plan…

To plant…

So many veggies on our wish list (about 40 to be precise) and being a big urban hippie, we are growing them all from seed (some of them our own seeds from last year – Mother Nature’s kindness).

If you are anything like me, with a job  list as long as your arm, the impending ‘to do’s‘ of being a veg grower can set me hyperventilating. So me and my sweet bunnies sat down one day and invented this visual, at-a-glance planner for  our growing year :

- what to sow when

-what to re-pot when

- what to plant out when

Here’s what we did:

1. We created a marker (from a small square of card) for each veg we want to grow.

The marker tells you the sowing period, how deep to sow, how far apart to space plants etc… you can add whatever info you want. (note: Mummy is learning not to have everything ‘perfect’ and letting the kids do the labels their way…)

2. We laminated the veg markers, cut each one out and  stuck it to its own lolly stick.

3. Toby came up with the idea of marking on each lolly stick how deep the seeds are to be sown.

And mummy had the idea of writing on the back of each laminated veg marker the date when it was sown and what to do with it next (I still can’t work out if the correct grammar is ‘sown’ or ‘sowed’!)

4. We stuck 6 clean tin cans together with a glue gun – each tin is labelled for a month of the year, doubling round as the year goes on.

And here is how you use it:

1. You put each veg marker  in the pot of the month when you are to sow it so that, at-a-glance, you can see what you need to do each month.

2. When you have done the task for each veg in the current month’s pot, you write on the back of each veg marker what you did (eg. ‘sowed on 24 Feb‘) and what you need to do next for that particular veg (eg. ‘repot end of March‘)

3. You then you pop the veg marker into the next pot when a job is due – eg. if you have sown tomato seeds in February (first job) and you then re-potted them at the end of March (second job),  your next job is to plant them out at the start of June – so you put the tomato marker in the June pot. This way, you can see what needs doing month by month just by looking at your pot planner!

4. Use your at-a-glance  planner to keep on top of  your successional planting (where you sow seeds every few weeks so you spread out your supply of things like salads, radishes and carrots).

There you have it – a simple, visual  planner for all your veg growing!

The kids have absolutely loved doing this activity – looking up the info for each veg – learning loads along the way. It is exciting to see them really engaging in planning for our family allotment.

I thought about mounting the tins on a nice piece of distressed wood to hang in the kitchen / porch / shed, but for now it staying on the window sill in our kitchen-diner….

As you can see, we have started sowing – tomatoes, brussel sprouts, celeriac, leeks and chill peppers. Not having a heated greenhouse, seeds are everywhere round the house. It is nearly March, and that’s when the work really begins…here’s hoping for some warm days to help the seeds to grow!