Mosaic Mania

OK, I am finally going to put another post on here. I decided I could put up a few pictures of past glories to at least have a little content, right?

Last year's craft addiction was Mosaic. I am actually still doing a little but only rarely. Here are a couple of the more heroic projects I undertook:


This is the bird bath I made for my daughter's Kindergarten teacher, an avid backyard birder. I bought the birdbath at the local hardware and then added my own touch. The little tiles are about 2x2 inches and are actually hand rolled out by me at my favorite local ceramics place, The Work*Shop.

Then, after they were bisque fired, I took them to my daughter's art class at school and had each kid paint one tile and put their thumb print on another. After that I put each kid's name on their tile using a liner brush and turned their thumb prints into Ed Emberly critters. Have I ever mentioned that I have three children? Or that I am a glutton for punishment.

Anyway, after the second firing I mosaiced (is that a word?) the tiles into the bowl of the bird bath along with a tile I made for the center with the teacher's name and the school year, etc. Oh yeah, and I put some marbles in to fill some holes and add some fun. And there you have the insane lengths I will go to, to make my crafts seem useful! Well, we happen to love that teacher too.




This one is the bench!! that I made for my son's teacher the same year. Well, after the bird bath I had to do something, right? So I couldn't find a bench I liked anywhere and I eventually talked my husband into building one! Obviously he loves me very much. Did I mention there was a really tight deadline?

In this case the kids were older so I let them paint what they wanted to fit the theme of gardens and simply limited the palette so all the tiles would match. The teacher that received this was actually in tears. She brought me over to her house over the summer to see where she had placed the bench and told me how she sits on it every morning to enjoy her coffee. It was extremely gratifying. I don't always get to see how much people enjoy my crafty gifts.

Favorite Free Knitting Pattern Links

These are some of my favorite free knitting pattern links:

http://www.freevintag... (vintage patterns, mostly late 60's) This site has some really cute shawl patterns that would make great evening wraps. It has easy to follow instructions.

http://www.knittinghe... (free patterns and free how-to videos) The videos on this site taught me how to cast-on and how to knit and purl. It is really awesome and she has collected some good pattern links.

http://www.knitty.com... (funky & fun patterns) I will post some pictures of the cute little pacifier tethers I made from a pattern on knitty. This is a good place to look for patterns that are a little out of the ordinary.

http://www.knittingpa... (you name it, they have it) This website has more patterns than you cold ever knit. Luckily it is broken down into categories, so you can pretty easily find what you are looking for.

http://www.dailyknitt... (lots of mod patterns) This site has fewer patterns to choose from but they seem to have been selected carefully to fit a certain type of image. They are typically more modern looks for clothing and accessories.