Art Therapy
Tomorrow will be 5 weeks. Five weeks since the day he called from the office and said he had just been laid off. Life as we know it will change.
I had this idea for quite some time to do a mosaic in our 6′ x 6′ entryway. I had made a red hot chile pepper plate and thought it couldn’t be much different than that, just on a larger scale. I had the supplies sitting for a few weeks just waiting to come to life.
I started this project in the first week of my husband being laid off. I pulled him into it, to help get his mind off of the pressure and stress. Together we worked to lay the thin-set, we laid the slate, we laid the grout. We worked together sometimes in silence, in our own thoughts and sometimes talking about the possibilities. I laid the glass while he cleaned the rest of the mess. A team. It took about 5 days to finish. It was the best therapy to help get us through the initial shock of the news.
Having a creative outlet and making something beautiful is so therapeutic and healing.
With this being my first one, this mosaic has many mistakes. You can mosaic on so many things; the back splash in the kitchen, planters, walls, picture frames, pretty much anything that has a hard surface. You should try it yourself! I have learned that many people don’t try new things because they say they don’t know how, or they have never done it before. Sometimes you gotta step outside the box and just go for it. I figured the worst that could happen is that I hate the mosaic and we just scrape it off!! Just try something new that you have been wanting to do.
So many people have asked how I did this. I will show some pictures of the process. There are classes you can take, books you can get or even go on line if you want to give it a try on your own.
This is a bad picture of the Italian glass I used. It is a beautiful variegated deep purple.
I used some buffed black river rock. In the future I wouldn’t use it again. I feel the size and texture took away from the patterned glass in the mosaic. You can also use broken china in different patterns and colors to match your glass.
This is the time consuming part of the project if you are using small pieces. I had cuts all over my fingers for days. This glass was a beautiful honey swirl color. I cut at night while the girls were sleeping. I did it in stages so it wasn’t too overwhelming.
Once you have the glass cut and supplies ready then you can really get into the fun part. Designing and laying it out. Here, we laid the slate and laid the circle pattern for the river rock. We just put the thin-set down in the circle and picked like sized rocks in a pattern to fill it.
Thank you Jasmine. It’s always nice to have help, even if it’s from your dog.
You can see it’s coming along, but still a LONG way to go.
I’m not having fun here. My back hurt, my knees hurt, my head hurt. I still had hundreds of purple triangles to lay. But, that step went much faster.
Here is the heart. You can see the beautiful colors in the glass. When the sun hits it, it’s awesome.
Here is the finished product. A little blood, sweat and a few tears.
In the midst of all of this we are counting our blessings and trying to see the blue sky through the clouds. If you have a job, you are blessed.
Thanks for checking in. Have a beautiful day.
just a thought… Jeanee
