Added a links page and began updating tutorials on my website. More to come soon...
I've been keeping busy assisting with my local community mosaic group
for a few hours each week... working on my smaller projects at the
mosaic group when I can as well as mosaic projects for the group,
although most of the time I end up helping out with this or that and
putting my almost 8 years experience of making mosaics (and many more
years experience with computers & other techie stuff) to good use,
answering questions and helping where I can. I enjoy my time there, not
only for the interaction with other mosaic artists of various skill
levels ranging from beginner to experienced, but also being able to give back something to the community. The mosaic group is a great catalyst for making/building friendships who all have at least one common interest... MOSAICS!
Thank you, Dianne Little for creating this wonderful group where
people on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) can come to learn how
to make mosaics for the community and also create new friendships.
My
larger mosaic projects stay in my studio throughout construction, which
is much easier than moving them around, and I am gradually setting up
and adapting my workspace to accommodate my not entirely unique
requirements. That's not an easy feat, as just the changing variables of
my injuries have taken time to learn and understand how to work with,
but I am making headway sometimes by trial & error, and sometimes by
just good research/planning and using my brain. I figure if I could
fix mobile phones and computers (what I did for previous jobs), I can do
almost anything as long as the physical requirements aren't beyond my
limits!
So there has been plenty to do to set up my studio, and
lots of gardening too which I also enjoy, albeit in small doses to keep
my pain levels to a minimum. The one thing I can do most of the time, is
sit and cut tesserae for future mosaic projects, using mosaic glass
cutters or tile cutters depending on the material. All in all, the last
few months have been an interesting part of my life's journey, and so it
continues...
Currently I have 2 mosaic projects in my studio:
"Night Watch" - a mixed media pictorial with cats in a tree. I have emphasised the eyes of
the cats, to give the impression they are watching something, and also
to the stars to convey night time. I've had this project packed away
between moves, but now have the space to work on it.
The other
mosaic is for a wall fountain (no title yet). This project has evolved
since the glass background panel was broken both times I have moved
since beginning the fountain. I was recently given a small fibreglass
pond, which I wasn't sure if I'd incorporate with the fountain as I had
planned to use a half kerosene type drum as the water reservoir. Then,
shortly after I began looking for a suitably sized wediboard panel, the
husband of a friend from the mosaic group found two panels large enough
to incorporate the pond and delivered them to my door... what a surprise
that was, and I am so thankful! Not only has it saved me the hassle of
getting the material transported from the mainland to the island, it has also allowed
me to radically change the background substrate to a torsion box type
structure (picture a hollow core door) which will be much stronger and
will also allow me to hide the plumbing inside the structure.
