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My 2022 in mosaics – finding peace in the broken pieces

22 Sunday Jan 2023

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life, Mosaic and other crafts

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

arts and crafts, broken ceramics, broken pieces, mosaic pieces, plates and mugs, rebuilding and repurposing, whimsical and fun

These are all the mosaic pieces I made in 2022.  I have already posted about all of them separately, but wanted to have them all together in one post.  It is fun to see the variety of inspiration, subject and materials I used.

Trust me, they look much better in person.  But then again, I am biased. They are all my babies.

January/February: This piece came out of nowhere.  As I was gathering somes glass pieces, they looked like a face to me.  That is how this very pensive and troubled woman was born. Her name was supposed to be Susie. But it is nameless for now.

 

February/March: This frame was not as I intended.  I intended on a frame for my brother.  But then came the flowers and sparkles.  I don’t think I will be using sparkles again. It is very shiny, but also very messy.

 

February/March: I was inspired by a greeting card.  Many band-aids later, this little bird was finished. It is hard to tell but it is made of glass pieces that I cut very small to give the idea of a snowy forest in the background.

 

March/April. I decided that my pensive and troubled lady needed a boyfriend. Just call him Jean Paul.

 

May/June: This pizza was inspired by the post I wrote called The Pizza Debacle.

 

May/June: I had just returned from the casino and saw some gambling inspiring ceramic at the studio, so why not?

 

June/July: I bought some old frames at a tag sale.  This one had blue flowers on it.  I let them guide me.

 

June/July: This next one also started with an old painting from the tag sale.  It had a painting of fruit in it, so I decided on grapes for my design.

 

August/September: After doing the woman, and then her boyfriend Jean Paul, I decided to create a whole whimsical little family. This is a piece that a lot people disliked, but of course, I loved it.

 

September: This flower is made of mugs and plates.  It has some texture and height to it.  Originally I liked my work to be flat, but the more involved I get with mosaics the more I want to try different styles and techniques.

 

October/November: After doing faces using glass, I wanted to try to make a face using ceramic.  It became a mask and I am happy with it.

 

November:  In an effort to try different surfaces, this time I used a vase.  While it is not my favorite, I am happy with the result.

 

November/December: This was based on a watercolor picture.  It is very hard to translate watercolor to mosaic. I am happy with this first attempt.

 

December:  This is one of my favorites. It is happy and it makes me happy.

 

This is the last piece I did in 2022.  It is out of broken plates.  I made this at home and grouted at the studio.

I am inspired now to make a post with all my mosaics from 20 and 21.

“I must try to enjoy all the graces that God has given me today. Grace cannot be hoarded. There are no banks where it can be deposited to be used when I feel more at peace with myself. If I do not make full use of these blessings, I will lose them forever.

God knows that we are all artists of life. One day, he gives us a hammer with which to make sculptures, another day he gives us brushes and paints with which to make a picture, or paper and a pencil to write with. But you cannot make a painting with a hammer, or a sculpture with a paintbrush. Therefore, however difficult it may be, I must accept today’s small blessings, even if they seem like curses because I am suffering and it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and the children are singing in the street. This is the only way I will manage to leave my pain behind and rebuild my life.”
― Paulo Coelho , The Zahir

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Getting back to mosaics

27 Monday Jun 2022

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life, Mosaic and other crafts

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

arts and crafts, broken pieces, cards and casino, mosaic arts and crafts, pizza in the making, shattered pieces

Here are two mosaic pieces that I just finished. They are not my favorites, but they do look much better in person, than in my not so clear pictures.

it is good to be getting back to the studio after almost 2 months away.

I started making the pizza when I was dating B.  I thought it would be fun to have a reminder of a date that didn’t go so well. This date:  https://blessedwithastarontheforehead.com/2022/03/15/the-pizza-date-i-mean-debacle/ 

It turns out, as you may know, that the entire short relationship didn’t turn out well. I don’t want any reminders of that, but still I don’t like to leave things unfinished, so I finished it.

Below is a frame that was born out of a broken ceramic container that had play cards on it. I had just returned from the casino, so it seemed fitting.

“The beauty of being shattered is how the shards become our character and our marks of distinction. This is how we are refined by our pain. When the storm rips you to pieces, you get to decide how to put yourself back together again. The storm gives us the gift of our defining choices. You will be a different person after the storm, because the storm will heal you from your perfection. People who stay perfect and unblemished never really get to live fully or deeply. You will not be the same after the storms of life; you will be stronger, wiser and more alive than ever before!” ― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

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The fallen flower

23 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life, Finding Me, Mosaic and other crafts

≈ 44 Comments

Tags

becoming something new, broken pieces, fallen flowers, perfectly imperfect, tiles and grouts, whimsical and happy

“If we demand perfection from ourselves we are not living in the real world…The inherent problem in the relationship between the ideal & the real is that the ideal judges the real as unacceptable and brings down condemnation and wrath on the real. This sets up an adversarial relationship between the two and like all adversaries, they move further and further apart.” ― Henry Cloud, Changes That Heal: The Four Shifts That Make Everything Better…And That Anyone Can Do

I just finished this piece and it makes me so happy to look at it.

The idea started with some flowers I found at the studio from some other project.  I used a store-bought ready to hang frame.  

I cut an old blue mug in half for the vase. I am choosing to leave it as, with the nicks in it. I added the flowers, then the white tiles for the background.  Then different green glasses and mirrors for the additional leaves.

I was going to use green grout, but it didn’t feel perfect. In the end, I put gray grout on top of the green.  It is hard to tell in the pictures but there are hints of green in the final product and it gives the idea of old and used.  Exactly what I wanted.

I chose to leave the frame in the natural wood, instead of painting it white or some other color.

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly.” ― Paul McCartney, Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965-1999

“Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders?”― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“The storm is out there and every one of us must eventually face the storm. When the storm comes, pray that it will shake you to your roots and break you wide-open. Being broken open by the storm is your only hope. When you are broken open you get to discover for the first time what is inside you. Some people never get to see what is inside them; what beauty, what strength, what truth and love. They were never broken open by the storm. So, don’t run from your pain — run into your pain. Let life’s storm shatter you.” ― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

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How Do I Love Mosaics? Let Me Count The Ways…

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

be blessed, beauty of imperfections, broken heart, broken pieces, humpty dumpty, learning to make mosaic, making art, pursuing passions

 

Brazilian Flag

First table“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”― Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

I have always loved mosaics.  I don’t know when or how this love started.  I just know that any time I see something made out of mosaics I am attracted to it.  I am hypnotized, mesmerized by it. I want to keep looking at it.

Ten years ago I bought a mosaic kit to make coasters and I used it to make the house number for the house I lived with the ex-boyfriend.  I Googled the address now and the number is still there hanging on the tree.  After that I made a couple of things here and there, pictures frames, and some other decorating items.

I want to to do more, to learn more.  There never seems to be the right time, or I don’t have the right tools, or the right place for me to work with mosaics. I thought about renting studio space to have a dedicated space to work, but balked at the idea of spending $800.00 or more per month.  It didn’t seem wise.

For 2020 I decided that I would pursue my passions in any way I could.  I count mosaic as one of my passions.  No more waiting for the right time or right circumstance.  The right moment is now.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”― Pablo Picasso

I went to Google as I have done in the past and searched for mosaic classes around me.  Funny thing is, this time a studio came up.   Even thought it has been there for 14 years it has never come up before, until now.

I went there and fell in love with the place and the owner.  I think that my affair with this studio will be a long one.  I picture myself doing mosaics non-stop, one project after another.  I am entertaining ideas of becoming a partner there in the future.  The owner has not been informed of my idea yet, but the Universe has.

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I love the idea of getting different pieces together and creating a whole new object.  I love the idea of re-purposing broken items and creating things that are useful and/or pretty to look at.  I love that I can use any material.  I can use pebbles, wine corks, tiles, buttons, broken china, dollar store finds, anything.

The picture on the bottom is a table I did awhile back.    The picture at the top is a folding table I just finished.   I can see a lot imperfections on it but I decided to embrace them instead of redoing those areas. That is, after all, one of the reasons I love mosaics: the imperfections!

“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” ― Salvador Dali

We are all mosaics in a way. All imperfect and so perfect!  We are made up of parts from our parents and ancestors.  Then through lessons and experiences we are shaped. We have some parts that we think are good and some that we would love to change.

It is up to us how to better piece ourselves together.  The more imperfect, the more different, the older, the more uneven, the more colorful, the more battered by time and life,  the more used the better.  The best we can do is to accept it all.  

No matter how similar we are, even if we have an identical twin, such as in my case, we are all unique in some ways.  I don’t want to be cookie cutter anyway.

I love my mosaic qualities.  I love my shiny pieces (my victories).  I embrace my broken pieces (failures/lessons).  I accept the misshapen, the aged, the pieces that don’t quite go together.  I accept even though sometimes it is hard.  In the end it all fits and I shine.

“To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.” ― John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice

No matter how broken we are or we become we can always be put together again, restored.  Not in the same exact way, but often in a better, more beautiful way.

I now think back to 7 years ago when I had my beautiful whole intact heart shattered into a million pieces. It was carelessly handled by somebody that didn’t use the same care I had with his heart.

My heart will never be the same again.  Like a diamond my heart has been cut and polished by the pain of heartache.  The pieces of my heart are melded together into a whole new stronger, less naive, heart. A heart better able to love.  A heart that understands pain is a heart that is better able to love.

I am older, wiser, fractured, lighter, ready, able, imperfect, and still so amazing.  I am choosing to embrace and accept it all.

oh yeah, and I love mosaics!

“For my part, I prefer my heart to be broken. It is so lovely, dawn-kaleidoscopic within the crack.” ― D.H. Lawrence

First table

 

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