After taking a week-long class at the Institute of Mosaic Arts (IMA) in Jingletown, Oakland I completed my first tile and glass art pieces!The poppy is made of low and high fire tiles provided by IMA and Quarry Red grout. My design was inspired by Georgia O'keefe's red poppy and my trip to Italy where I studied landscape painting with my sister.
The rainbow piece is mixed medium of glass, tile and mirror scraps from previous classes. The exercise was inspired by the methods of Isaiah Zagar.
This is what it looked like pre-grout. You can see the different tiles I used. Some were made from a darker material (high fire) and others were white (low fire). I was more concerned with the surface color and texture but this view helped me decide that I liked the darker grout. Low fire and high fire are completely different experiences to work with.
My glass piece based on the Argentinian beer Quilmes' bottle. I loved the blue, white and brown in the label. It also brings back memories of my volunteer and home-stay La Plata, Argentina that I did with Leah. Working with glass is different from tile. You can score and shape pieces to almost exactly what you want.
This is what it looks like pre-grout. I drew the bottles on the backer-board beforehand to help me stay on track with the design I chose.
