Mosaics, still

We've been joined by a number of new people the past couple of weeks:  Tamsen and Jessica (who, unlike the rest of us biologists and scientists, have actual fine arts degrees; Jessica not in the photo).  And Manasi and Jess (not the original Jess C, of a few years ago), biologists with various degrees of artsy/crafty aspirations (Manasi paints, and Jess croches and knits).


We're continuing with mosaic tiles, some of us starting new pieces, some grouting pieces started a few weeks ago. 



Here are Manasi and Jess, with their first tiled pieces (to be grouted next time):

  

 

Jordan grouted his first piece (wearing a very flowery apron, which I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of), and started on a new piece.  I had originally assumed that his first piece was abstract, but he tells us it was meant to be a beetle coming out of, or going into, the water - and I can see that now.

 

 Jessica grouted her original piece (an 8x8" trivet):

.. and started on a very interesting new piece, which I'm interested to see finished.  Her plans for the squares she left open is to fill them with grout, and make imprinted designs into the wet grout before it dries. 

 

 Tamsen and I collaborated on a tiled project.  Tamsen's background is in furniture restoration, conservation and design, so I wanted us to work on something together that involved some sort of fabric or mosaic tile design (my job) and wood finishing (Tamsen's).  We settled on a wooden tray, covered in mosaic.  I painted a couple of tiles in bright colours and dark tree silhouettes (acrylics, varnished after they dried, so the colour wouldn't rub off while grouting).  Tamsen broke up these tiles and rearranged them to fit our wooden tray (the tray is actually the back side of a framed print picked up at a thrift store - I'll have to put handles on each end to make it into a functional tray).  

Here's the piece after it was grouted (we had to decide what colour grout to use, and settled on white, which gives the piece a much more striking effect than gray would have - and it's a much smarter choice than pink!).  I'll post more photos once the wood has been sanded and shellacked, and handles added.