How I Got From There to Here! Part IV - Is This The Answer?

At this point my life took another turn, I was expecting twin boys so my workroom was about to become the nursery. I carefully packed all my things away and stowed the boxes down in our overcrowded, unfinished basement. I mentally said goodbye to mosaics as I knew I was not going to have any time to myself for the foreseeable future. The walls of my workroom were painted blue, the cribs went in and I became a full time mum!

I think the boys were about 1 year old when I began to get 'itchy'! I really needed to make something, I needed to be creative and I had to mosaic! I made a small space in the dining room set up my table and then took a step back. I didn't want to use glass around the boys, I still disliked grout but I wanted to work, I wanted to create, so I started an online search and that's how I found a product called Stone by Stone. It's an artificial stone (seems like pumice to me) that can be cut with scissors! I bought several tubs, both the colored and the off white, took them home and wondered what the heck I was going to make with it all. I liked the look of the tiles, but the color palette was somewhat restricted so really had to consider what I was going to make next!

For some time I had been considering making a map of the world, my initial thoughts were to cover a small globe in seed beads but I had really cast that idea aside once the boys were born, plus they wrecked the only globe I had by rolling it around the floor! I looked online for inspiration and eventually decided I wanted to make a map - but something slightly different. I bought a large piece of MDF, about 3' x 2' and decided to paint it copper. I bought three shades of copper and gold paint and then applied them to the MDF with sponges. Once I was happy with the result. I traced my pattern onto the board and using the artificial stone began to create my 'Two Hemispheres' map. I loved making that mosaic, I worked when the boys napped and it took many months to complete but the end result was perfect! I was incredibly happy with it and I loved working with the stone, plus I really liked that the entire substrate was not covered with tile. I enjoyed the mix of paint and stone, I felt this work epitomised how I was working, that the mosaics I was creating were a modern twist on an old medium. My mind was working overtime considering all the possibilities!

The next thing I made with the artificial stone was a leaf, I called it my 'Fossilised Leaf' and I loved that too, but at the end of the day I was finding the colors of the stone were just not bright enough for some of the things I wanted to make! My search continued!