Shoreham Gallery

I've been given a space at the Shoreham Gallery to display and hopefully sell my mosaics, beach art and cards.  It's a really nice shop run by a co-operative of artists and makers who share the costs and work in running it.  I'm looking forward to joining them and getting to know some other local crafty people and feel quite excited about it.  The standard of work is very high so I hope I can make my display match!

You can see their web site at http://www.shorehamgallery.co.uk

The house number mosaic is on the wall and each time I've been free to go and photograph it it's been raining.  Hopefully soon...

Delivered At Last!

At last I have done the grouting in black which is very messy, finished cutting and sticking the numbers and delivered the finished work to Juliet yesterday.  She is very happy with it and her husband even admitted to liking it!  I'll take some photo's once it's up on the wall for all to see.

On Sunday I went to my friend Sarah's armed with boxes full of cards to sell at her McMillan Coffee morning.  It was a bit risky setting up in the garden in very overcast weather but the forecast was right, the sun shone throughout the event and almost everyone who came bought several cards from me.  I was very flattered to hear that some had been hoping I'd be there so that they could stock up again.  Must remember order lots more of the new Brighton & Hove Albion one showing the Amex Stadium which sold out fast.

Preview of house number and table finished!

Juliet is home from holiday and I had to go to the beach today for my first training session at the coast watch tower (I'm going to start volunteering there).  I'd arranged to call round to the house for her to decide on the final things and to see it in place. Unfortunately it was a very wet and windy day (force 6 I'd measured earlier)! and so not ideal for viewing outside.

Juliet was clearly happy with it and seemed very excited that it's nearly finished.  The children gave it a cursory glance but her husband inspected it very carefully peering closely from all angles and not saying a thing.  We asked why he didn't like it and he pointed out that he hadn't said anything (not realising that we girls knew it all from the body language)!  We laughed at the time but I really hope he grows to like it as it will be shining out to welcome him every time he goes home....  Can't wait to see it up in place.

Back to the table - it turned out that my favourite supplier can't get the tiles I was using as singles any more either and had nothing suitable in his bin (only big much thicker tiles).  Why is nothing ever straight forward?!  I tried another shop very half-heartedly wondering how on earth I'd finish the job and was amazed to be shown two shades of blue in a range of discontinued tiles which they still had some samples for and which were exactly the same thickness of those I'd been using.  I was very surprised and pleased and was finally able to finish cutting and sticking then grouted the table yesterday.  Ta Dah!

before grouting .finished.

Shoreham Photo's

I

I I had to go to my hairdressers' house on Shoreham Beach this morning as I'd left my camera there.  It was a cloudy, windy morning but I thought I'd just nip down quickly to look at the sea.  The waves were pounding onto the pebbles and the sun started to peep through.  It looked fantastic so I got snapping and the resultse will be ideal for adding some new designs to my range of local greetings cards.

Before going home I stopped to see the new bridge which must be nearly ready to open now, it's already late and I can't wait to be able to cycle over to the beach from the town.  Again the light was perfect - I feel very lucky to be living in lovely Shoreham!

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.