lol... @ my walls

 A couple of the walls for those who are curious about where some of my mosaics are hung.  Please ignore the dust or any messy things in the pictures.  I always say cleaning is for people who don't have horses (6), a pony, chickens, ducks, a dog and several cats.  And, who have no hobbies and/or outside activities.

We have a hay field, a big and a small garden, flower beds and tons of things to do outside.  Which is where I'd rather be than in the house.

I might be retired from my 30 year job, but I/We have plenty of things and projects that keep us busy.  

We live in the country.  Dance/Fish/Hunt/Junk.  We do maintenance for our horse vet.  My husband works a full time job.  He will also do side jobs after work and on the weekends.  I work part time for a couple of storage unit facilities.  We do cleanouts/sales/ and Auctions.  We do a monthly and sometimes a bi-monthly Swap Meet (farm and garage sales together) sale in our town.  

We participate in have several big community wide garage sales 2 day sales that are 2 times a year.   And, a friend of mine and I try to setup somewhere before every major holiday or special event in our small town.

I just took these pictures of the downstairs living area.  I have mosaics all over the house.

Dance Mosaic

 done for a friend who is a line dance teacher.

She just had surgery for breast cancer and is now undergoing radiation.  And, during this she lost her dad who was 98 years old.  The board is one of his from his workshop.  Several months ago, my husband and I went to her home and helped her clean out the workshop.  She knew my husband was a carpenter/handy man.  We also got a lot of other things like tables/chairs, etc. that she wanted to get rid of.

Door Headers

 did these to go over the doors in the downstairs spare bedroom

Dance Mosaic

 We loved this picture that one of the dancer's/photographers took at the Country Western New Year's Eve dance.

So, I decided to try making a mosaic.
I've really never done faces before.

So, I took the picture, cropped it and used an abstract filter to get a picture to enlarge for a pattern
My husband said it's his most favorite mosaic that I've ever done.
I think it turned out pretty good too.

Earth, Wind and Fire - 3 Horse Head Mosaic

 I finished the 3 horse head mosaic.  My husband cut the board that I used.  After I finished the design, he helped me grout it.  I ended up using Almond - Non Sanded Grout.  After the grout was dried, I cleaned up the surface of the mosaic.  Sealed it with high gloss art varnish.  Then my husband hung it on the wall for me.  We did have to rearrange a few pictures to get it where I wanted it.

I think this is the best mosaic that I've done so far.

Raven Grouted

I finally got around to grouting this piece.

the nest is not grouted.  

see this post to find out about creating his nest:

raven-on-his-hoard-not-grouted

a multitude of found items went into the nest - along with some strands of beads and some large wooden beads, buttons and other tesserae

the tree limbs are broken tile that looks like wood

The raven is a variety of blank and gold beads

the tree leaves are different colors of green stained glass, faux pearl and glass beads, faux gems and a whole bunch of plastic silver leaves from some cheap jewelry from the $1 store

and a few pieces parts from bracelets, etc.s

Earth, Wind and Fire - 3 Horse Head Mosaic

This pattern was created by Toni Whitney and as done to be used to make a quilt.

I knew when I saw it that I had to buy it and use it for a mosaic.

I can't imagine doing this as a quilt.  Cutting all these pieces would give me nightmares.

Included in the pattern is one sheet with all 3 horse heads.

and sheets to do the horse heads individually

I enlarged the pattern on our copier.  I copied it into 6 sections.  I taped them together to make a single pattern.

My husband cut a board for me to put the mosaic on.

Then using carbon paper, I transferred the design to the board.  

glue geode redone in resin

a while back I tried doing a YouTube video where the lady showed you how to use white glue instead of resin.  I was not pleased with the end result.

here is the result of that experiment


I had the frame in my stash from garage sales and storage unit clean outs
my husband cut a board to fit the frame
I glued the board into the frame
then used caulk to seal the edges

I added lots and lots of stones to the top of the board
also added several piles of gold and silver beads
then poured resin
added glitter
used alcohol inks
and silicone oil


fiddling with it by using the heat gun to push the resin around
adding glitter where I thought it needed it
or more stones

3 Horse Head Mosaic - Finished

 Finished the glitter.

Covered in resin.

And, a frame made by my husband that we chalk painted.

3 horse mosaic - phase 2

my glitter stash

more than one grown woman should own.......

rummaged thru the glitter stash and found several containers


poured some of each into a bowl, mixed it and added more until I came up with this mix


got out my Mod Podge and a foam brush


put a thick coat of Mod Podge on the board
sprinkled with glitter
mashing and smoothing it in to the Mod Podge


After this layer of glitter dried
I added another thick coat of Mod Podge over it to make sure it was all glued down

I dug out the green glass pieces


and sprinkled some on top of the glitter




all ready for a layer of resin

3 horse mosaic - phase 1

I'm always looking for mosaic ideas.  I look at stained glass and applique patterns a lot.  I found this 3 horse stained glass pattern.  This is printed on a 8 1/2 x 14 inch sheet of paper.

using carbon paper, I traced the pattern onto a board

then started to fill in the horses with lots of small things from my craft room hoard

the manes are bugle beads

ear is a decorative chain with small discs

the head of the horse is B.B's

the eye is a black bead with a silver seed bead glued on the hole

there is more chain on several places of the face

large links of chain were cut to form the area around the nostril and mouth

silver seed beads under the neck and at the bottom of the chest

silver glass pebble rock and silver plastic beads in the body

a piece of chain on the chest

and more B.B.'s for the leg

this horse is using the same materials as above, except in gold or copper B.B.'s

the ears are petals from a flower pin with some chain links glue to the outer edge of the ear shape

same materials as the other silver horse except this one has one ear formed from a different type of chain

and the second ear is formed from cutting up links on a large chain

where is some ball bead chain on this one around the nose and that runs up the front of the face

red dot in this one and one above is to remind me not to fill the area in........
they are suppose to be blank............
yes, I need reminders like that sometimes!