Sunset Beach

Today's mosaic is called Sunset Beach. I made it mostly because I would love to be taking a walk on a sunset beach right now with my darling wife. Since we are nowhere near the beach at the moment, I decided to do the next best thing and make a mosaic.

My design started with a simple silhouette of a man and woman holding hands. That is me and Mary in case anyone is wondering.

Next I scattered some mosaic tile around to get a feel for some color combinations. I don't always go with plan A. In this case, I really thought I was going to do purple water but decided to go with a cobalt blue instead.

Next I started cutting and gluing the background in place. I decide to cut the 3/4 inch tiles in rough quarters and run them in rows.

Here is the Sunset Beach after I finished the cutting and gluing. I speckled some sunlight reflections on the water.

And now it is time to do the grouting. Where did my pretty mosaic go?

And here is the final of Sunset Beach.

Sunset Beach Final

Sunset Beach Final from Side

Sunset Fun Facts (Source: Kidzworld.com)

The Colors of the Sun

As the sun sets, the light must travel through more of the atmosphere before the rays get to you. By more atmosphere, that means more molecules which scatter the blue and violet light. (Think of it like a glass of water - at mid-day, the light is refracting through the center of the glass of water. With a sunset, the sun is refracting across the surface of the glass of water). If the path is long enough, the blue and violet lights go further than our eye can see. This leaves the pink, orange and red colors for us to look at. So that's why sunsets are usually pink, orange and red.

Sunsets and Pollution

The most beautiful sunsets happen when the air has small particles of dust or water, like after a volcanic eruption. These particles reflect light in all directions, resulting in more reds and yellows, and less pinks. The more particles in the air, the more the light is scattered. Cities with high pollution have great sunsets cuz more light bounces around. If the air is very dry and clean, like in the Arctic, the sky near the horizon will stay blue and the sun will be bright orange.