Cutting the glass has begun

The design needed another bit of tweaking so I made a final version on white paper then couldn't wait to get started, so today I got out my trusty glass cutter and using templates I'd made from tracing paper set to work.  A couple of hours had gone by before I knew it!  It's a great way to forget everything else and become absorbed in my own puzzle of pieces.  I numbered them so they can be put back together more easily (once I have found the backing to stick them to)!   

The orange glass was smaller than A4 it had a piece missing from it and there was a slight pattern I needed to keep in line.  Opus glass couldn't get another sheet the same so with no room for mistakes I was determined to eek out my four shapes from this one.  Yippee!  Just made it with one tiny join.

Choosing the Glass

Yesterday when  Juliet came round I was pleased that she seemed to really like the design with the fans coming in from the side and preferred my numbers to the ones I'd printed from the computer.  She is much more decisive than me which is good!

We set off for Poynings just the other side of the Downs to go to Opus glass where they have a massive stock of sheets of glass in many colours, types and textures.  We spent a happy hour pulling out all the hot colour range that Juliet wanted, trying to find ones that worked well together.  We both loved the iridescent glass (obviously the most expensive)!  Rita and David were very patient - It took a while but eventually we came up with a combination which I think will look stunning and Juliet seemed very excited about.  Unfortunately the pieces were mostly too small so they will need to order more but the most important colour - bright orange - might be difficult to obtain so we wait with baited breath....  It's great to collaborate with someone with similar taste and we have come up with something I'm looking forward to working on.  

The problem now is finding a good base to make the mosaic on.  Originally I planned to make it on mesh and press it into tile adhesive on the wall.  That would have been permanent and secure but  technically difficult for several reasons so I am pleased that Juliet wants to be able to take it with her if the family move house.  This means I have to make it on some kind of board that can be screwed to the wall.  Wood is not good outside - even marine ply wouldn't cope with the conditions a few yards from the sea so after lots of online searching I'm going to see if tile backer board is suitable - I understand it is a thin sheet of concrete which can be cut to size.  Then the next problem will be working out a way to securely fix the numbers whilst making them removable.  What are the chances they'd move to another 123?!

Art Deco Fan design

I'm glad Juliet prefers the Art Deco fan design as I do too - also because it will need large pieces which she had said she preferred.   I enlarged the two versions and played with the numbers ready to show her on Saturday.

Feedback

Juliet likes the fan designs and the circles one so I played a bit more refining both of those...

The Shard

I had already given it quite a lot of thought but a train journey to London yesterday to whiz up the Shard gave me time to do some scribbling.  I took lots of strips of paper in the right proportion and came up with several options to show Julia so I emailed her this.

The House

It was good to meet Juliet and see the house as it meant I could get an idea of her taste in design and colour and measure the space available.  She is obviously a big retro fan and has lots of stylish furniture and flooring to fit the era of the house.

I gave her a box of photo's of mosaics I'd made in the past so that she could pick out her favourites which helped a bit more.  I'm sure we'd have chatted for hours had we not got other commitments as we seem to have a lot in common including both liking art deco design and sparkly things.

The conclusions we came to were that the mosaic should measure 130cm x 20cm to fit on the wall where the numbers are now, be made from large pieces of glass including some iridescent in the hot colour range with a dark background and with large quirky numbers.

That should keep me quiet for a while!

Possible Commission

Last year I had listed some of my work onto Etsy which is a great site for selling hand made items.  It has a massive audience but my buyer lived only a mile or so away on Shoreham Beach.  She likes to buy from local artists and found an oak key hook rack with glass beach huts decorating it that I had made.

She said at the time that she might want to commission a mosaic for her doorstep so I cycled round to have a look at the house and came to the conclusion that a mosaic on the doorstep would be wasted as it would hardly be seen!  I suggested having one incorporating the house number next to the porch and Juliet agreed that was a good idea.  Nothing more happened for several months but today I had an email saying she'd like to go ahead so I arranged to visit her on Saturday to discuss it together.