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.
For this first posting, I'll share a bit from an all-day workshop with Ann and Karen Mitchell of ANKARA Designs. This workshop was on various uses of liquid polymer. The sisters have all sorts of ideas, including tips and tricks, which they willingly shared with the participants. In the morning, we worked on mosaic pendants which were later encased in liquid clay. One tip was to be careful about putting the liquid clay over the metal leaf sections on our pendants. The leaf was easy to rub off unless the liquid polymer was added carefully. All the pieces on the mosaic, with the exception of the seed beads I used, were made from various processes using polymer.
In the afternoon, we worked on a project that I found fascinating. The Mitchell sisters have developed a process for transferring images onto regular fabric. After baking, the fabric may be cut and the pieces used. The photo here shows an edge of fabric with the transfer on top of the majority of the fabric piece. The leaf shape was cut from the treated fabric piece and shows the back of the fabric. The holes are designed to allow sewing of beads or other items through the polymer/fabric to create shapes for items such as jewelry. All-in-all, it was a very interesting process, and one I plan to revisit soon.
