My friend wanted some blue in her garden to camouflage an old 7 ft by 21 inch cement wall. I made 6 panel  templates of the wall with cardboard and composed them in my studio using contact paper underneath the glass. I had an extra 6 foot table in my 8x10 glass room for several months! Once all the glass was in place, I used mosaic tape to secure it and transfer the panels to Denver.

The original cement wall had a ridge on it that had to be leveled out with some concrete repair stuff. I'm so grateful to Joe Moorman of Mosaic Art Supply for his advice on preparing the surface. I spent several beautiful September days installing and grouting. Once it was all done, my friend had a party for her new piece of art with incredible food and live music by the band she plays in with Miguel Espinoza. 

She's about done, except for a bit of the headstock and grouting. I can't wait to see the colors pop with black grout. Come on spring weather!

After abandoning the double indirect method, I used pattern pieces to put swirls on the guitar top. I find it so much easier, plus I can change my plan, which, as a person with a Gemini ascendant, I love. I decided to fill in with black instead of color on the whole top.

Some say it took 1 day to create the earth. It took me 22:40 to make this guitar top, so I feel almost god-like. Almost. Now for the sides, fretboard and back. Maybe a little less detail there.

I woke up in the middle of the night wondering how I was going to get these 1,000 little pieces of glass onto the guitar. It's been long enough since I tried the double indirect method of putting sticky shelf paper on top of the glass before transferring that I forgot WHY I NEVER DO THAT. 

Alright, there's the sticky paper cut to fit. Upon my first effort to lift it, I lost about 10% of my glass pieces. A board underneath helped greatly and I got it onto the awaiting glued guitar body. I found painting the surface of your wood white helps the glass colors really pop.

Thank you, Weldbond.

"Most of the glass transferred nicely and it was a race against the drying of the glue to get everybody where they belonged. 
​"2 hours of my life I will never get back", to quote James Wyn Hart. But really, it makes me very happy to see my time crystalized into a colorful form.
And now I realize that writing a blog is really just a way to procrastinate lap swimming.

One good thing about knowing guitar players is that sometimes you get free busted guitars. Thanks, Tim Tucker!
Now that I don't have to be making jewelry every day I turn my creative impulses to a larger project: A GUITAR!

So I don't often plan my works because nothing ever turns out as I expect. But I'll try. In spite of Mercury being retrograde at the onset of my efforts, this is the plan. Although something cautions me not to, I'm going to log my time to see how long this takes. I probably really don't want to know.

 

This is how I choose glass. Going for reds, greens and blues.

Green first

After several hours, it's time for some back stretches. 8 hours so far from sketching to this. It's so much like sitting in a practice room with your viola, you know?