Archive for October, 2008

First Project In Our Craft Gallery

Since we just started this showcase of crafts and craft projects recently on lowcarbcrafter I was convinced (reluctantly) to feature some of my own works – just to get us started. Since millions of crafters and mosaic enthusiasts still don't know about us I am willing to stick my neck out and subject myself to criticism of my earlier works. That's ok I still like most of them and anyway, I have thick skin!

But let it be known I am doing this strictly in the interests of furthering my craft, willing to be the guinea pig who gets the show started. Come on folks, I told my wife I would keep submitting my own projects to the gallery until some other brave soul ventured forth with one of their own. Let's show the world what we crafters can accomplish!

This started out as one of those hard plastic tissue holders that are made to slip over a standard, square off-the-grocery-shelf tissue box – thereby hiding those awful pastel designs. Anyway, I purchased it for $.50 at a garage sale (remember we are into practical mosaic!) It was begging to be covered in a unique design and I was going for a southwest look in a swirl of green smalti (glass) tiles, both dark and light greens, coral and turquoise and accented in gold scrap pieces. I used a sanded grout from Home Depot – mallard green color in the 5lb bag. It was inexpensive, fun to do, took little time and looks great in the hall bath. Create some buzz with your own designs and ditch the plastic look. 

You can learn more about how to do easy craft projects like this tissue box without having to purchase any fancy tools, expensive materials or going to a mosaic class in The Beginners Guide To Mosaic  

This little piece of work, strips of Mexican tile laid on a plywood and wonderboard overlay, is almost four feet long, and two feet high! It was created to be photographed as the header for a new craft website. As it turned out it  became an image for a single post for crafters to observe. Ah, well, you have to go with the flow sometimes and maybe someday MexicanMosaic.com will have it's own forum. For now we are very happy with the crafts and craft projects contained within this blog.

Colors That Crafters Love

You can blow the image up to see the colors by hovering your mouse over the image and clicking it. You will see the wild colors that you can find in the patterns of 4" Mexican tile, particularly the hand-painted variety. I used a wet saw to cut the pieces (keeping them uniform in size while varying the lengths) for the border and the flower patterns then repeated what I call a random pattern from top to bottom and from side to side. The field of off-white tile in the center was done in a random pattern to balance the repeating strips. I grouted it with a Home Depot sanded grout color called red clay.