I'd been feeling a bit stale - I'm the only one doing Corrugated Mosaic and there has not been anyone to challenge or stimulate me to strive higher. The early Corrugated Mosaic picture frames that I did were rather primitive. Over the past decade I've refined the Corrugated Mosaic to the point that I don't know where to go next.... I can mosaic almost any flat or slightly curved surface so I started looking for new horizons. When searching for ideas and inspiration, the best place to look is in a book, or two.

Leanne at Ruby Dog's Art House in Vancouver introduced me to this wonderful book:
New Directions in Altered Books by Gabe Cyr. And there are many more....

Paper

I've always had an attachment to paper and it's so much fun to fold, cut and glue, plus sources for recycled papers are so numerous!. Old books are wonderful and I've been cutting them up for years, but this is a whole new level! Publishers seem to publish more books than people can actually read and reference books get out of date so fast in our changing world.

This was a remaindered book - I was drawn to the rich red color of the end papers!
I've already started to alter another book, using a utility knife and mosaics instead of the shredder....

You can see the new altered book: PEACE BY PIECE, with corrugated and marble mosaics, at my FaceBook photo album - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30457003&l=6eef3fca02&id=1391287898

Marble, Granite, Tile, Glass, Et Cetera.....

In June of 2009, we drove down to Portland, OR for the mosaic exhibition CUTTING EDGES and it was a wonderful experience.

Cutting Edges: Contemporary Mosaic Art
This was the largest mosaic exhibition in North America, ever.
To see a slide show of this exhibition on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/65738626@N00/sets/72157618756890137/
www.flickr.com/photos/65738626@N00/sets/72157614489046430/

In the past I've attended SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conferences and exhibitions where I've talked with other mosaic artists who work with traditional mosaic materials: marble, tile, glass, smalti, et cetera. But when I return to my studio, I go back to what I know: paper and corrugated.

At this event I was given the opportunity sit down and actually chop marble with a hammer and hardie (or anvil) - and it was so much fun! It's not hard but technique will require lots of practice. On the way home we stopped at Powell's Books in Portland to get a couple of mosaic books. Mosaic Techniques & Traditions by Sonia King is an excellent resource.

One of my principles is working with recycled materials. I'm not averse to the occasional wander through an art store or buying some new materials, but I like to make use of scraps and discards. It's more fun to search out the treasures. So the other good news is that unwanted marble and granite are plentiful. With all the stone and granite countertops being installed, there are dumpsters of it sitting in alleys just waiting to be picked through and I love diverting these materials from the local landfills. We also found a beautiful slab of green slate, plus stone and ceramic tiles, at out local ReStore.

A variety of marble and granite rescued from the dumpster.

Red granite and pink marble.

The pink marble was from a demolition project and needed to be cleaned.

Luci is using a hammer to chop the 3/8" thick marble into smaller pieces, which will be cut to size in the studio using nippers and wheeled cutters.

The beginnings of my first endeavor. I also discovered that granite is much harder than marble! The upper right area doesn't look good so I'm about to de-construct it.

This is first mosaic using marble and granite, 6.5"x9.5". This was just a practice piece to get me started but, what fun! Now I'll have to think about a design for the next one.