Faces: I like’em a lot

I don’t know why but Faces really interest me. Maybe its because there are so many features in a face and how much character each part adds. You can tell so much by looking at someone’s face. I also do a little watercolor and find my self always painting faces and trying to catch that glimmer of whatever emotion I am trying to convey. Since my passion is for glass, of course I have to figure out a way to incorporate faces. So I made my first face pendant. Although this face pendant might look more like a mask I still think it emits a personality. One of these days I hope to do more sculptural pieces in glass but for now I will continue to strive to capture that glimmer in everything I make.

Mosaic: What I learned the hard way

I have a new respect for all you mosaic artist out there. I was out at a yard sale this weekend and found this great Cart to use in my studio. I decided I would mosaic the top for some extra character since I had been wanting to do it for a while. My sister (thanks Lisa) had given me some tile a couple years ago. I have some advice for those of you who want to try it. It takes at least double the time to make it than you think it will. The grouting process is very messy and much more time consuming wiping and rinsing and wiping and rinsing and wiping and rinsing and wiping and rinsing…you get the picture. I also used black grout so I had black everywhere. I started with gloves but since they were to big and kept falling off I just took them off. So now I have black in every crack and crease of my hands not to mention in my fingernails and cuticles…I even scrubbed with a brush and it is still there. So here are some things not to do when mosaicing that I learned the hard way:
Don’t think you can hurry up and do it plan on the whole day depending on size.
Don’t mix the grout with your hands if your not wearing gloves (especially if the grout is black)
Don’t use a towel when wiping down of the grout instead of a sponge as this will take twice as long and hold to much water and keep wetting the surface just smearing the grout all over where you just wiped.
Don’t rub your bare hand over the surface trying to get grout in the cracks, as you will find all the shape points in all that tile you just smashed up with a hammer.
Don’t wear clothes you plan on wearing again!

Mothers Day is fast approaching

Here are a couple facts about the word Mother:

Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are:

mum or mummy, usual in the UK, Australia, and parts of Canada;
mom or mommy, in North America (especially the U.S.), and in the Midland areas of England.
mam or mammy, North Wales, the South Wales valleys , Ireland, Northern England and The Netherlands;
mama and ma, in parts of the middle east, Latin America and other Spanish-speaking cultures

In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply; maman in German, mamma in Italian, or mama in European. In many south Asian cultures, the mother is known as amma or oma or ammi, or variations thereof. The "M" sound seems to be near universal to the word mother in many different languages; this is thought to be related to one of the first sounds an infant learns to control, the smacking of its lips together as it comes off the breast Many times these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child's life.