IKEA:)

Thank you Ikea for making your Ritva curtains extra long.

A Day North

William and Kate watching a Beaver swim by.

Best time to be at the cottage. Lovely weather, no bugs and good company:)

Mirror Mirror

This is The Tight Shag Mirror from my Shag Series. It's made with white, hand cut vitreous glass tiles, glass seed beads and chained crystal rhinestone. In 2011 I was commissioned to make two of them.
The other day I received pictures of where they ended up...

24.25"x40", weight 25lbs.
in a beautiful bathroom designed by BedfordBrooks Interior Design.

More dining room changes

This is William enjoying our new dining room rug.

And this is the wall William was looking at before he fell asleep. The Ledge was a quick (1 day for building, 1 day for painting) and easy (thanks to my mitre saw) project, via Ana White.

Making The Queen of Hearts

As I said in the last post The Queen of Hearts with the Mona Lisa Smile took 7 months to complete (working on and off in between various other projects). Although the process was long it was actually very simple. Here is a breakdown.
I began with a primed 4'X6' piece of plywood. It's sturdy which means no warping. From there I painted my layout/design (the plan). My colour scheme and the various elements used were all decided on before anything was laid down. Without an organized plan things can get out of control (ugly), real fast.

Then the fun began. I used the direct method which is laying tesserae right onto the surface.
The challenge, as always, was having all the elements work nicely together.

There was a lot of cutting, a lot of putting down and taking up and a lot more cutting.

 

As with most mosaics, the photos don't do it justice. At nighttime, with the light from the paper clip chandelier, she glitters on the wall.

The Queen of Hearts with The Mona Lisa Smile

 

Yesterday I finished The Queen of Hearts with The Mona Lisa Smile.
She is 4'X6', weighs just under 100lbs (give or take some) and is a nice example of Pique Assiette - made with white and grey vitreous glass tiles (hand cut into 1/6" tesserae), clear acrylic beads (of various shapes and sizes), crystal and grey glass seed beads, plumbing chain, washers, bolts, decorative trim, antique broaches and chained crystal rhinestone.
Our dining room/table has been my makeshift studio for the past 7 months. I'm very happy that The Queen of Hearts with The Mona Lisa Smile is finished and Marathon Man is very happy that we have The Sunday dinner table back:).
Now it's on to The Poppy Field.

Detail

Big Change, Big Impact

We purchased our house in 2006. Since then we've been slowly making it our own, one project at a time. Our latest project has been in the queue for a long time. We had our big box builder's sliding doors replaced with lovely black garden doors and we couldn't be happier with the results.
It was definitely not a DIY. They came, they installed, they left:) The best kind of job, if only they could all be that easy.

After the After...a couple of days later I painted the trim around the doors black:)

So happy with the new doors!

The Yellow Pencil Mirror

 

I've made The Pencil Mirror in Pink, Silver and Red White & Blue (my ode to The USA). And now there is a Yellow version. Welcoming spring with a happy burst of sunshine.
The Yellow Pencil Mirror is 40.25" in diameter and made with hand cut yellow vitreous glass tiles, yellow and white glass seed beads, crystal chain rhinestone and 238 yellow pencils (ARS GRATIA ARTIS on each one).

Letting the sun shine in

 

The girl's bathroom is a project that I've been working on (off and on) for a couple of months.
I finally finished the last of the painting this morning - yeah!
This was my first project using our new (kijiji purchased) mitre saw. How did I live without it?

 

It all started with the shower curtain, Hannah's choice, which led to the colour scheme (yellow, grey and white) which led to the decision to do wainscoting.

As you can see it didn't take much to give this blah L-shaped space some much needed character. Simple changes added some simple fun charm.

If you listen real hard you can hear the birds chirping;)

Dog Print - Etsy, (by a Toronto based Illustrator)

Grey Paint - Benjamin Moore's Smoke Embers

 

Mosaic Magic from Dolce&Gabbana

Wow!
Dolce&Gabbana, Winter 2014 Womens fashion show: tailored mosaic
See more here via Mosaic Art Now.