Sheba Mosaic

I have finished the Sheba mosaic. I decided not to trim the edge tesserae, but instead to let them hang out over the frame.

Next I have a house number mosaic to do. Once that's done I'm starting the large three dimensional piece.

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Sheba Mosaic Progress

I haven't posted about the mosaic in a while. Earlier this week I finished the face and the hair, trimmed off the excess mesh and glued the work onto a Wedi board.

I've been testing colors for the clothing and the background.

When I test colors I lay out the tesserae in a roughed-in manner. I try out combinations and andamento (flow of the tesserae) in a very loose way which helps me visualize how it might look. This was my final test for the garment colors for the Sheba mosaic:
 

You can see a roughed-in arrangement of color and andamento. Once I find an arrangement that seems to work for me I let it sit for a few days - checking it now and then to see if it still appeals to me. If it does, I start working with the colors and layout and then see what I think (I have been known to pull out large sections of a mosaic if I'm not perfectly satisfied with it...)

Tonight I started on the garment section of the mosaic. Didn't get too far - tonight was Skype night with the Las Vegas contingent of the family. Promised Aluna that I'd post a photo of tonight's progress on the mosaic after we disconnected, so here it is:

Only the blue/green tesserae along the right shoulder (left side of the mosaic as you are looking at it) are glued down so far. Hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow night. I don't think I have any mosaic students coming to the open studio so I'll be able to work on this instead of teaching.

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Portrait Mosaic

This mosaic's name hereafter will be Sheba. I think it looks enough like Sheba to be titled with her name... I have taken some liberties - the real Sheba's hair rarely gets this long before she does something interesting to it, and if it does get this long it is a mass of curls. The eyes are green enough, but they could have used an outer edge of brown that you simply cannot do in mosaic unless you're creating a larger piece of work or working with smaller slivers of glass - and the pieces for the iris are already less than 3/16th of an inch square. Sheba also has piercings and a beautiful tattoo on her neck.

But otherwise, this is recognizable as Sheba...

There's a bit of reflection in the lower part of the mosaic.  I took this photo before coming to work and I did not have time to set up the lights as I would have liked.

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