Mister Ribbit

Happy Labor Day everyone!   What did you do on your Labor Day Weekend?  In addition to a High School Football game on Friday Night, "Go Jets!"  And a College Football game on Saturday Night, "Roll Tide!" And some BBQ, etc.  I managed to work in a little time to finish up a new mosaic piece.

This one is titled "Mister Ribbit".  You know... because that's the sound that frogs make.

As always, I was just doodling on a piece of paper.  Probably during a very important meeting at work, but you'll never get me to admit that in a court of law.  Anyways, Mister Ribbit appeared on my paper.

And I thought to myself, "Self, if you were a frog, would you rather be sitting in this meeting or would you rather be out swimming in a lily pond?"  

So, after I sketched Mister Ribbit, I transferred the design to my already prepared frame and began gluing on the pieces.

Once I completed the gluing, then it was time to do the grout work.  I selected a nice dark grout for this piece.

And this to me is the scariest part of doing mosaic art.  After many hours of cutting and gluing hundreds of little pieces of glass, you slather the entire thing up with a bunch of opaque goop.  And you start wondering if your artwork will re-appear and what it might look like.  

 But alas, your worries are for not.  A little clean up work and here is your finished piece.  Ready to hang on the wall.

Mister Ribbit Complete

Check out some of my other mosaic art pieces in my Gallery.

Snow Mountain

I think I have a tree theme going now.  I did palm trees with "Some Beach".  And then I did a spooky bare tree with "Moon Tree".  Now I am doing some evergreen trees with "Snow Mountain".  I didn't really plan it that way, but that's just the way it works out sometimes.  So, you know the drill by now.

First I did a doodle.

Then a more detailed sketch

Then some gluing.

and some grout.

And the finished product.  And there you have snow mountain.

Snow Mountain Complete

Check out some of my other mosaic art pieces in my Gallery.

Moon Tree

So, unlike my last 2' x 5' monstrosity, I decided to do a decidedly smaller mosaic as I explore this medium. This project is only 1' x 1'.  I figure that if I do some smaller projects, I can explore some different techniques and textures without being committed to a month's worth of effort.

Step 1 starts with a doodle.  I do lots of doodles before something speaks to me.  

Step 2 is a grid drawing that refines the colors and overlays the drawing on a grid

Step 3 is to build the mosaic backing.  I'm not doing anything too fancy.  1' x 1' piece of 1/4 inch plywood.  2" x 2" lumber with a slot down the middle and then cut to 45 degree angles.  and the whole thing glued and sanded.  I usually make a few of these frames at a time.

Step 4 is to trace the drawing onto the backing board.

Step 5 is to start gluing on the tiles.  This piece had a lot more cut pieces than my last project.

Step 6 is to apply the grout.  I went with a much darker grout for this piece.

Step 7 is to finish and clean

And there you have the "Moon Tree"

Check out some of my other mosaic art pieces in my Gallery.

Welcome

Welcome to Jack Mast Mosaics.  I started creating some mosaics earlier this year and decided to create this blog as a place to showcase my creations. If you like my handiwork, please leave me a note.

I got started doing this because I was partially laid off at work and had a little extra time on my hands for the first time in a long long time.  Having extra time was great for a day or two.  But after I had completed all of my job jar projects and reading the books I had been planning to read for a long time, I decided I need something else to fill my time.  I decided to make some art.  But what kind of art.  I've always enjoyed woodworking, but I just wasn't feeling it.  I decided to make some glass tile mosaics.  My first piece was rather ambitious.  It is 5 feet by 2 feet and contains about 5000 glass tiles.  I always say that if you are going to jump in, jump in with both feet.

My first task was to sketch out my project on paper.

Sketch

Starting layout

After building the frame, I copied the sketch onto the backing board and began laying out the pieces.

After gluing on all of the 5000 or so glass tiles, I applied the grout.

Final product

Final Product with the artist.

And here is the final product.  So, if I was starting this new adventure all over again, would I do anything differently?  You betcha!  First, I would have started with something a lot smaller.  I made a few mistakes along the way, but it was a good learning project.  I'll be doing a few more of these mosaics and I hope to continue to improve my technique as I go.  So, stop by occasionally and see what I am up to.  

Check out some of my other mosaic art pieces in my Gallery.