The Butterfly Effect

Ok, I was hanging out in the backyard and saw a bunch of cool looking butterflies. "Hey", I said to myself, a butterfly would make a cool mosaic.

Backyard Butterfly Model

 So after a bit of doodling, this is the drawing I came up with.

Butterfly Sketch

Next I transferred the drawing to an already prepared frame.

Butterfly on Frame

And then I started cutting and gluing the glass tiles.  The colors I used are:

Butterfly - D93 Mandarin (Hakatai)
Butterfly - D41 Lava (Hakatai)
Butterfly - A20 China (Hakatai)
Butterfly - C39 Night Black (Hakatai)
Leaves - B82 Ficus (Hakatai)
Background - A59 Meadow (Hakatai)

Here are some time lapse photographs of the cutting and gluing process.

Time Lapse #1

Time Lapse #2

Time Lapse #3

Time Lapse #4

And here is what the project looks like after all of the cutting and gluing is complete.

Butterfly Cutting and Gluing Complete

And if one butterfly is good, two butterflies must be even better.

Making another Butterfly

And here is the artist with the final product.

Artist with Butterfly

And here is the final of the "Butterfly Effect".

The Butterfly Effect

Moon Tree

Today's project is another that I have done previously. I last visited this subject about a year ago. This one has a simple but a powerful theme: A tree standing alone in the darkness, back lit by a full moon.  After completing this project, I can tell you that my technique has really improved in the last year.  I started with the same sketch that I used for the original but the end result is very different.  I should do the same piece a year from now and see if I am still improving.

Moon Tree Sketch

In keeping with my recent practice, I decided to build two moon trees at the same time.

The next step is a bunch of cutting and gluing.

Here are the colors that I am using for this project.

Tree - C39 Night Black (Hakatai)
Moon - A20 China (Hakatai)
Sky - A17 Grape (Hakatai)
Ground - B32 Teak (Hakatai)
Shadow - B39 Basalt (Hakatai)

On down and one to go.

After the cutting and gluing, it is time to grout.

And here is the artist with the final product.

And here is the final product of "Moon Tree" the next generation.

Mary's Baubles

I just never know what is going to inspire me to create a mosaic.  This week as I was rooting around in my wife's craft cabinet, I discovered some wonderful glass baubles.  I instantly knew that I wanted to used them in a mosaic.

The Baubles

So I just started sketching on some blank paper and this is the design that I came up with.

The Sketch

And then I transferred the sketch to an already prepared frame.

The frame with transferred sketch and baubles

And then I filled in some tile around the baubles.  It is a lot of work cutting straight lines to fit around circles.

Gluing

And finally I finished cutting and gluing.  This was actually a fairly challenging piece considering it is a picture of nothing.  And it is time to grout.  For this piece, I am using a black grout to make the lines really pop out.

Grouting

And finally the piece is done.

The artist with "Mary's Baubles"

And a closeup of the final "Mary's Baubles".

Mary's Baubles