i have been working day after day after day on mosaicing a chair for my garden. i made it last june when i went with a couple o' gals up to beldenview, wi to take a workshop with the talented wouterina de raad. it was rad. we learned to create concrete sculpture with metal lathe as the base. wrangling that metal lathe was a serious bi-otch as you can imagine. it took some doing. so it (the chair) sat in my studio for a few months while i focused on other projects, but since the first of the year i have been working on it at least two to three hours daily and once or twice a week for six hours a day. and it is still not done.
the chair is one of those projects that i had nooooooo idea how much work it would take going in. mosaic projects are like that. it seems i have to learn everything the hard way. wah. dumb me. i had this vision (uh-oh) while i was beating the metal lathe into shape that the chair would look like a stargazer lily when it was done. yah, easier said than done. first of all, i could not find any hot pink/fuchsia tile. i looked and looked. i was prepared to buy a an entire set of new fiesta ware dishes- but they were more of a flamingo/peach color in person. not what i had in mind. boo. apparently hot pink glaze is pretty darn near impossible to achieve. i would have bought some and made the tiles myself- but no, it's not for sale. doesn't exist. in fact, it is only within the last ten years or so that dependable red glazes have become available (and i am so glad they are). so, anyway, i resorted to stained glass.
the chair is one of those projects that i had nooooooo idea how much work it would take going in. mosaic projects are like that. it seems i have to learn everything the hard way. wah. dumb me. i had this vision (uh-oh) while i was beating the metal lathe into shape that the chair would look like a stargazer lily when it was done. yah, easier said than done. first of all, i could not find any hot pink/fuchsia tile. i looked and looked. i was prepared to buy a an entire set of new fiesta ware dishes- but they were more of a flamingo/peach color in person. not what i had in mind. boo. apparently hot pink glaze is pretty darn near impossible to achieve. i would have bought some and made the tiles myself- but no, it's not for sale. doesn't exist. in fact, it is only within the last ten years or so that dependable red glazes have become available (and i am so glad they are). so, anyway, i resorted to stained glass.
now stained glass is something i have always been kind of drawn to - bright colors- so shiny and sparkly and yummy. but i have not indulged in it for one main reason: fear. i was scared of cutting myself. i'm just a wimp like that. buuuuut, i needed to fulfill the vision... so off to the stained glass store i went. it was a big store- more glass than i had ever seen in one place- and guess what/ no hot pink. not even in glass people. wah indeed. buuuuuut- there was this other pink glass the lady showed me that was pinkalicious- mmmm, i wanted to eat it up (ouch) it was all pink and swirly and iridescent- YUM! sold. so i bought that and a few other colors- green for leaves of course- some yellow. then, i got my lesson on how to cut glass. "she is able who believes herself able." a glass cutter, a nips, saftey goggles and i was off. not that different from cutting mirror, which is glass, after all. i cut glass for days on end. days and days and days. i cut myself, and it was not as bad as i thought it would be. then, i mixed batch after batch after batch of mortar and glued all those little bits to the chair base. it was like doing a big puzzle where you make all the pieces as you go along. some of the pieces i had made did not fit, and new pieces were cut. the glass sometimes split in places i did not want it to... and then fit perfectly into places i had not anticipated. it was like magic. i got into the flow of measuring with my eyes the positive and negative spaces and going back over to a sheet of glass and cutting the needed shape. it really seemed so foreign to me and yet it all began to flow. it is not as fluid as painting, not as fluid as throwing clay, not a fluid as drawing. It's downright inhospitable- glass shards flying everywhere. always on and off with the darn saftey glasses. the cuts. the pricks. i was constantly scared of getting glass in my beverage of choice (usually water) and drinking it by accident and cutting my throat on the inside. yes, this thought occurred to me many times. i tried to keep my beverage out of the way, covered. but it all did start to flow. i even started to do puzzles at home on the dining room table. ???
i had envisioned gold tile at the base. i returned to the glass store to buy me some. guess what? no gold glass either. non-existent. caramba! you must be kidding me? i bought amber-colored glass, sprayed the back of it with gold paint and baked it in the oven. nothing like a curve ball to complicate the complicated. the resulting "gold" glass seemed like it would pass.
so day after day i glued- the unexpected presented itself and told me what comes next, as these things do. sooo, now finally- the grouting. grouting- i thought it would be a one time deal and done- not so. it is also a step by step by step process. more cuts on my hands. my index finger has been cut so many times i think i my fingerprints will never be the same. i have gone through at least one whole box of band aids. but now, i am getting close. i can smell it. soon, soon, soon...
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