New Mosaic Class hours now available!

Student Jude, with her lovely mosaic mirror, summerhouseart.com
Student Jude, with her lovely mosaic mirror, summerhouseart.com

 

Usually, when I offer my Fall/Winter classes, I’ve had to limit my available hours to weekday mornings.   I’m happy to announce that due to some changes I’m able to offer more choices.  So you can now  book a weekly class either in the morning from 10am-12:30, or an afternoon from 1:30-4pm or an evening class from 6:30-9pm.   Just call or email to see if the time and week day you’d like  is available, and we’ll go from there.

The class would be 2.5 hours per week over 4 weeks.  Lots of time, lots of one on one instruction and a chance to create a project of your own design, something unique to you.  Have a look at my Mosaic Class page and also the FAQ page for all the details.

Student Jane, cleaning grout on her mosaic, summerhouseart.com
Student Jane, cleaning grout on her mosaic, summerhouseart.com
Student Irina, cleaning grout, summerhouseart.com
Student Irina cleaning grout for a lovely finished mirror
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Bobbi’s Romantic Floral Mosaic Table

Mosaic Student Bobbi's table, summerhouseart.com

In my mosaic classes I teach Pique Assiette Mosaic, which is a type of mosaic made from broken dishes. This romantic floral table is the creation of my latest mosaic student, Bobbi. Most of the dishes were found in the “Shopping Class” where we poke through thrift shops looking for good dishes to break. By the second class we had a good start on a design. But before the 3rd Class, Bobbi had discovered while out shopping, a lovely little plate with a floral design that just begged to be featured as a focal point in the center of the table. The only problem was, she needed something to outline that focal point to set it off. A rummage through my stash of dish fragments presented a perfect dish, a pale green dish with embossed flowers, that I’d forgotten I even had! Continue reading “Bobbi’s Romantic Floral Mosaic Table”

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A New Direction: Creating Small Mosaic Studies

Floral mosaic study, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

 Lately all you hear is declutter, declutter, throw out, lighten your load, etc, ad nauseam. Recently, I even saw a book that claimed your health would improve by throwing things out. It’s the latest trend.

Well, I happen to be one of those people who hardly ever throws things away. You may think you are throwing something out but it has to go somewhere, like the garbage dump, if it can’t be recycled. As they say, there really is no “away”. We do, however, recycle a lot. In fact, we hardly ever have any garbage for the garbage people to pick up.

I make Pique Assiette mosaics, which means, creating mosaic surfaces from broken dishes. So, essentially, I’ve been making art from all those dishes that others got rid of. I suppose I really should be thankful for all those people who donated all that “clutter” to thrift stores.

Over the years of making mosaics, I’ve accumulated quite a lot of leftover bits and pieces that didn’t make it into the latest mosaic. It’s not clutter. It’s all sorted by color and pattern and stored in recycled salad containers. As I say, there is a lot of it. I just can’t throw it all out. I always have a feeling that someday I might need a certain color or pattern. Of course, whenever I can, my students benefit from my stash of broken bits should they need some color or maybe a floral pattern to augment their pieces.

Which brings me to this latest little mosaic at the top of the post. Looking at all my lovely stash of bits and pieces, I’ve decided to start creating small mosaics. This one is just 6 inches by 6 inches. For the time being I’m planning to make little studies, putting together all those small and precious bits I’ve been saving. It’ll be a nice change from the larger projects I’ve done before. Who knows where it will end? Or how many I’ll make or if maybe I’ll have a show of small mosaics somewhere or maybe post them on our Etsy shop.

This little mosaic, with it’s floral design, will be a gift for a niece’s wedding. Something small and I hope, precious, that she can enjoy in her new home.

Floral mosaic study, Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

(BTW if you’d like to comment, and we do appreciate comments, please just click on the title to bring up the post with a spot for comments at the bottom.)

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