Have you checked out all the new features on my side bar..? I have been hard at work trying to make my blog an even lovelier place for you to visit - what do you think?!
My latest commission was an agapanthus mosaic, which has been tricky, I can tell you! I took loads of photos of them when we were on holiday in St. Ives, Cornwall this year - they were GIANTS compared with the ones we have in our garden.
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| A beautiful white agapanthus taken on holiday |
So, I've been looking at those for inspiration, and Google images is always a good source of info. I drew the general shape and perspective on my piece of exterior plywood first, then went to my vast palette of tiles to find the right blues/purples. I wanted different depths of tiles to bring the mosaic to 3D life, and different textures as well. When you see one of my mosaics in the flesh, as it were, you'll know how important that it is, and what a difference it makes!
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| Part of my research on Google images |
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| I liked the shape of the agapanthus in this painting |
My first agapanthus blooms were too light - I had too much of the light purple in them, so I took them out with my trusty screwdriver. Already it looked better - more delicate and true to that gorgeous agapanthus blue. I added a few more flowers of the darker blues to give it that rounded feel, of one flower, made up of many flowers, cutting each piece carefully to fit the space, but not too perfectly as nature isn't like that, is it?!
Happy with the blooms, and after a good coat of looking, the stem and the leaves were easy - I had just the right shades of green to give them a feeling of shadow and life. I did put a leaf above the blooms - but NO! - that was all wrong, and in all the images I looked at of agapanthus, none of them had leaves above the blooms - so, out it came!
I like borders sometimes, and I just felt a border at the top and the bottom, in that lovely blue, would emphasise the height and colour of the agapanthus, and I am really pleased with how it turned out.
Finally the grouting in my faithful brown tinted grout which never fails to bring all colours out beautifully, and painting the sides and the back in a contrasting blue - done!
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| And here it is ....always better in real life, of course! |
I love a challenge, and this mosaic certainly was one - but it's lovely to be asked to make different mosaics and see what I can come up with!
If you have a crafty friend who you think would enjoy my blog, it would be great if you could share it with them. I now have a very smart tab on the side section over there (points right!) for you to receive my posts by email if you would like - set it all up by myself, I did!
Thanks for reading and I always love to hear from you!
Felicity x
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