“Blue Fandango”, The Mosaic

Posted on February 20, 2015April 3, 2015 by Helen

Thought I’d finally feature another of Will’s mosaics. This one is totally different from the first piece I featured a while ago, the one that we refer to as the “Green River” mosaic.

Will started this piece spontaneously, without a real plan. And really, that is often a wonderful way to start, open to possibilities and surprises, cutting dishes and fitting pieces intuitively.

He began with the small blue arc and from there created the larger blue wave-like arc. All of the mosaic bits and pieces are made of plates, and the blues are a mixture of various blue plates, patterned and textured. It’s a mosaic style that we both work in, called Pique Assiette, which basically refers to a style of mosaic created from dishes.

The arcs in place, he then decided on filling in the space with various whites, culled from different plate centers and even parts of the makers logos printed on the underside.

At this point it becomes more of an intuitive exercise, mixing the textures and the varying white shades, creating visual interest. The little rows of black and white squares arc off the main blue arcs. And then to lead the eye and give the whole composition another element, pops of color were included in the white areas.

On the whole, the piece has, for me, endless fascination. The name was spontaneous too, coming to him as he surveyed the finished piece. He titled it “ Blue Fandango”, and it does suit, I think. It also was made to be both table top and a wall piece.

Happy Valentines Day!

Posted on February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 by Helen

One of my favourite Heart boxes from my collection to wish everyone a

Happy Valentines Day

and to say Eat lots of chocolate, it’s good for you!

The Beginning of My Spiral Series Mosaics

Posted on February 2, 2015July 15, 2015 by Helen

I think I’m one of those artists who flit about, like a butterfly or maybe a magpie, attracted to the next color or shape. I try things, I meander from one thing to the next. I get inspired by a shape…. or color.

And such was the case with this short series I created in 2009. This piece is the first of four in the series. And then abruptly ended.

What happened? Was it just that my eye had been attracted to something else or was it that I’d worked it through and was ready to move on? Whatever, I think I fully intended to do more and create a much bigger series. And so I haven’t posted them before. I thought at some point I would get back to it. But no, never happened, so today I’ve decided to post Spiral #1.

I was playing with shapes, like the wedge of yellow and the spiral. . I must admit that I am a sucker for spirals. Love spirals, still do. Originally, it had been a little sketch on paper with shapes floating about and I’m sure it was Will who suggested that the whole base of the piece could be cut out in a shape as well.

It is not created with the usual mosaic materials of smalti but with dishes and a few ordinary tiles. I had very little of certain plates, precious bits and stuck them down carefully. And they became the little floating pillows, or that is how I think of those shapes. I liked creating a whole new texture by setting down the design of the dish in a whole new deconstructed way.

And what to title it? How about something descriptive, like “Yellow Wedge on Blue, Floating”

More Student Mosaics, These in Delicate Blues

Posted on January 22, 2015April 3, 2015 by Helen

I often ask students of my mosaic classes when the pieces are done, if they would mind if I shared their work on my blog. And sometimes they’re quite happy to share. Like the two students I had just recently, both busy moms, who managed to fit in the classes as a morning out. Jillian and her sister-in-law, Shannon, were so much fun to work with.

My studio is very small so, of course, I only have very small classes, two students, tops . I teach a type of mosaic called Pique Assiette, which is done with broken dishes and lots of bits and pieces, even ornaments sometimes. Although I often teach just one student at a time, I have found over the years that encouraging friends to take the class together is much more fun for everyone. No stress, just friends enjoying learning something new and having a good time.

Their shopping class yielded not only some nice dishes but also the bases for their mosaics. Shannon found a frame that she will fill in with a blackboard later and use for a notice board at home. She included bits of tile from a home renovation and also some dishes with blue and white designs.

As you can see, in this close up, the result works beautifully.

And Jillian found one of those beveled boards that when the picture on it was painted out, became a good base for this gorgeous little abstract. Her mosaic was made from a mixture of striped dishes and dishes with delicate pattern as well as some plastic tiles from a craft shop. The composition, very intuitive, works very well too. After a bit of light blue grout, to tie it all together, we were all very pleased. The results were stunning and I’m sure these Pique Assiette Mosiac pieces will add a wonderful personal touch their homes. Later, Jillian painted the edge a lovely magenta which brought out the color in the mosaic.

The First of Will’s Mosaic Table/Wall Pieces

Posted on January 12, 2015April 3, 2015 by Helen

It occurred to me one day recently, that although I have header photos on the blog that feature two of Will’s mosaic tables, I’ve never actually done a post about them. In fact, there are quite a few pieces of his and many of mine, that have, as yet, never been written about.

In some cases, I’ve been saving my pieces until I had a series. More about those, another day. And with Will’s tables, maybe I just felt like I wasn’t the one to be writing about them. And of course, there have been so many distractions, new projects, health things, whatever, to put off writing about and featuring some of our work. Ah, well, never mind, I’ve decided to feature one of his tables today. It’s a start, of sorts. This table is made from a mixture of tile and broken dishes in the picassiette or pique assiette style (apparently there are two versions of the spellings).

We sometimes call this table the “Green River” mosaic, a reference to the meandering flow of green tiles that moves from dark shades of greens to lighter shades, a flow that snakes its way across the piece. But it is in no way a landscape, but more of an abstract design.

Will started with the shape of green, then intuitively filled in the remaining space, much as he would a drawing or painting. Simple arches and spirals of black, white and turquoise tile draw the eye over the ground of varying shades of white punctuated with flashes of red.

The piece functions as a table top when laid on its rattan basket which forms the table base. And when we don’t have room for a table, the basket is stored and the piece works beautifully as a mosaic wall hanging. I never seem to tire of looking at it, taking in the little details, letting my eye move with the flow it creates. To me it is the magic of mosaic combined with Will’s drawing sensibility to create a very lyrical artwork.

Christmas Pared Down Just a Little Bit

Posted on December 18, 2014June 5, 2020 by Helen

Every year I try to have some fun with the Christmas décor. Make a few little changes, tweaks, and sometimes something entirely different. This year we’re going for the latter. Usually, about a week before Christmas we go down to the basement and bring up the tree and all the decorations and pretty well put up every single piece of décor we’ve got, somewhere. And we do have a lot of decor. As I’ve written before about our Abundant Christmases, you can collect a lot if everything is secondhand! This year we decided to pare it down just a little bit.

This year I happened to have a tall bamboo birdcage out in the corner of the living room. When the season rolled around enough people had suggested we decorate it that we decided, why not?

We dropped some lights inside it and decorated with lots of tiny and mid size vintage glass balls. With some birds on top and a bit of mistletoe for greenery it looks quite festive.

And of course, this year I did put out my Santa collection, but that too ended up just a bit pared down. Couldn’t leave out the Grumpy Santas

Or the Gumby ones and a few other odd but happy ones.

So there it is. Almost all the decorating is done. Ok, the mistletoe may be replaced with some other greenery on top of the new “tree”. It will probably be put in the doorway, still needing some greenery, in order to catch a quick kiss from those coming in the door.

Now to do Baking! But even there, for once, I think I’ll cut back too. The mince tarts for sure and maybe some cookies, but all in all maybe I’ll spend more time in my studio than the kitchen this year.

And the ChrisMoose, a hand made gift many years ago from Will’s mum, will always be up for Christmas, just to remember her by.

We hope everyone has the Best Christmas Ever!!

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Creating Strip Quilted Cozies with Men’s Striped Shirts

Posted on December 17, 2014April 3, 2015 by Helen

Ok, I admit it, I do like stripes. I like it in fabric, in drawings, whatever. I recalled seeing some quilts done in men’s shirt fabric and really liked the look created when doing strip quilting.

Luckily, when it came time to create a new tea cosy, it just happened that I had a couple of striped shirts that Will didn’t want anymore in my fabric stash. Then, in a recent shopping trip to the Thrift store, I lucked out finding a striking red and yellow striped blouse.

Next, it was just setting some time aside to create some strips of stripes going every which way and basically, sewing them together creatively. And I do mean creatively, not accurately, since I tend to be a bit of a slap dash sewer. But I just happen to like that look, so it’s ok.

I figured, since Will has recently gotten himself a coffee press, might as well make a coffee cosy too. I think we’re both pretty happy with the results. And yes, that is Queen Victoria poking out behind the tea cosy. Well, the Brits do like tea, so where else would you put her?

Showing off some Student Mosaics

Posted on December 17, 2014January 11, 2015 by Helen

Every now and then, it’s nice to show off the work done by the students who take my mosaic classes. Shelley, who had always wanted to do something in mosaic, brought along her friend Vicki. Both were a lot of fun to teach and said they wouldn’t mind me showing their mosaics on my blog.

Although neither of them had a definite project in mind, they were ready to try anything. The type of mosaic I teach is Pique Assiette, basically made from thrift dishes. The shopping class was where they found their projects. Both found wicker tables that just needed Will to cut out a plywood top for.

Shelley found lots of floral dishes that were in colors that all worked well together, but worried that it would all look too busy. Vicki, on the other hand, wasn’t sure about a few black plates with white stripes found in the Bibles for Missions Thrift store. As luck would have it, she then found some great old vintage dishes at home in green. And somehow, as I assured them it would, all of it came together beautifully.

Shelley’s colors and flowers when mixed together with floral bits and solid colors created an overall summery pattern and Vicki’s white striped plates totally worked perfectly and echoed the white wicker table she found.

Mosaic has a way of doing that.

Vicki's Mosaic Table — Vicki’s Mosaic Table

We have a new online shop!

Posted on November 27, 2014May 1, 2015 by Helen

We’ve just opened up a shop of our designs on Zazzle, which is a great service out of California. They offer really good quality products and we’re kind of excited to get our work out there.

Posted now are just a few Christmas items, with our original designs on cards and ornaments. We’re planning to add more items to our gallery as we go along. So if you’re looking for something fun and a bit unusual, you might find it here. We’d also love to hear your comments. BTW our watermark won’t show on our cards, that’s just so you’ll be able to find us on Pinterest and anywhere else these images end up online.

A Deco Style Magazine Table Gets a Facelift

Posted on November 10, 2014April 3, 2015 by Helen

This little magazine table with its waterfall top and deco style handle grabbed our attention at a garage sale. It was a bit worse for wear and looked like someone had tried to refurbish it and given up.

But we saw possibilities and quickly scooped it up and stowed it away in our little station wagon. You can’t beat a small station wagon for garage sailing. Just fold those seats down and you’ve got lots of room for hauling all sorts of good stuff home.

In fact, speaking of cars, the style of the table brought to mind cars of the 50’s, some with two colors. Lovely rounded cars with curved chrome details, in colors like two tones of green or maybe black and pink. Whatever happened to painting cars with two tones? So much more interesting to look at than all these gray cars you see. Our car is gray and I keep looking at it and wishing I could change it. But I digress. Back to the little table.

Will liked the two tone paint idea and chose a lovely soft almost mint green and black. The body became the mint green. The magazine holders and the contrasting veneer on the top, he painted black.

And then, just to give it a bit more pizzaz, a touch of orange to echo the rounded elements. And now that the little table had a whole new look, we gave it a new name too…. “Roxy”. Roxy will be featured on our online shop on Diggit right here in Victoria.