Mirrors....Mirrors And More Mirrors

It was a long weekend of mirror making....Some are going to galleries and some are purchases from Esty.

I still have to paint the edges and glue the mirror back in place.

For more info:

www.etsy.com

www.raquelstanek.etsy.com

Northwest Glass

I went to Northwest Glass on Thursday and selected colors for the mural project. Picked out the colors for the trees, sky, and mountains. Northwest Glass is a wholesale warehouse in Redmond Washington. This is a mosaic or stained glass artist heaven there is so much glass, tools, and every other supply an artist could ever want. I will primarily use Bullseye glass which is made in Portland Oregon and Spectrum glass which is made in Woodinville Washington.

For More Info

http://www.spectrumglass.com/stained-glass/

http://www.bullseye-glass.com/

http://www.nwartglass.com/

Welcome to the Vatican Mosaic Studio

Last Fall my mother and I went to Rome and Venice we had about 4 days in Rome and 4 days in Venice. I decided because the trip was so short that we would hire a private guide for Rome http://www.vaticantoursinc.com/ we did 3 tours in Rome the last one was the Vatican in this tour our guide was able to get the permits so we could go into the mosaic studio (which is not open to the public). In the studio they 5-6 people working on commissions and gifts that the pope can give to visiting dignitaries.

To the right you will see a case that's were they have a catalog of colors so that they can repair the existing mosaics that are throughout the Vatican. To the left you can see them working there is only 3 artist in the shot they asked me not to photograph a large commission that the fourth artist was working on. It was huge and had taken him years and years to complete he had about 6 months left to go on it. Its a very quite room some of the artist have head phones on.

Very meticulous tiny little pieces the glass is called smalti. To learn more about smalti

http://www.mosaicsmalti.com/OrsoniSmalti.asp

This is one of the workstations you can see the little boxes of smalti and to the left of the chair on the rectangle wood block is the hammer and hardie (which is the authentic way to cut smalti)

Our tour guide took this picture for us. The mosaic studio for me was the whole reason to visit the Vatican and the reason we stayed an extra day in Rome.

Northwest Mural ~ Drawings

This week I have been sorting through all the children's drawings and thought I would share a few with everyone.

Owl

Bald Eagle w/fish

Black Bear

So far I have comlpeted 16.5 feet of the layout for the mural and have 7.5 feet left to layout!

Mosaic of the week

This is a very exciting for me to introduce this to the world Mosaicadermy this is my version of taxidermy. This female deer is made from glass tiles with the color palate of spring vibrant colors.

Look for more mosaicadermy coming soon! Right now I'm just finishing a large mosaicadermy project (hint: Black and white stripes) Again I just want to thank Tami Meader Photography

Giant ant photo shoot

The giant ant had its photo shoot this week

I have a great photographer her name is Tami Meader and she also created my website. Check out her work http://www.tamimeader.com/index.html

Northwest Mural Day 1

Today was so fun I went to Northwest Trek http://www.nwtrek.org/ this is day 1 for the second mural for Westfield Southcenter Mall. We had 70 third graders from Tukwila Elementary come and draw the images for the northwest mural they were great we got lots of fun images birds, whales, deer, bears, owls and lots more!

Northwest Trek is so great they have a tram that takes you through a wide open area where there are Bighorn Sheep, Trumpet Swans, Bison, Mountain Goats, Deer, Elk, Caribou, and Moose. The park is 723 Acres and is so beautiful.

Big horn sheep

This is a Beaver Dam

Bison

Coyotes

Snowy Owl

This was such a fun day I highly recommend to anyone in the Seattle area to make your way down to Northwest Trek! To see more of my photos from today you can check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/24132106@N03/

Back to work!

Mosaic of the week ~ Giant Ants

I love this time of year because I get to work on big wild designs. Giant ants popped into my head last fall after I finished all my Christmas shows I was able to start work on them. I present to you my giant ants!

Last Friday I was able to take a minute away from work and go to first Friday where all the local galleries show new art work I discovered Nathaniel Mather at gallery Fraga http://www.nathanielmather.com/index.html also check out http://www.galleryfraga.com/index.htm

I love his work the colors and the birds I love it!