Mosaics 'n More

More Recycled Glass Projects

2011-11-22T08:04:00.000-05:00

Here are some more ideas for using recycled glass bottles. The sources for these bottles are endless. You can use ones that you have emptied yourself, from your local bars or restaurants and of course friends and neighbors.

So have fun collecting these bottles and making great art out of them!

Recycled Glass Bottles

2011-11-21T11:53:00.003-05:00

I am a big fan of glass. All kinds, clear, colored, textured, whatever it is, it is a beautiful medium to work with and I have always gotten great results for mosaics, glass totems, bottle lights and the like. If the glass is recycled, that is even better!

Well, thanks to my Grandma, I have received one of her used kilns from her ceramic shop as she has now closed it down. This gift has expanded my options for using recycled glass. I can now "melt" glass bottles into dishes and trays among others things. I am still experimenting with the kiln to perfect the melting process, but the ideas are a plenty out there for projects to do. Below is a video that has given me much inspiration for a lot of future projects. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to Bryan Northup for the great ideas!

Garden Glass Art

2011-07-14T08:31:00.002-05:00

I am always looking for new and interesting projects to do. Recently I came across what was called Glass Totems at a local consignment shop.

These Glass Totems or Garden Glass Art are basically clear and colored glass vases, bowls and plates stacked to make a beautiful piece of art to sit in your flower garden. After closer inspection of the pieces, I knew this would be an easy and awesome project to do.

After collecting some pieces for The Sale Barn, Goodwill and yard sales I was ready to make my first piece. A larger heaver piece was used for the base to give it the totem some stability, then the rest was stacked up. I chose red as the accent pieces between some clear and clear frosted plates and a red Avon Cardinal was used as a topper.

After doing a test stack, I glued the glass together using some clear, waterproof silicone sealant. It took 6 hours for the silicone to set and a full 24 hours till it was fully cured. At this point I could pick the whole unit at the base and it was structurally sound. I was also pleasantly surprised that it was not really that heavy! After some time out in the elements I was very pleased with the beauty and confident that it would not fall apart.

This is a very simple and cheap project that you can do. You can have many pieces going at the same time with a healthy supply of glass. The silicone was most of the cost of the project, but the total cost was below $4.00! The totems that I had seen were selling for around $25 - $30, so a good profit for you crafters out there!

I hope you enjoy this project and would like to hear how making them worked out for you! Good Luck!!!

2011-05-27T09:44:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick video to show you how to put grout on your mosaic! I hope this may clear up any problems you may be having!

Check Out UGallery.com Today

2008-02-12T12:24:00.000-05:00

Hey All,

I have been busy with other projects lately and I apologize for that. But, I did run across this website that I thought was pretty cool.

UGallery.com is an online art gallery that caters to College students and mixes in social networking and eCommerce all at once. It allows sellers a place to show their art for sale and at the same time buyers get great prices on original pieces of art.

The website set up is terriffic. You can search by artist, medium, size, color or even the school the artist goes to. So stop by and see the up and coming artists from across the country.

Till next time.....

How to Price Your Crafts

2008-01-14T10:40:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest problems crafters have is pricing their projects correctly so they actually make money.

We all want to be successful, but to sell your craft at a price below what you have put into it will only make you broke and take the fun out of crafting.

I have found a e-book that is very informative on starting a craft business and how to run it.

The book also comes with an added extra "Craft Pricing Calculator." It is compatible with most spreadsheet programs and is a must to help you run your craft business.

I hope you check out "Craft Business - How to Start Your Own Craft Business" and enjoy it as much as I have.

Till next time.....

New Christmas Characters from MyCraftsPage.com

2007-12-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

First of all sorry for the lack of posts lately. It has been busy the last few weeks and I have ignored this blog.

But on a good note, Tommy over at MyCraftsPage.com has new tutorials for Christmas all ready for you to look at and make on your own.

If you have never been over to Tommy's website it is a wonderful source of tutorials for the avid polymer clay artist. Tommy has a great gift in making adorable character beads that anyone can make.

So visit Tommy today and say Hi!

Till next time.....

How to Make Polymer Clay Beads

2007-11-25T08:32:00.000-05:00

I wanted to start with something simple to make with our polymer clay and decided to show a couple of videos on how to make beads.

Beads are easy and simple to make and yet can bring you in some decent cash if your design and colors are good. I use Etsy to sell my craft stuff as eBay's fees are way to high just to hope they sell there. At Etsy you pay a low one time fee and that is it.

The first video is how to make beads the freehand way, without the use of a bead maker and the second, of course, is how to make polymer clay beads with the assitance of a bead maker. These bead makers are made out of tough clear plastic and usually make 1 - 3 different sizes or shapes with the same bead maker and they are usually priced around $12.99 - $14.99.

I hope you enjoy these and come back for soon for the next project.

Till next time.....

Our First Featured Artist

2007-11-20T01:35:00.000-05:00

Keeping within the polymer clay realm, I have decided to award Tommy Venable of MyCraftsPage.com as our first Featured Artist!

Tommy makes some adorable little characters with polymer clay that would be the envy of any clay artist. But not only does Tommy make great characters, but he makes awesome tutorials on how to make these characters.

This unselfishness alone is a great attribute to have and I am sure Tommy will be awarded ten fold for his work.

Congrats and Thank You for the Tutorials, Tommy!

Till next time.....

Color Scales in Polymer Clay

2007-11-11T18:00:00.000-05:00

Whenever I am trying to learn about a new craft or technique, I always go to YouTube.com to try and find all of the videos I can on the subject. There is nothing better than actually seeing someone show you how a technique that you are trying to learn. I want to thank all of the video makers that have taught me tons of stuff, I can never repay you.

While I was on YouTube, I wanted to find some videos on the basics of polymer clay. Boy, did I hit the jackpot. I found a video on how to do color scales in polymer clay. This not only gives you a great reference to color for future projects you will do, but also gives you some practice on blending different colors of polymer clay.

I have to give credit to Maggie from MaggieMaggio.com for the awesome tutorial and please check out her website for other great tips.

Till next time.....

MyBlogGroup.com is Live!

2007-11-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

I have started up MyBlogGroup.com and I hope you will visit it soon. It is a central point that connects all of my blogs together.

I also have a list of tools that I use to get traffic, money whatever for my blogs. If you have any that are not listed there is a contact e-mail at MyBlogGroup.com on the Tools page for you to use.

I am looking for new things to include on the site also. I do not have any ideas at this time, but I am working on it.

So visit MyBlogGroup.com and let me know what you think!

Till next time.....

Looking for my first Featured Artist!

2007-11-09T11:30:00.000-05:00

That is correct. I am searching high and low for someone to be the first Featured Artist here at Mosaics 'n More. If you know of anyone(can be yourself too) that has extraordinary talent in any art, just leave a comment and I will take them into account and decide soon as to the lucky recipient.

Till next time.....

How Did I Miss This?

2007-11-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I was walking through Michael's and I stumbled onto something that I thought was just for kids. Polymer clay!

So I have been looking all over the web on information that pertained to polymer clay. I even have a couple of books.

Polymer clay has so many uses it is amazing and the things that people make with them are just wonderful. I have listed some links below of some of my most favorite polymer clay websites. I am also going to start a website called PolyClayU.com and should be online soon.

Till next time.....

DesiredCreations.com

MyCraftsPage.com

KatoPolyClay.com

Summer is Over.....

2007-11-04T00:38:00.000-05:00

Well that is what I am using as my excuse for being away from this blog for soooo long. The real reason is that I was caught up in a lot of hype for some other ventures and lost sight of what I really liked to do.

I will start with regular posts soon about mosaics and other crafts. A new feature that I intend on incorporating will be the "Featured Artist" and that will start soon also. If anyone has an suggestion for the "Featured Artist" feel free to contact me with the details of who they, what they do etc.

That is all I have for now and I will be back to regular postings soon!

Till next time.....

Bottle Balance Reviewed

2007-03-19T09:49:00.000-05:00

I sent a finished bottle balance to a fellow 451Press writer that does a wine blog and she wrote a nice review about it in her blog Wine Outlook. If you like wine then Farley's blog is the place to go as she works in a wine testing room at Thomas Fogarty Wines in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

Thanks again Farley!

New Discovery

2007-03-08T18:39:00.000-05:00

Just a quick not about a new medium that I will be using on my mosaics. It is called crash glass. What is crash glass? It is basically tempered glass that has been broken. Most common forms of it are side windows in cars, sliding glass door glass or the glass shelves in refrigerators. It is not windshield glass, as that has a film of something that prevents it from shattering.

I will be making some things with the crash glass and posting them on here for you to see.

Wine Bottle Balance

2007-03-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

I am always searching for neat projects to do and this one caught my eye awhile ago and I have been itching to do it for a long time.

The wine bottle balance in itself is amazing because of the illusion you get seeing the bottle balance in thin air. Then add some cool mirrored glass and it is even neater. I have added a picture below of one that I have done and I will be adding more in the near future.

Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions!

A little under the weather...

2007-02-25T08:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I have been under the weather and have really not felt like doing anything.

So, look forward to new posts coming soon and I will see ya soon...

The Stained Block

2007-01-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

For the last few Christmas's, we've always wanted to make the lighted glass blocks. I am sure that you have seen them. They are quite stunning when all lit up.

So, this year I got everything together to make them. The first big obstacle was to drill a hole in the block. The first drill bit I used was just a carbide tip drill bit and did nothing to cut the glass and after awhile it just got the glass so hot, it cracked the glass.

Back to the drawing board I went. Eventually, I found some diamond tip hole saws that got the job done lickity split. Just make sure you keep squirting water on it while it is drilling. I then used my kitchen sink spray hose to clean the glass residue out of the inside of the block.

My first idea was to use the stained glass paint I had found at Michael's. But for a single coat the light was to strong for it and you could not see it. After many attempts at painting on it, I finally got some results that looked good. I think in the future, I will just do the ribbon wrapped around it. But I did see some nice ones that had little scenes built on them that I may try next year.

Anyways, while I was doing the painted blocks, I got an idea to do a block that was covered with stained glass. I just snipped some glass that fit into a picture that I had printed off and then glued them to the block. After I got all the pieces on, I then used black grout to set them off and to make it look like a stained glass window. I believe it turned out well. The picture is below and as with most mosaics, the picture does not depict an accurate representation of the object.

I am quite happy with the results of the stained glass on the glass block and I am now in the search of different lights to use on the inside, instead of a string of Christmas lights. So give it a try and if you have any questions, please ask.

Ice Storm Cometh!

2007-01-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a week it has been! As amazingly beautiful as the after effects of an ice storm can be, it also can be dangerous and very troublesome.

Most of my town, including us, were without power for few days. No power after a thunderstorm is one thing, but no power after an ice storm and temps dropping to 15 degrees is another! Thankfully, we have family that put up with us for those few days and now everything is back to normal.

I have been ordering tiles and some stained glass for future projects and had a co-worker cut up some MDF for me for the next project I am going to do. I won't tell you what it is, but it will be featured on here, soon I hope.

So till then, take care and be good!

My First Project!

2007-01-10T07:51:00.000-05:00

My first project was definitely fun, but also taught me alot about mosaics.

When I started doing mosaics, I got the basics and was ready to go. I started by making somthing simple, a house number sign. I bought some supplies at the local Michael's and got started on my project.

The first obstacle was finding a glue that worked good and would last out in the weather. After many trials, I have found that Liquid Nails for Small Projects (clear) works great for all my projects and then I don't have to worry about if it goes outside or not.

Once I had the correct glue, everything went according to plan. But the end result was a little disappointing, as I wrongly predicted the outcome of the shade of the grout. A note here to everyone, do not use white grout, unless it is needed for the scheme of the project.

Below is the final result of my first project. It didn't turn out too bad, just needed better color coordination. Let me know what you think.

Thanks HGTV!

2007-01-08T05:49:00.000-05:00

I have done different types of crafts for many years. I can't paint or draw, or sculpt. So for many years I have had this creative monster inside me just trying to find the right medium.

My first interest in mosaics started when I seen an interesting episode of That's Clever on HGTV. So, a big THANK YOU to HGTV! As soon as I seen this project started, I knew this art form was for me.

I have been looking for many months at the different type of mosaics, the different type of tiles used etc. There are many, many outlets in the mosaic world and I think I will be very busy for a long time.

Start Out Slow!

2007-01-04T11:37:00.000-05:00

I am starting my blog with some background information on some of the things that I have learned in the short time I have been doing mosaics before I just jump in with a full blown project.

One of the things that I have found out when I started doing mosaics is to start out slow. I would find something that would interest me and get supplies for it and go to start to find that maybe I should have used a different type of tile or I had a dozen questions when I actually started.

This may have been from poor preparation, not enough research or just plain excited to get going on a project. What ever the reason I have learned to start out slow till I am positive that I know what I am doing for every step of that project.

The best thing that I have done since I started is to designate a permanent space for doing my projects. I have included a picture of my work space for you to look at. It is not anything extravagant, but serves the purpose.

Hope you enjoyed this post and am looking forward to any comments or questions that you may have. I am in no way an expert, but I will do everything possible to find the answer for you. So till next post, have a great mosaic day!

A Great Mosaic Resource Site!

2007-01-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

I have only been doing mosaics for a few months now. One of the things that I did before starting is read, read and read. Of course the Internet provides a lot of info on everything and that includes mosaics.

Unfortunately, most of the sites on mosaics just showed mosaics that they have done, commissioned mosaics that they have done and not a lot of anything else. But, I have found one that I find extremely helpful.

The Joy of Shards is the complete resource guide for anything mosaic. This includes how-to's, history, tips and tricks and even has a large list of featured mosaic artists.

So. if you are interested in starting in mosaics, are a beginner or even a seasoned vet, there is something for all at The Joy of Shards. So visit today and enjoy.

Welcome!

2007-01-02T17:48:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Mosaics 'n More!

This blog will mainly concentrate on anything to do with mosaics, especially projects that I am working on. From time to time I will throw in another craft project into the mix as well.

So stay tuned and enjoy the art of mosaics!