My Mosaic Wall – My Sugar Glider

A lot of people still don’t know what a Sugar Glider is, which is probably a good thing. They’re adorable, snuggly, loyal, and more work than someone would expect for a tiny marsupial that weighs less five ounces. A lot of people buy them on impulse, like Ivy and I did, and then realize they’re not just an expensive, smart, hamster-sized creature that is content to live alone in a cage and chew things. A lot of them end of being neglected or rehomed. Ivy and I had one for eight years until she passed away. Mia, as we named her, had a lot of adventures with us. She was on Pets 101 on the Animal Planet with us, played escape artist and got lost several times in our old place, and spent about six hours a day on average sleeping in my shirt and sharing my lunch when I worked from home.

A few weeks ago I thought it would be fun to add a sloth to a bare spot I had on the wall. I looked at cartoon pics of a sloth and laid out a draft of it on a 12 inch square tile. I was pretty excited at how cute it was and expected this to be an easy project. I used bathroom white tile from the Habitat for Humanity Restore, gray floor tile from the same store, and various pieces of brown glass tile and black penny tiles from Home Depot. I’ve got some Dollar Tree broken plates for the leaves.

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Unfortunately once I added it to the wall it looked terrible. But I wasn’t worried because once I add the grout everything usually falls into place. Except because there was so much white, it didn’t look at all like a sloth.

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So I painted the in between spots with black grout paint. It looked ridiculous. And worse, I discovered sloths didn’t have tails so I had to chip away the tail, much to the annoyance of the husky next door who DID NOT LIKE all that hammering and chiseling. This was the final, which I hated. I planned to go out the next day and chip the whole thing off the wall which I have never done before but I was not pleased with it, at all.

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When I looked at it closely, I saw that it kind of reminded me of Mia, my old Sugar Glider. She was gray and hung upside down from things and resembled this bad attempt at a sloth. She passed away a few years ago and I had failed to memorialize her on the wall previously.

I picked up medium gray grout stain and mixed it with my grout. I chiseled away the nose and the sky where the big ears would need to go. I didn’t want to chip away the sky where the sloth tail had once been, and add the tail back. But Sugar Gliders have long tails. I placed the tail tile over the sky tile, to go give it a 3D look but more so because I didn’t want to start chipping away too much of the long-settled piece beside it.

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Finally, my finished result! Still not great but a lot cuter than it was before and now I’ve got my little Mia to make me smile when I look at the wall.

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Now that I’ve got the gray stain I may go back and work on the Easter Island heads again. If I do, I’ll add an update to the last entry.

Two weeks ago I started an oil painting class so I may be adding pictures of new art one of these days.

Until then, happy creatiing!

Tracy

My Mosaic Wall-Easter Island Heads

Most of my mosaic projects have been small and somewhat abstract. After finishing the hands around the world piece, I got ambitious and decided to put some Easter Island heads on the back wall. We’re doing the yard in Tiki decor and I thought this would be a fun touch. It took me a good two weeks to complete this. Keep in mind, I work full time and do volunteer work, and have life stuff, so this wasn’t a solid two weeks of non-stop work. It was just when I could find time. It was probably a good 20 hours though, all told.

I started with sketches to get an idea of shading, I went through a lot of plates from Dollar Tree and the 99 Cent Only Store. I also used a lot of Home Depot and Lowe’s gray floor tile. I used black penny tiles from Lowe’s as well. The hardest part of all of this, besides the sore neck and back and the heat, was that I had to keep going up and down the hill for supplies. I also do a lot of stepping back from a piece to see it from far away and I couldn’t do that without walking up and down the hill. Good thing I have stone steps built into the hill, courtesy of my daughter and future son-in-law.

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Robert and I are just to the left of the left head, for scale. There was a lot of good, gray color before I added the grout. Once I slathered in the white grout, it started to look washed out.

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Once it was fully grouted, I needed to scrub any leftover grout off the black pieces. I went to Home Depot and bought gray grout paint. The floor tile I used for the gray was porous so I had to scrub the gray grout paint off all the tile, piece by piece, with a toothbrush and wet cloth. It was really hot that day and it dried almost immediately. It was so light gray it was almost white so barely made a difference. It helped a little to bring the piece back to life though.

Next I painted around the eyes, forehead and mouth, and outlines with black grout paint. That made a big difference. When the sun went down a little, the contrast came back. A lot of the faded-out illusion was just the blinding sun. It’s pretty far from the backyard so here are closeups of the UFO and Robert and me. Why did I add a UFO you may ask? Why not.

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Here’s our Tiki yard (in progress) at night with the heads (top right of photo) illuminated by our solar spotlight. All the lights you see are solar. We LOVE the solar lights!

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Until my next post, stay creative!

Tracy

My Mosaic Wall – Holding Hands Around the World

Since the wall beside my house is getting full, I decided to start adding mosaics to the back wall, at the top of my hill. I knew it was going to be a large project. It would have to be so we could see it from the patio. Here’s my original sketch. I planned to surround the earth with people holding hands. Looking at the finished product every day (we can see it from the couch in the living room if we scrunch down) reminds me that there’s a lot of love and hope in this world.

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I wanted the people to be uniform size which I would not be able to accomplish unless I bought pieces already cut. I picked up a few containers of these from Amazon. I never measure anything and was relieved in the end that I had just about enough of the little pieces to complete the people circle. For consistency’s sake I decided to use black penny tiles for the heads since I only had blue, black or silver. I like the uniformity of the black heads.

The first day involved smashing a lot of Dollar Tree green plates. Finding green tile is really hard so I rely on Dollar Tree plates, and sometimes The 99 Cent Only Store. In this case I used up all my plates (1st picture) then had to stop for the day. Carrying tile up and down the hill, and trying to kneel and balance among the cacti and gopher holes was physically taxing. Luckily Granola was there to keep me company.

The next day I smashed some new plates. I finished the land masses and started on the water. I had some Dollar Tree blue plates, some small (about 3 inch) mosiac or subway tile from Lowe’s, and some of my friends’ leftover pool tile. I decided to add in a “love ocean” just because. I’m used to doing a whole project in an hour or two and grout it the next day. This was a much larger project and took four days overall.

Day three I used tile adhesive to glue all the people around the earth. I started on the bottom because I knew I’d be too worn out to sit in that position and stretch all the way up by the end. It was a good decision. This step took four hours (straight). Initially I was going to add the people and put yellow tile all around them. But because of the work involved, and how cute they looked on the tile, I decided against it. One thing I hadn’t considered was that if I put adhesive on the back of the pieces and pressed down, there would be extra goop that I needed to clean off. The pieces were small and hard to maneuver so I used a wooden skewer and had to clean up around all the edges, piece by piece, person by person.

By the end, there were 53 little people around the circle. I started with solid colored people but I ran out of matches and the ones on the top are all different colors. Finished product without the grout.

At night a solar spotlight shines on it. It was a lot of work but this is my favorite mosaic so far. I do feel a little bad that we can probably never sell the house now both because I love the wall too much and also because a new owner may not love it at all. Since I plan to be here until I’m dead, I’m not too worried about it and will keep beautifying the concrete.

Here’s to creativity!

-Tracy

My Mosaic Wall – Mosaic Jerry

A few weeks ago, my former boss passed away unexpectedly. He was a bright sunny person all the years I knew him. After I got past the initial shock, I knew I had to honor him by adding him to my wall. Now when I go outside, I see his smiling face and remember all the good he did while he was here. He will be missed but will also have a place on my wall and in my heart.

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I used various types of tile here. His hair and eyes are black penny tiles from Lowes. His face, floor tile from Home Depot. His glasses were strips of glass tile which do not smash well. For those I had to drag my wet saw from the shed and carefully cut the glass in strips. All the white parts were donated tile from a friend who was cleaning her garage.

Overall, I think it looks enough like him to bring me joy when I see him up there.

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I think it’s fitting that he rests by the California flag, the Coronavirus 2020, and the Hope Sunset heart.

RIP Jerry

-Tracy

My Mosaic Wall – The California Flag

I’m at a crossroads with my wall. The area I can see from my patio is full. I now have to stand to my left to see all of it where the corner of the house is. To the left of the wall is a tree I don’t want to tile behind. I could tile up the wall on the hill, or against the back wall but I’m worried about water from when I water the plants. At this point I think I’ve decided I’ll continue the wall even if it’s beside the house and I can’t get a picture of it all at once. That’s what video is for.

For today though, I’m posting about my take on the California flag with its symbolic bear. One thing I learned pretty quickly into this project is that drawing bears is hard. Here are the first few steps I took. As you can see I wasn’t off to a promising start.

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With determination, this finally all came together. All told it took about two hours the first day, and about fifteen minutes the next day for the grouting. First picture is the end of day one with no grout. When the project was done, I used black grout paint to make the bear’s white of his eye smaller. I sprayed the whole thing with grout sealer the third day and hoped the paint would withstand the heavy rain (and even hail that looked like snow on the other side of town). It worked out fine. I used a variety of tiles this time, from Dollar Tree broken plates to donated tile from friends, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Habitat for Humanity markdowns.

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Final pictures are of my trusty tile companion Granola. This was from another project but she’s always by my side and deserves a shout out.

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Thanks for visiting!

-Tracy

My Mosaic Wall – COVID-19 and Dr. Fauci

I couldn’t let the year go by without acknowledging the two things that took over and altered everyone’s live in 2020: COVID-19 and Dr. Fauci.

When COVID-19 started to become a household word in March 2020, like many people, we watched the nightly TV broadcast of President Trump and Dr. Fauci. There were other speakers like Dr. Birx and generals and other health experts, but Dr. Fauci became the man our country turned to for the truth about the status of COVID-19.

All our lives were turned upside down, and as we’ve wrestled with one restriction after another, one loss after another, the root of it has been this darn virus. Since my wall is an homage to everything in my life (that I can relay in tile) plus some other things that are just fun, like the dolphin, I had to give it and Dr. Fauci a spot on my wall.

I made his glasses from a Christmas tree hook since they’re abundant in our house right now. I used from silver penny mosaic tiles, some glass sparkly strips Home Depot, and some broken plates from Dollar Tree. I also used some square green mosaic tile I bought last year.

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I added his mask and glasses after I grouted as they were an extra layer. I need to go back and fix his arm. It’s a tiny figure and at the time I didn’t notice his elbow. Still though I think it’s a good depiction of the virus and it’s communicator, trapped in a frame that I hope means it will be contained.

My Mosaic Wall – The Giant Giraffe

I’m always looking for new things to add to the wall. I was watching The Last Tango in Halifax, the most recent season, and in one of the episodes someone painted a giraffe on the wall of a barn. So I figured why not put a giraffe on my wall.

I had a rough idea of what giraffes looked like, bright orange with brown spots. But when I looked at pictures online many of them were tan with brown spots. Since my art isn’t meant to match reality 100% I decided to do what i could with the tile and broken dishes I had on hand.

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My daughter reminded me that giraffes have purple tongues (to prevent sunburn). Though I made the tongue light purple, it was hard to see until I grouted and added some black grout paint.

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I left the sky around the trees bare for now. I want to make a spectacular sunset and maybe a word from tiles, like love or hope. In the close up picture it’s a little easier to see her purple tongue. She loves eating the leaves.

This was made from lots of broken tile, broken Dollar Tree plates, and by her feet a bag of tile stones I got from the Habitat for Humanity Re-store. The tree branches are pieces of floor tile that looks like wood. I generally don’t use this because it’s porous but it was just right for this and I’ve learned more about wiping grout off immediately that when I started.

The very hot, then very windy, then chilly weather kept me from my wall for a bit but I’m back on track. Look for more tile scenes soon.

Happy Creativity!

Tracy

My Mosaic Wall- The Kids Next Door

We’ve lived in this house for six years. Over that time, the neighbors to our left have had several different family members and friends stay with them, and always a lot of activity. Though we have a six foot concrete wall, their yard is elevated on their side so it’s only three feet. This means that we have very little privacy, and over time the kids next door have made a habit of leaning on the wall, calling over to us, tossing things over the wall, etc.

About a year ago they bought a trampoline. The kids of varying ages use it almost constantly. Since the six-year-old boy is one of the biggest fans of our side of the fence, and continually wants to chat, and is always complimentary about the new items on the wall, I told him I’d put him and his cousin and the trampoline on the wall. We had a couple of weeks of very hot weather but once the heatwave broke, I began the project. First the sketch, then a couple of pictures of the project without grout. For the poles I used glass mosaic tile leftover from my kitchen project a few years ago. For the light blue, I used broken tile from Lowe’s. The little pieces were smashed plates from the Dollar Tree.

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Finished project, which isn’t completely lifelike but certainly captures the essence.

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Wall in progress with the new addition.

My Mosaic Wall- Birds and Other Things

I’ve started to fill in some of the empty spaces in the main block of where I’d intended to add art. I added two small birds which were inspired by something I saw on Pinterest or maybe Instagram. For these, I smashed up Dollar Tree plates and some clearance patterned tile from The Home Depot. They’re not all that exciting but filled in some gaps.

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The next bird was bigger and a lot more involved. My daughter called and said she was rereading Jonathan Livingston Seagull so I was inspired to make him. He’s got a lot more gray than Jonathan but I think it turned out pretty well. When I was done, and it was grouted and dry, I added some pieces of seaglass and shells. I had planned to write something with broken tiles in the sky but instead made a heart-shaped sunset. This was made mostly with broken plates and ceramic tile.

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The red and black birds left me with some small spaces to fill in. I added a smiley face and a little Tracy. I’m not that thin in real life but I may as well memorialize things with an idealistic slant.

Finally, the wall so far. I’ve run out of projects I’ve finished so the next one will be brand-new. The little kids next door are forever bouncing on their trampoline. I see their heads and bodies over the wall and they yell over and say hello. I told them I’ll put the trampoline and them on the wall next.

Friday we got a new puppy, Granola Barr, so I’m sure she will make her way up there soon enough too.

Have a creative week!

Tracy

My Mosaic Wall- The Mermaid

I found some shimmery blue tile at Lowe’s and thought it would be perfect to make a mermaid on the wall. This started off great. I also had some metallic bars, that to me looked like gold bars, and some penny tiles that looked like doubloons. Here was the original concept.

Because it was complex, I did a chalk outline on the wall first first.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I added in the tail. So far so good.

 

 

 

 

Even the ungrouted mermaid looked pretty good, I thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But thenI had a problem. The lavender tile was really hard to see in the surrounding blue sea. I made the unfortunate decision to paint the grout black. Lol, obviously this was a mistake. It looked like a black walrus with red hair.

 

So I had to go back and grout over it, with white grout. Eventually I repainted the joints in the arms so they were visible. I changed the eye color to blue and in retrospect I should have left them black. I noticed too that the treasure chest looked like a cardboard box.

The final result is below. I rounded the treasure chest, added  more to the bottom, and did the best I could with the little mermaid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it’s important to show how much you can mess things up in a project like this. When everything is seen together, you can get away with the small stuff.

Until next time, happy tiling!

-Tracy