Month: July 2016

Tiny tiles pixilate José Orantes’ painting

Posted on by Sandy Brown Glass

I hope the mosaics adorning the Luther Burbank Playground seem to be magically adding color and sparkle to the concrete surfaces. So much thought, planning, research and effort happens behind the scenes to create this illusion 😉

The 5′ high x 38′ long mosaic mural has been in the works since this project’s inception with José finalizing the painting nearly nine months ago. José can attest to the many sketches that preceded this gorgeous final painting!  Now, we’re anxiously awaiting the tiled sheets that we’ll be installing — a tiled version of Jose’s painting. This medium/technique will look pixilated up close but will visually come together like an impressionist painting from a further away.

~  Here’s a little information about the process ~

José Orantes’ original painting (in parts)

Orantes Painting – Panel 1
Orantes Painting – Panel 2
Orantes Painting – Panel 3
Orantes Painting – Panel 4

Christina at Hakatai  provided me a sample of a detail to show how it would look as a 10mm uncut mosaic mural. As you can see, the tiny tiles pixilate the painting but stay true to the beautiful colors and integrity of the painting.

F429-B-01Vendor mentioned in this post:
Hakatai Tile: 695 Mistletoe Road, Ashland, OR

Defining terms:
10mm uncut mosaic: The mosaic is created using the 1/4″ vitreous glass tiles as pixels in much the same way an impressionist painting uses unmixed spots of paint.

We’ll soon be receiving the boxes of the tiled mosaic along with the roadmap for its installation. Stay tuned for more…

 

 

 

 

 

One more mosaic mural to install

Posted on by Sandy Brown Glass

So happy to see the mosaics installations that were created with Mercer Island 3rd – 8th graders installed in the playground area of Luther Burbank Park. Thank you to the Mercer Island Reporter for featuring the project in a recent article: http://www.mi-reporter.com/community/385721121.html

The “Luther Burbank Playground Mosaic Enhancement” project includes one more mosaic mural that we plan to install in a few weeks. This one is a mosaic made out of 10mm (about 1/4″) vitreous glass tiles and created from a custom painted mural by artist José Orantes.

While we’re preparing to install this 5′ high x 38′ long mosaic mural. I’d like to share a little background… José Orantes created the original painting to scale. The painting is about 20″ high x 10′ long. Knowing the colors of the tiled mosaic mural would be matched to the range of colors available in vitreous glass tile, José and I purchased the paint from the Daniel Smith Art Supply Store in Seattle, in a palette of colors that could be replicated in the mosaic medium. We can’t wait to share the results!

 José Orantes’ original painting created for the Luther Burbank Park playground…

FinalOrantesMuralPaintingforLBP

We’ve already had the concrete wall where it will be installed made smooth by grinding away the texture and adding a smooth layer of cement. Here’s what the prepared surface looks like:

Sandy inspecting the prepared concrete wall
The 5′ high x 38′ concrete wall above the playground
Jose’s canvas!

Looking forward to sharing more about this upcoming mosaic mural in the playground area soon. Stay posted 🙂

Vendor mentioned in this post:
Daniel Smith: 4150 First Avenue South,  Seattle

 

Grouted!

Posted on by Sandy Brown Glass

Grouting mosaics can be a little unnerving – the process requires that you smear grout over the mosaics so that it will color the cracks between the glass tesserae and bring the surface to a smoother, leveled plane. It also strengthens the mosaic. Fortunately, mosaics always are enhanced by the grouting process.

We chose a “pewter” gray color, a shade darker that “delorian gray” to grout our playground mosaics. The divided photo below illustrates how the grout enhances the mosaic.

“Pewter” grout was a great choice to tie our colorful mosaics together.
A before-after grouting pic

Heather grouted with confidence! We were all thrilled with the results.

Heather, our master grouter, in action.
A close-up of a butterfly being grouted

Thank you to Jose, Heather and Carole who took the lead to complete the grouting process on the workshop mosaics in the playground. 

A panaramic view of the border created with the Islander Middle School Mosaic Team!
The 25′ mosaic border.
I love how the bird soars!
We love the color play!
The camouflaged bump out
So well done!
“Flight of the Butterflies” grouted!
“Flight of the Butterflies” grouted!
Yay!
A detail…
The doggy couldn’t look any cuter!

I hope you’ll stop by the Luther Burbank Playground to admire the mosaics created with Mercer Island Students.

Please stay posted to this blog. My next post will introduce the 38′ x 5′ tiled mural based on a to-scale original mural created by Jose Orantes.