one more post today... if you have not yet purchased mosaic art 3: an international portfolio of contemporary mosaic art from 2007, you may want to check it out. it is very impressive! 1,111 mosaics... all materials and styles... 615 artists from 33 countries and territories... it is really, REALLY an incredible collection.

to find out more about it, visit mosaicyearbook.com

my australian email friend, jane lean, has been busy. actually, jane is a bit of a superwoman... she sews, knits, mosaics... she is always creating something it seems. while i have not seen any of her sewing or knitting masterpieces, she has been generous enough to share her mosaic art with me.

here are a couple of her recent pieces. she has been cultivating her talent with mirror and van gogh glass, as can be seen on the bottle. as for the urn, i think that she did a beautiful job pulling it all together... this is a lovely piece... i think that the gold paint on the rim and handles really adds a lot!

enjoy!

a truly remarkable thing about the internet, and about having a website, is being able to meet people from all over the world. a few weeks ago, i had the good fortune to meet antoaneta stoimenova, from cyprus, via the internet, and we have remained in contact since. she is a new email pal. she is also a very talented mosaic artist. you can see some of her work at this link.

recently, she started dabbling with making jewelry, and she has a great talent for this artform as well. click on the first thumbnail to take a look at a sampling of her beautiful jewelry pieces.

click on the second thumbnail to see one of antoaneta's recent mosaics, titled couple. antoaneta is very creative in her use of natural materials... like the ammonite fossils in the heads of the figures... and i wonder what the red pebble-like material is... very nice!

enjoy!

the mirror has been completed! i think the frame works for it... do you? i am very happy with it. next year, perhaps, i will do another one... i will be more adventurous and try something more colorful! this will not be easy, as i tend to really like the rich, warm colors like i chose for this one. we will see...

i have been very busy finishing up my latest floating planes piece from my above and below series, which i have titled la piazza. this piece was very challenging for me. i went from 5 planes on gold rising to 21 planes. this piece uses 6 different shades or orsoni gold, and planes at 3 levels.

overall, i am very happy with the result. about midway through mosaicing the planes, i realized what i needed to do to get the planes mosaiced more accurately on the grid. i ended up having to go back and redo some of the previous planes to make them more accurate. i still could have done better, i think, and on the next one, i should get even closer. i hope that you like it.

the gold is really quite irregular... quite noticeable when you are trying to grid it like for a project like this. i had to trim just about every piece... and they vary so much in size... so that is part of the challenge. i tend to be a bit too obsessed with precision, and i have to remind myself that mosaics are hand-made, and should not look machine-made.

also, i have been upgrading my laptop to the new apple operating system, new photoshop, new pages... new everything, it seems. the weekend has been kind of crazy. a little problem with photoshop... but i trust my brilliant son will get it figured out in no time!

i have vowed not to buy any more mosaic materials until after january. this is a big deal! this is in part to make an effort at self-discipline, and in part to help save money to pay for my new imac...

i am having the mirror framed, and when it is ready, i will get a new photo... should be quite nice!

all for now...