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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Mosaics

My artist friend Michele Patrick, teaches mosaic classes several times a year...A few weeks ago I signed up for her Broken China Mosaic Class...

Our class was held on Friday May 26th, preceding the Memorial Day Weekend.. Our class was unusually small..Three students, and our instructor Michele.

We began the class by spray painting the serving trays we were about to mosaic...While our trays were drying we learned about the glues and paints commonly used to make mosaic art pieces..

We chose our china dishes to be broken..To mosaic these serving trays, we each needed 3 or 4 small china plates...We found it best to break each dish separately.....To break the china  we;

1. put one dish in a 1 gallon plastic bag
2. zip locked  the plastic bag with the dish inside
3. placed the bag/dish on a firm surface
4. hit the bag/dish with a hammer until we had the dish broken to our satisfaction..
5.To shape our broken china, there were round glass cutters available..Which I made use of..I learned the hard way though, that it is essential to have eye protection on at all times while cutting glass..

By the time we had broken our dishes, our spray painted wooden trays were dry...

We went to work gluing our broken china pieces to our wooden serving trays...This was a time consuming process, similar to piecing a jigsaw puzzle together..Our class was a 4 hour class..The gluing portion of our work took anywhere from 2-3 hours..

We were provided a grout kit in our choice of grout color..With explicit instructions..To take home with our trays so that we could grout them in our spare time. Being able to grout these trays at our leisure, at home, was what made this class affordable in price and time..

For those students who couldn't/wouldn't grout their trays at home, Michele offered to do the grouting for them..It was up to these students to return to Michele's house later in the week to pick up their grouted trays....




Our trays with the broken china glued on....


My serving tray with the broken china in place...

This student, Beth, loves to shop for antiques and unique found objects...She operates a vendor booth in a Galveston antique/ resale shop...


 Another student created mosaic trays with us..The design she came up with was beautiful..I don't have a snapshot of it, but I loved the bold colors / simple design of her piece..This student, Araceli, is deeply into yoga and works as a psychiatrist in Clear Lake Texas.


My mosaic tray grouted and ready for the curing process.....



After this grouted area is fully cured, I may spray paint a light coat of varnish to the entire tray :-)

Thursday, May 25, 2017

A blossoming addiction to love and kindness

I have met some wonderful pen pals via the LYA Postcard Swap :-)

Some of these pals have turned me on to other groups who exchange postcards and hand made greeting cards..

One such group is Love Notes

Another group is Global HE(ART) SWAP

So I've been pleasantly busy making greeting cards in addition to my postcards :-)

These are a few examples....










Some postcards I sent out


My recipients know they will get mail from people in our group within a certain time window, but they do not know ahead of time who they are swapping with..

I am grateful to have several communities of pen pals to interact with in addition to my friends and family!

June 20, 2017:


It has been almost a month since I mailed the above cards to their recipients.. I made many more greeting cards since than and have grown more creative in my stamping techniques..

So many beautiful surprises have landed in my mailbox in return :-)

Maintaining connections, whether they be in person, online or via snail mail is a good way to be kind to oneself..

The vintage camera is from Chandra Lynn in Alabama, the Volkswagen Van is from Jackie Wright in England

From Connie Fogle in SC






From Michelle Kocher in Wisconsin
Heart from Cheri Paxton and pigs from Fran Dunn
The sunshine is from Lisa Hamilton in Florida, and the coffee break is from Debra Davidson in Virginia Beach
From Susi Sandlier in Germany
Flowers from Chandra Lynn, First Aid Kit from Eileen Vivell in Germany and Rose from Marriana Dougherty in Arizona
From Christina Brooks in Arizona
Be kind card from Susan in SanFrancisco..The flowers from Fran Bunn
From Trang Kang in Dallas...Her sweet son's work is also included in this wonderful kindness bundle :-)



A lovely image of a wave crashing against the rocks from Christina Brooks



From Trang Kang in Dallas.The rose is drawn with one continuous line :-)







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Another group I recently joined was  The Gathering Place ......We are assigned partners to write to..We share with this partner by sending him or her  a written story about something memorable that happened in our lives..

This was one of the stories that I shared...


This summer will be an interesting season of kindness and love.....

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Happy Mother's Day!

A Mother has her heart forever with her children no matter how old they grow! To all mothers, Have a Happy Mother's Day ! 






Mother's Day this year was the day that my granddaughter Caroline got christened ..A beautiful event with an awesome celebration afterwards..It was fun catching up with family members I hadn't seen in months!






My granddaughter Caroline and I enjoying some snuggles :-)






I made this bracelet for Caroline..On the day of her christening, I gifted it to her parents (Ben and Melissa)  as a momento.. I hope that they will hand it down to Caroline someday..







Monday, May 8, 2017

Take Time

Sometimes words unspoken can mark us the deepest..
~ Mark Anthony ~


Monday, May 1, 2017

Growth

"Growth is the only evidence of new life.."
~ John Henry Newman ~














I have been following this group of Mallards from the time I met them a month ago..I enjoy watching the changes these ducklings undergo as they grow up..I can't wait until they begin their flying lessons..

Click on link to read an article about Mallard ducks :-)

Mallard Ducks