New Projects

I received some truly exciting and wonderful art technique books for Christmas, and have been working on some new projects. Well, actually I have been kind of in-between because I wanted to begin work on a mosaic table top, but needed to collect some supplies first. One of the books I got for Christmas from Matt's brother Paul and wife Cindy is Laurie Mika's Mixed Media Mosaics: See Mika Arts

So, I've been ordering and collecting materials such as Sculpey Premo! and iridescent and smalti tiles, Pearl Ex pigment powders, acrylic metallic paints, ornate rubber stamps, tile nippers, etc. so I can assemble a beautiful mosaic table with a combination of bought and handmade tiles! The first photo above shows what I accomplished yesterday with the Sculpey polymer clay (rolled, out, stamped, then baked in the oven to harden) and painted with acrylic paints and pigment powders. I am so proud of my first tiles...they look so cool, don't they?

The second photo is the finished tiles, some yet unpainted tiles and some of the bought iridescent and smalti tiles. I think they are just beautiful. After I've completed quite a few, I will start assembling on the board Matt prepared for me, I have some other things like charms, jewels, and gold leaf on the way, and I've got some seed beads to fill in the cracks!

The third photo is utilizing a few of the techniques featured in a book Eunice gave me for Christmas called Mixed Emulsions by Angela Cartwright (remember Lost In Space?). It's a book to combine different art techniques with your own photos, something I've wanted to experiment with for a while. Stay tuned...there will be more!