Mosaics are interesting. They can be very simple or incredibly complex. I thought it would be fun to try making mosaics with polymer, and decided to give myself a little push. The impetus for these pieces centers around an upcoming workshop I'm teaching. These pieces will help provide participants with samples of the various steps involved in the process.
The photos to the left show some finished pieces. The small pair are for earrings. The other two pieces are pendants. The darker inverted drop pendant is finished with Magic Gloss resin. The other three pieces have been lightly sanded and buffed to maintain a more rustic appearance.
When you leave the surface mostly "as is" you can really feel the ups and downs of the mosaic - the grout and the shapes. The surface could also be sanded to create a smoother, more uniform finish.
The two pendants to the right are in one of the initial stages of mosaic work. The individual "puzzle" pieces have been been made, cut, and mounted on a base, and are awaiting grout.
These three pieces have had grout added, and need to be baked before a backing and outlining border are added. Note that the grout color can really change the look of a piece. I expect the turquoise grout to darken some during baking, which should make it appear closer to the teal color in the mosaic pieces themselves. If not, then I'll have more contrast.
The yellow set of "steps" on the piece with white grout is actually one long strip of yellow clay with indentations pressed in before grouting - a nice little technique.
This last piece is actually the first mosaic piece I ever made. It has some flaws, and taught me a few things.
Of course, there is the traditional "inchies" exchange where everyone makes enough 1inch square tiles to trade with the other participants. Inchies are usually based on a theme. This year, the focus of the retreat is extrusions, so my inch tiles are extrusion-based. As you can see by the tiles to the left, I made flat patterns using extruded snakes, then shaved off the edges to reveal the colors below. I used the shaved pieces and placed them on solid color backing to create the more random looking pieces. It's sort of a combination of extrusions and mokume gane techniques. The process is great fun and the results look pretty good, too. 
I wondered what would happen with other types of striped stacks, so I decided to use some of the wedge canes and Ikat stacks I have to make more beads. The picture below shows an Ikat cane and two swirled beads. These beads were made by rolling the clay on a flat surface using the palm of my hand. As you can see, this method makes pointed beads. I think this shape may be the origin of the name "torpedo" bead.
Here are more swirled torpedo-shaped beads. Some were made from Ikat canes and others were made from some of my wedge canes.
As the days of September passed, the monarch caterpillars here spun cocoons in preparation for their metamorphosis into butterflies. While watching caterpillars on milkweed, I was inspired to do something with a butterfly cane I had made recently. Making butterfly canes is a time consuming process, and it's really amazing to watch a butterfly appear in the clay. The piece here represents the migration of butterflies, which usually occurs in October, as they head south and west for warmer climes. One of the things I like to do is to make the wing sections of the butterfly separately. This allows me to make different sizes of butterflies more easily than in a transparent clay-encased cane. I also can manipulate the wings for a nice, three-dimensional effect.
