Mosaics Around the House

Here are two murals I just did for a private residence in Oakland, CA.

This is "Frog Vine" and is on a small wall that juts out from the side of the house. Here is the wall "before".

I created it in my studio then adhered it to the wall in pieces.
But before grouting, I must tape off all the edges to get the clean look that I like.

That process takes hours.

This mural faces the street for passersby to see.
If you look carefully, you can see two frogs playing in the vines!
It is made of glass and tile and is 14" x 87".

The second mural was made of pieces left over from the
previous Vine At The Arbors mural installation.

Again this was created in my studio, then adhered with Thinset,
taped off, then grouted.

This is on the side of the house overlooking a garden area.

It is also made of glass and tile and is 62" x 62".

Vine At The Arbors Mosaic Mural Installation

The installation of this mural, "Vine At The Arbors", began on the
Winter Solstice - a very auspicious time. It marks the end of the darkness and the coming of the light - a new beginning when all things are possible. I like that!
This mural is on the outside of a community building in a new housing
development in Richmond, California.
It's made of glass and high fire tile and measures 9' x 7'.
On the first day my assistant, Saundra Warren, and I traced the
paper template of the art onto the wall.

The second day was the one I had been planning for weeks
and it went smooth as ice!

Each piece was adhered with thinset to the wall and held in place with tape.

By the end of the second day, we had installed all the pieces.

The third day was grouting day. The worst - the VERY worst - part of this whole process for me is the taping off of this kind of intricate art. It is painstaking and there are no shortcuts - the surrounding wall must be protected! It took us three hours to complete this taping job.

Unfortunately I ran out of the grout with one square foot left to go!
Because of the Christmas holiday the grout store was closed so I had to
wait several days to totally finish.
But finish I did!
Here are some close ups:

Vine At The Arbors
9' x 7'
Glass, mirror and high fire tile
December 2009
Special thank you to Saundra Warren for her much appreciated assistance!

Jazz Cats Mosaic Mural Installation

My latest mural is called "Jazz Cats".

It is on a small backyard garden wall and measures about 10 feet long.

My clients told me they love cats and music so I designed this for them. They let me create it and install it sight unseen. Gotta love clients like that!!!
A finishing touch were the musical notes I added at the end. I happen to know that their third love is baseball so those are the opening notes to
"Take Me Out To The Ball Game". A little subtle humor!
I created the mural on mesh and Easyboard in my studio then installed it in a few hours on site. The process begins with tracing the design onto the wall.


All the pieces are stuck with Thinset and held in place with tape for a little while so they don't slip.

After the Thinset has set - about 24 hours - the next
step is to tape off the entire piece for grouting.
This is my least favorite step!
It is a painstaking process on an intricate design like this.

But once the grouting is done and somewhat set, the "reveal" begins.

Peeling away the tape is my favorite step!
I use a small knife to get into the smaller spaces.


The grout can be left rough by this procedure so I sometimes smooth it out with a popsicle stick.


Here are the "figures" close up:
Two cats and the notes:

The third cat and one of the two guitars:


And Voila!

"Jazz Cats"
Ceramic tile and glass
10 Feet x 1 foot (approx)
2009

Southwest Mosaics Series Begins

Above:
Steer Skull
Mirror and stained glass on Easyboard
36" wide x 28" tall
2009

Below:
Magic Feathers
Mirror, stained glass, leather and beads on Easyboard
16" - 18" long approx
2009

Calla Lily Mosaic Mural Installation

My latest project happened because of a breast pump.

A friend of mine was looking for one on Freecycle and ran across a woman she had known a few years ago who was giving one away - Amy Blackshaw.

They reconnected with mosaic talk and Amy voiced her dream to do a mosaic on her large garden wall.

The face is 9' x 4' and the side is 8' long and tapers from 4' to 2' tall.

However, she didnt feel that she had the knowledge or skills to do it alone so my friend got her in contact with me. It turned out she lived close by so I went over to meet her and VOILA the Calla Lily Mural was born.

Luckily for me Amy has a great sense of fun and adventure so she let me design whatever I wanted to.
All she asked was that I teach her the process from beginning to end.
She and her two kids - Maya, 7 and Milo, 4 - liked the idea
of using a theme of things one would see in a garden.
So I created a whimsical, large-perspective design of calla lilies,
nasturtiums, insects and their cat!
First I cut a butterfly, bee, lady bug, dragonfly, cat and small butterfly
out of Easyboard and mosaicked them with glass in my studio. The next step was to adhere them to the wall with thinset and connect them all with mirrored "flying lines" as I call them!
After that, the direct tiling began! (Amy did the nasturtiums).

Here are close-ups of the "grass":

Here are close-ups of the Easyboard insets:

Amy proved to be a great worker, tile setter and learner.
Maya, her daughter, helped with the buffing too.

This is me on the left with my "student/assistant", Amy:

The final result: a 56 square foot backyard mosaic mural
(front and side walls)...

...made by: