Waiting

I've come to a halt on both projects as I'm waiting to find out Juliet's choice for the last few pieces of glass (gold coloured or mirror) and how she wants the numbers to look...









I think the table top needs an a deeper shade of blue for the last part of the spiral as the tiles I have are too close to white but the range I'm using doesn't include one.

Perhaps I'll go and root around in the throwaway bin of my friendly tile supplier in Worthing - it's surprising what goodies I've found in there over the years!

 

Progress

I picked up the perspex base last Friday and have been enjoying gluing the design to it.  Now I just have to decide what to fill in the last gaps with and cut the numbers to go in vertically down the centre.

The spiral on the garden table is also progressing slowly.  To make the pieces fit together well takes ages but I've loved doing it sitting on my sunny balcony in
between visits to the beach....  The blue spiral will fade from dark to light as it flows out to the edge.

Delay and Table

There's been a bit of a delay because it's been difficult to find a suitable base for the mosaic.  I've gone through many possible options but none fit all of the requirements.  It's finally been decided to go for thick perspex which will hopefully be totally weatherproof, won't expand or contract in different temperatures, won't bend and can have holes drilled in the corners for hanging on the wall.  All I have to decide now is black or white?  I'm hoping to have it ready for when Juliet gets back from holiday.


Meanwhile a friend has asked me to mosaic this table top.  She uses it on her balcony and wants a spiral design in white and several shades of teal / turquoise.  Great! Now how does one draw a spiral? This is just a quick pencil sketch I drew to show her but it will need to be more accurate and bigger for the table.

The internet is amazing I put in a search and have been experimenting with drawing spirals using the Pythagorean method which uses a series of ever increasing triangles and the Fibronnaccii method which uses a series of ever increasing squares - good thing I liked geometry at school!   Neither look right though so I have another little challenge on my hands...  maybe I'll end up using the Binks method which uses a random swirl and hope approach.

More Cutting

Another couple of happy hours cutting glass (and not my fingers today)!

I'm going to try to find some smoked glass mirror to fit in the last spaces.  I love the iridised glass - hard to do it justice in a photo' though.

Client Lesson!

Juliet is creative herself and would love to have the time to make things but with two young children there's not much of that available.  She said she would like to watch me working so I invited her round today.

I showed her how to score and break the glass and then gave her some to practice on and by the time she'd done that and we'd chatted over tea and cake it was time  for her to go and get the kids tea.  We had a chance to discuss what colour to use for the last few gaps in the design, how to make the numbers and the backing to stick it on. Now I'm looking forward to carrying on with cutting the new glass.

Shiny black stuff

Today I nipped over to Poynings again (lovely journey just underneath the north side of the South Downs) and collected the rest of the glass I need, some black and some gorgeous iridescent black which changes colour as you move around it with tinges of gold, pink, and green.  It should blend in well with the other colours.

Shoreham Gallery

Today I went to visit Wendy and Jose at the Shoreham Gallery just around the corner to where I live.

It's a little shop run by a co-operative of about 22 artists and makers.  They have some lovely work on display and I have often wondered if I should join them.  Unfortunately the costs to exhibit there are quite high as they have to split the expenses between them and I was fairly certain I wouldn't be able to make a profit (or even cover the costs)!  After having a chat I decided it's definitely worth a try as they seemed sure I would be able to sell my things - they have nothing similar and the price range is quite wide so could appeal to a cross section of potential buyers.  There's also the possibility of getting commissions and meeting customers whilst working in the shop one day every three weeks.  On top of that a customer bought five of my cards as I was showing them which was encouraging!  So my name is down to give it a go once a space becomes available.