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| Celeste demonstrating |
What could be a better way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning than hanging out with a bunch of women artists creating art? I had lots of fun yesterday morning creating a mosaic stepping stone for my garden. As it happens, my awesome hubby Al is in the process of installing walkways on either side of our decks so the timing couldn't be more perfect for this type of project.
I was invited to this soiree' by my friend and multi -talented artist Dragonfly Leathrum. There seems to be no limit to this woman's talent. She is known all over the region where I live for her many murals in downtown Newark, Delaware and elsewhere, as well as for her beautiful stained glass work, paintings and oh, her ART CARS! When I was first getting to know her she was driving her famous "Turtle". Going to Dragonfly's house is like stepping inside a giant art work. Drop on over to her facebook page to have a look at what she does. You will be made happy.
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| Dragonfly (L) Celeste Kelly (R) |
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| Smashing things up |
The workshop was being led by mosaic artist, Celeste Kelly. Interestingly enough, she and I have been part of the same artists organization, the Newark Arts Alliance, for many years and only yesterday met each other! I don't know how that happened. Or rather didn't :0)... Celeste was kind enough to offer her time and talents to showing us ladies her skills for a very minimal cost and the donation of an extra paver for a kids camp.. ..
We started by filling trays from a smorgasbord of broken pottery, pieces of glass, mirrors, plates (which we got to smash up ourselves) tiles, and small sculptures. Everyone seemed to bring a different paver type to create their mosaic on and Debbie Hegedus (another heavy hitter on the Newark art scene) brought a birdbath type thingy.
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| Debbie Hegedus |
Celeste demonstrated for us how to cut the glass (which was surprisingly easy if someone tells you how to do it) and cut the pottery into pieces with caliper type tools. She stressed trying to keep the distance between your pieces the same when gluing them into place and also recommended buffing edges with a machine that she had brought. I think most of us were to anxious to see results to stop and buff edges. Artists!
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| Cutting glass |
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| Laying out the pieces |
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| Variety of pieces in progress |
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The beginnings of my piece
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Some people seemed to have a design or pattern in mind. I think most of us went free form and let the pieces dictate the design. I started out with a pattern in mind and ended up with something completely different..
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| Me |
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| In progress still |
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| All done except for grout |
I will be finishing this with grout today which will change the look completely. I used a red paver as the base since that is what we are putting in the walkway but the grout will be a deep green. Head on over to my facebook page in a day or two to see the finished result.
All in all, the morning was a special treat. Its nice to step out of your comfort zone once in a while and try your hand at new things. I am so lucky to be an artist and get to spend time with amazingly talented people. I have read stories about artistic rivalries, jealousies and competitions. That is something I have never experienced with the company I keep. The community of artists that I belong to have never been anything but kind, helpful and supportive of one another which has always been a huge blessing in my creative life.
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| Dave (who promptly vacated the scene) and Karoline Wiliczek |
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| Dragonfly (hostess with the mostest) and guest |
If you would like to learn more about my creative friends, check them out here :
