Glass Mosaic
Coffee Table Mosaics
One of the last furniture pieces to be produced in the Arkwood Studio was this persimmon gem. The wood came from a tree that needed to be removed from the edge of the woods outside the cottage front door.
The highly figured persimmon table top seemed ripe for some glass mosaic features. The sun and curved space around it on the left are balanced by the sun rising over the mountains and their curved slopes on the right. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of glass
cutting, grinding and fitting here. The panels are mounted on a plywood base, which is secured underneath the top. Safety glass was then added over the mosaics. (panels are 11" x 12")
My philosophy on crafting wood is to respect the tree and its life and honor it with the best possible new form in harmony with other materials and finishes. This organic approach carries into the joinery: reconnecting the wood fibers with mortise and tenon joints, building a long-lasting new form of the tree.
Heart of the Matter
This stained glass mosaic project was a Christmas 2022 gift for my daughter Amber, a counselor with a big heart.
The center panel around the heart is leftover random pieces of glass from other projects in warmer earthy tones. It represents the healing heart amidst the broken parts of our lives. Narrow purple strips rest under the heart and extend to the cooler blue border, a peace symbol reference.
The mosaic is glued to clear glass underneath it. The black grout provides defintion and contrast to the glass pieces, a narrow negative space. The frame is an ebonized red oak from a tree which stood where the Arkwood Studio now stands. (8" x 8")
Nouveau Mosaic
This piece is a combination of tiffany-style copper foil stained glass with a glass mosaic section in the middle. It has a zinc metal frame with a black patina on the soldered joints.
It is made of mostly glass pieces collected from Ross Ashley's shop. His son Jesse was a classmate of Jody's in K-12 school in Berryville, Arkansas. It was a Christmas gift for Jody. The red keystone was accidently tilted off-center. Go with it. (6" x 9")
Kings River Sunrise
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A pair of glass mosaic yard medallions- "Kings River Sunrise" came out of the glass studio in the summer of 2019. These variations on the same pattern are 6" in diameter, mounted on 3/4" thick exterior grade plywood wrapped in outer bands of steam-bent oak. Milk paint and urethane finish topped off the wood finish. One was a gift for Wisconsin friends' garden, mounted on a steel rod for implanting in the ground. The other became the center piece of the bamboo garden installation in front of our home, Arkwood Cottage. (6" x 6")
There were some nice pieces of opaque glass that I was gifted from another glass crafter from up the Kings River, Ross Ashley, who had passed away. Turns out his son was a classmate of my daughter Jody's from K-12, and a former student of mine...small world. This inspired another glass mosaic work.
There was a photo of new mom Jody and grandson Leo which Sue really liked. So I designed a grouted tile piece to serve as a picture frame, mounted on wood for Sue. The piecemeal wooden outer border is from a persimmon tree that once stood outside the front door of the house. The inscription on the back reads, "A river runs through the generations, onward to the sea." Too much fun.
Projects from Eureka Springs School of the Arts Workshop
This opaque glass tile piece (left) was my first attempt at working with this new material. It is entitled "Brubeck Reflect"- inspired by Neil Fujita's cover art on the classic 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet album, "Time Out."
It was produced during the fall 2016 "Mindful Mosaics" Workshop at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, taught by local artist Maureen Alexander.
I worked off a drawing and template drawn as a tile-cutting guide; working from the center of the piece outwards. Of course, it wasn't long before the final product drifted away from the plan and it just flowed its way to the finish.
It is 8" x 8" with grout in between the tiles. Learning the language, tools, and methods of a new medium were an exciting challenge over the course of the 5-day class. The piece is mounted on plywood and framed in cherry with a mission brown water-based dye and resin varnish finish.
After 2 1/2 days of cutting, grinding, breaking, gluing, and grouting, it was time to try a translucent glass piece for the second project that week...
"Sunrise Mountain" is 10" H x 14" L, with tiles mounted on a scrap of window glass. It all started with the large lower piece of glass, a cut-off from the end of a sheet of glass, inspiring a mountain form. The shades of sunrise colors above were all cut quickly and randomly with tile nippers; the sky blues at the top were cut with a glass cutter.
This was a much more free flowing, unplanned project done in a short time and left to dry for grouting the next day. It lights up quite nicely with indirect light behind it in a window. I now see the potential for this type of glass work added to my shoji lamps - combining light, color, texture, and wood.
The frame consists of quarter sawn red oak from the shop scrap bin, mortise and tenon joints at the corners, pegged with Japanese wooden nails. The finish is a custom wood dye blend with a urethane finish.
