Making my DD# 1 a shrine to her profession. I have the box made, just need to paint/decoupage some images of Florence Nightingale on the background, more paint layering techniques and start adding the collages. She has all the badges, achievement awards, pins, wings, whatevers from back to nursing school - 20 yrs. ago, and I'm putting them into a shrine, and w/add some mosaic bits to it. Then, hopefully, I'll work on the front walk and the path before it gets sooooo hot outside. Then, perhaps I'll try the Riana method to make the Queen chair that is in metal at the Hacienda I so loved.

I just started something today that has been in my mind forever. I'm covering a bowling ball (what did you expect?) with faces.

Little figurine faces found at rummage sales and thrift stores.

Of course the minute I thought about doing something like this the "figurine market" dried up. I'm very cheap (frugal . . . whatever) and won't pay more than 50 cents each for the figurines. All the rummage sales I see must have really expensive junk cuz they are all marked at $3-$10!!

I went to GW this morning for their Sunday/Monday 50% off a certain color tag sale and found three little figurines for 37 cents a piece!

When I chop off their little heads and adhere them to the ball I'll show you what I mean (that sounds a little grizzly now, doesn't it?).

Any good ideas of where to find raw material for this project is welcome! And if you have some that are gathering dust and you don't mind giving them away, I'll pay for shipping!

Wench: your project reminds me of that Geddes lady who dresses up baby's like flowers!!! I could see you faces as the middle of flowers!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

wench-might not what you have in mind but might work...go to the craft store and get some plastic face molds(they make some about 2 1/2" high. You can cast these in concrete and mosaic them with shards. Also the dollar stores(dollar tree, etc.)sometimes have half price on their seasonal figurine. Have you tried posting a wanted ad for unwanted ceramic do-dads on your local freecycle group?

I'm sure my next project will be a stepping stone. I'm currently have two stones needing grouting and working on a flower pot. The flower pot is experimental as I am going to grout it with thinset instead of grout and see how it holds up outdoors. I also need to cast some more stones to demo with in class(I cast smaller stones for demo purposes so my own project doesn't take as long as a large stone because I would never get a large stone done during classtime in time for the grouting demo.

p

Pea - great idea about the free-cycle shout-out.

The concrete casting is not really what I had in mind. What I'm doing is mosaicing WITH faces, rather than ON faces.

Will send that email to free-cycle shortly!

well, I'm really stuck in column h*ll for a while (why did I cut those diamonds so small???) but I'm really wanting to make some Lyndalu inspired mushrooms next. I've ended up with this orange streaky glass that wasn't what I thought it would be and can only really see it on a mushroom cap!

that will be sometime in.... 2009

Well, I have the little mirror window thing I was trying to grout, I want to do a bigger one for the shed- taking a window, making it look like panes with mirror,so it reflects my garden.

Any number of stepping stones. At least the one mushroom (WIP)

And my crummy wall, that I want to fix (mosaic)

That's if I don't get any more great ideas from everyone here

Then I can start back on inside projects

Maria

Here's the start of my faces ball.

It's kinda creepy . . . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Faces

Wench -your windows are INcredible!! glad I checked out the 'faces' and caught them.. I'm ready to start a bowling ball and the side slab off the garage, but the slab feels way to big, I'm stuck..I love your window designs..Debbie W Melb FL

I'm not sure about the bowling ball faces, might creep me out a bit!!

Maria

Stephen King would LOVE that.LOL!!
Even though it is a little creepy, it's very interesting.
I can't wait to see the finished.
My next project is the chimney liners I stare at everytime I go into my little studio.

Sorry Wench, that really creeps me out! like the guy who does life size people and makes their hair out of figurine heads... eeeeehh yuc! lol

Hey, at least she doesn't have arms and legs sticking every wierd way too!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Oh, I knew what you meant, WENCH, but your project doesn't creep me out at ALL. The ones that DO, however, are those mentioned by CALAM and NICE. Yours brings to mind the pieces made by Timmy in Weird Gardens. I LOVE her stuff.

this is the stuff that really grosses me out

Here is a link that might be useful: creepy stuff

Oh nice thyme - thank you for that link.

I have never seen his work and am fascinated. A little repelled too, but he's technically brilliant!

Definitely a bookmark!

oh my goodness...they don't seem creepy to me those are fantastically funny. The cat tipped breasts are even lol funny. And that little funny face that peeks out from under the breast of the male figure...is that is his gentle hidden heart peeking out to show the gentleman has a softside to all his manliness? I bookmarked that one for sure.

p

Yes it is fascinating... but it makes my skin crawl LOL

This is the perfect thread for me to pop back in on, because right after finishing the big magazine project I had about a gazillion ideas. So many ideas and directions to follow that I became overwhelmed by them all. My brain was mush. Vacant. I've had this experience before-- while working on work things, my brain wants to play hooky. It does that by thinking up things I'd rather be doing and this time around I even acted on some of them, with the mosiacs and the polyclay. Perfection of procrastination. Then when I finally had a week or two of time for whatever I wanted to do, it all melted away.

It's slowly comming back, though. I've not been able to get my hands on a single bowling ball, but I've wanted to make cement spheres since I saw some in 1993. Oh man, I love them so much!. I've just recently begun to build some spherical molds in various sizes, using silicone, burlap, and plaster. I will finally FINALLY be able to make as many balls as my little heart desires. I can even mosiac them, if I want.

I've also bought the materials I need to make a Andree Le Blanc-inspired (http://lagniappemosaic.com) column or three. Oh man, I love her stuff. I don't know what she uses for her armatures, but mine are going to be based on the ferrocement idea, using some of the techniques shared by people like Dena and Jynja from the Hypertufa forum here at GardenWeb and over on the GardenArtForum.com website.

The other thing I have planned to work on for sure is the series of horns I've wanted to do for a long time. I made the mold a few months ago and the experience with the spheres I'm doing has helped move the horn idea along. I won't be putting this off too much longer-- will probably do these before the columns.

Ms. Wench, I love your idea-- I've been collecting dollar store figurines for awhile now, but still don't have enough to do any one project. I love the faces idea, but also love the idea of using all kind of body parts, particularly arms and legs, feet and hands. Eyeballs and/or butts! None of it is creepy or yucky to me, in any way, shape, or form! The first time I saw Paul Reimert's work on the link supplied above, I was just blown away. I think you misunderstood pea's idea about casting cement faces-- I believe she meant that you could cast the faces to use as tessarae, not to mosiac on. I've bought several molds like she describes-- got them from the websites selling supplies for the polyclay world. I can't wait to see what you end up with.... and if you find a good supplier, LET US KNOW! ;-)

Nancy

Sooooooo glad you're back MAD. Missed you a lot. Would LOVE to see a tutorial on your sphere mold making. I, too, like Andre LeBlanc's work. She was kind enough to respond to one of my emails when I first started mosaicing. I think I read that she uses light-weight concrete - whatever that means - for her towers, and I think she uses Portland cement and a modified mortar adhesive. I wonder if she uses Riana's wire mesh for armatures. A lot of artists use styrofoam, but it's not as strong as the wire mesh that Riana uses. So anxious to see what you come up with, and some WIP soon.

I am finishing up two birdhouses and a victorian shoe that I have been working on for AGES!! I also want to do a small table for my garden and some stepping stones.Between gardening, bookwork, grandchildren, I hope to get them all finished soon and will post pics.

This is what I'm working on...if I can figure out how to link that is...:oI
Linlee

Here is a link that might be useful: Flower gog

Oh Poo! It won't let me in!!! And I sooo want to see your GOG!!!! I'm nipping irridecent black glass as we speak, for my "Riana" inspired Dragonfly...how many legs do they have???

Six!

Sorry about that...guess I'll do it the old way.

oh yeah...dragonfly/insect 6 legs :o)

OH OH OH - how BEAUTIFUL, LINLE. Lots of exacting work! GORGEOUS!

linlee, that's wonderful!!

One suggestion learned the HARD way by me. Make sure all the EDGES of your glass are securely glued down. Grout bleed under that lovely pattern would be heart breaking.

OH MY BREAKING HEART! LINLEE!!!!! when you posted the pattern before I could never have imagined that it would be so gorgeous OMG! we will need more pics of that!

That is very pretty Linlee. Wonderful pattern and color.

I love the bowling ball too. Are you going to grout? I was on MOA and there was a suggestion of putting grout into one of those cookie bags, or better yet, a ziplock baggie and cut the tip off and squirt grout in areas only where you need it. Has anyone tried this?

Jynja

JYNJA: My first project using mirror shards, I was afraid of cutting my fingers so I used a disposal bag on my cake decorator bag to grout the mirro. 'twas a terrible job of cleaning each piece of mirror w/a q-tip. Hasn't been cleaned since, and it's outside at my entry. It's VERY textured, but I sorta like it. Lost all fear now and I just use gloved hand to smear the grout and then the grout sponge to spread.

That's beautiful Slow! I kinda like it too.

Jynja

Wow Linlee, I love your new project. Slow that mirror is stunning, I love it. Jane your dragonfly sounds fab, show us some pics of your inspiration. Every one has such cool ideas , the imaginations here are great.
Cindy

Thanks all for the nice words...it's my learning project.
I'm trying to add any and all types of glass cutting to this big thing so hopefully in the end I
can at least pretend to know what the heck I'm doing :o)

About the "grout bleed": I am using the silicone II gunk,
about how much should I be slathering on each piece to prevent that? Should it ooze out the sides???

Ooze out the sides, yes. Ooze up and over the grout lines, no.

ahhhh...okie dokie. Guess I have a little filling in to do. I used some, what looked to be, rolled glass and
it wasn't truly flat. Actually had an arc to it.
These pieces will probably be the ones to bleed.
Thanks for the tip!

Jynja, you're here!!! Oh man, you do such amazing work!

Linlee, that project you've got going looks great-- so many little pieces!

Thanks for the welcome back, Slowme-- I've missed this place. The inherent trouble with tutorials for mold making, as I am finding out, is that my hands are always goopy when a photo should be taken. This stuff is messy for sure. If I get to a place where something I am doing actually works, then I'll write out the steps. For now, if people are interested, there are about a gazillion tutorials over in the Hypertufa forum here and some incredible information over at the Garden Art Forum site. Check out this guy's site: http://www.concrete-art.com/. If you click on the "Direct Concrete Technique" and the "Works in Progress" links on his front page, you will find some awesome information, with loads and loads of photos to go along with it. Blows me away at how much he shares.

Andree Le Blanc's "light-weight" cement could be because of a mesh armature of some sort, or it could be that she's used some kind of light weight material in place of some of the sand. Who knows? Styrofoam is what I'd talked about using awhile back-- you were afraid it would rot, remember? In any case, I'm still saving chunks I scrounge for maybe-someday.

The wire mesh idea has been around for a long time, as far as I can tell. They called it ferrocement or something like that. If you google this, you can find articles about houses that were built using this method. In researching cement work, I've found tons of artists using variations of this idea. I think Jynja uses the lath (please correct me if I'm wrong about this), which I think is a great idea-- it makes a lot of sense, all those little "pockets." I also like her idea of using the spray foam insulation on the inside.

Oh oh! I keep forgetting to mention one HUGE inspiration for me was Klinger's hollow sphere in a thread over on the Hypertufa forum (linked below). Oh man, what a wonderous thing it is!

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Klinger's Hollow Sphere Thread

OMGOODNESS - Thanks, MAD, for making me SICK - just looking at KLINGER's sphere and some of the discussons on that side of the forum makes me want to NEVER sleep. Wish I didn't have to. I am soooooooooo envious of that hollow sphere, KLINGER. Ah, well, I just can't do it ALL, as much as I'd like to.

You can do the sphere, it just takes time lol. I have it set up with a mister with a green light in it, glows a soft green from inside and mist comes out. I really like how it turned out. The hypertufa forum is full of good ideas that cross over to mosaics,
Cindy

I got more rummage sale faces to attach to my bowling ball today. I also found a small guitar to mosaic so I've added another thing to my to-do list!