I still have #1, and just dug it out of storage a few days ago. Both of these are done on 8×6″ MDF boards, with unbeaded lips for sliding under a wood frame.
These were fun but bittersweet pieces to do. In the spring of 2008, I’d been playing with my micro-mosaic technique for two years, and ironed out most of the problems.
I was showing mosaics, paintings, and jewelry up in Sedona, and at a Scottsdale craft gallery run by three friends of mine. I worked retail at an art supply store. The economy was still going well.
Now both galleries are long-gone. The uptown Sedona gallery faded due to the owner’s family’s health problems (and the horrific real estate market in Sedona.) One friend remarried and settled out of state, one died of recurring breast cancer, and the other semi-retired to rebuild her own small online sales business. The art retail was okay, but I learned that the constant pressure to upsell crap didn’t sit well with me or my valued clients. The economy tanked that fall, and still hasn’t recovered for much of America. I’ve lost my heart for querying many brick-and-mortar galleries.
I still like these pieces and this technique, and think I’ll get back to it. Things made with this stuff have to necessarily be small, for ease-of-working. They’re not big art for big houses, but small jeweled and beaded focal points. They’ll do for online sales, and for art festivals if I can rebuild a stock.
