Copper I is the first mosaic in my series based on the allure of oxidized copper. This second time-lapse video with audio commentary is the third video in the series of six videos and continues the mosaic journey.
Video transcript for deaf or hard of hearing:
Hi Mosaic Fans! This is where we left off with the last video after about 35 hours into the mosaic. Today I’m going to show you another 45 or so hours of work. This time lapse covers about 29-30 hours of actually placing the glass. Often the extra time lowers as a project goes on, but with so many colors & materials, there is a lot of cleaning up glass shards, organizing, changing my mind, and some cutting I did for prep that I didn’t capture.
Here I’m finishing the blue and green circles that represent the oxidized copper part of the mosaic. I wish the mosaic was even larger so that I could put in more color changes, but this is already huge for a mosaic that isn’t a commission. I’ll have to balance things out the best I can.
I can’t find the clip of finishing the two circles at the top, but here’s where we end up once I’ve finished with all the blue and green tessera in foreground.
Now on to the starbursts! I want the prominent metallic aspects to have an effect like I’ve made with some of my starburst projects in the past, but they will be more subtle once the surrounding background glass is placed around it.
Here are a couple examples of mosaic starbursts I’ve made before to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.
I’m making a lot of choices as I go. I only knew that I wanted to go from antiqued brass colors to copper to gold as the pattern moved out from the blue and green center toward the edges. I thought I wanted starbursts that were more solid, but as soon as I started, I realized that wasn’t going to work because they would be forming solid blocks of color and wouldn’t leave room behind them for me to make the ombre I’m planning in the background effective.
I also intended to make each starburst unique, but then realized that there was too much going on in similar color tones to have that much chaos. Using pattern repetition will be better to clarify the design.
While I finish up this first row of starbursts, let me discuss what will go behind them. Originally I had planned to continue making brown and copper circles around the blue and green circles, changing colors in an ombre style until I get to an iridescent cream. There is really not enough room left to switch the colors that way, so with only about an inch and a half per color, that’s not enough room to create circles. Plus with all the spikes from the starbursts, it is hard to get patterns going in these spaces even if there was enough room for the circles color-wise.
Next time I’ll be working on the background, transitioning from dark to light, but I’m happy the mosaic is coming together and definitely looking inspired by oxidized copper. Thank you for watching!