Finishing the Dogwood Blossom Mosaic
Dogwood mosaic, 17" x 14", each piece put in place just before I put the face adhesive on top to hold it all together
Hello friends, this small commission is nearly finished!
Once I am a day or two away from completion I send a bill along with photos showing the piece to my clients and this morning when I did this, the client wrote the following:
“I love, love, love it! The goldfinch color turned out perfect, don’t you think? Thank you so much!!”
I really couldn’t ask for a better response and it’s always such a good feeling to know the client is happy! Creating commissioned pieces always involves some mind reading and although I’ve gotten much better at deciphering and creating someone else’s ideas, I never quite know if my execution works until close to the end.
setting each tile into exactly the right place
When clients come to me either independently or via their designer, they have a vague concept, a seed of an idea. I ask questions to learn about anything they know about what they want. Often they also know what they don't want and this is equally useful to hear about. I ask about the feel, the color palette, the aesthetic, the subject and most importantly the style they are imagining. All elements are really important but if I don’t get the style right - abstract, illustrative (like this piece), natural, a particular era (arts & crafts or old style mosaic) - the piece won’t work regardless of whether I get everything else right. They of course seek me out for my aesthetic, but they almost always have a direction and concepts that they would like for the art piece they are commissioning. (thank you @cryptogee for asking about the art of working with clients recently, your comment inspired my explanation here)
It's very similar to when a family commissions an architect to design their home; they chose that particular architect because of his/her eye, aesthetic, talent but of course they also know what kind of house they want, the size, and how they want it to function for them.
At the drawing phase I show my sketched up idea that embodies the ideas we've discussed and try not to put too many hours in before getting some feedback to make sure I’m heading down the right path. Often while drawing I’ll ask clarifying questions.
Once I have approval of the drawing I begin cutting the piece from wet clay. I make sure to send frequent process photos to the client at key junctures of cutting, and partially glazed pieces. So far I haven’t had anyone ask for a change in direction after the drawing phase, but this gives the client the chance to be involved and give feedback if s/he should choose.
some of the mosaic cut from wet clay, darker areas are wetter and lighter have dried
parts glazed and fired, ready to be put together
Over the weekend I put the face adhesive over all of the tiles. Notice the crease in the tape at the top...this can happen but as long as I make sure it sticks to itself it's fine.
And at that point I decided that I didn't like the large space next to the Chicadee's tail. You can see in the above photo I tried filling it with tiny pieces but once the piece was taped I knew I would need to recut this piece. Because it can be tough to get the sizing right for one piece I'm adding in after the fact, I made 3.
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Today I took these out of the kiln and found the best fit of the 3:
Although it was the best fit, it felt tighter than I wanted so I sanded the sides a little:
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Next I glazed it and now as I write it's firing. Tomorrow the piece will be officially finished and ready for the client to pick up!
My last post on this on this mosaic will address the economics of a commission like this and I hope you will return to my blog for this and more coming up this week!
Previous posts on this project:
https://steemit.com/art/@natureofbeing/dogwood-mosaic-comes-alive-through-the-glazing-phase
https://steemit.com/art/@natureofbeing/cutting-phase-of-the-dogwood-mosaic-from-wet-clay
https://steemit.com/art/@natureofbeing/more-about-the-drawing-phase-within-another-commission
As always, I am deeply grateful for your support of my blog, it makes it possible for me to do this work!
Your client was right; I love, love, love it! as well :)
:-)), you made me smile, thanks for the kind words @cerenselenapa!
You are one incredibly gifted human being, @natureofbeing! I truly admire your dedication to your craft. I appreciate you walking us through the process of your work and how you included the fact that you had to redo that part near the chicadee's tail. Would you mind if we feature your post in our next lesson in @steemnest? Lesson #2 will be about how newbies can present their niche through their posts.
Thank you @dandalion and it would be a true honor to be featured in @steemnest, thank you so much!!
I would love to watch you work your magic in person, it intrigues me how talented you are. I would have loved to have gotten you to design a tattoo that I had designed for me personally when my grandmother died. I'm very happy with what the artist came up with and transferred to my arm, but I bet you would have knocked it out of the park. Has anyone ever asked you to design a tattoo for them before lol?
Thanks so much @bluelightbandit, it would have been a great honor to design a tattoo for you and thank you for even thinking of it! I haven't been asked but to be honest I know people who would be much better at it than I am like my sweetie Rob or a friend Cary Porter who's drawings are truly incredible. Anyway if you're thinking about a tattoo let me know and I'll give you info for all the people who I can think of.
I agree with him @bluelightbandit
Great work you are doing. From sketch to realization. And such a lovely result. I am amazed at your creativity. It's so unusual. It's so time consuming. Need a great accuracy and skill to bring these ideas to life.
thank you @anna-mi, your support and insight is so appreciated :-))
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing, I've never seen such detailed process for mosaics (including your other links) :D
I've never had a chance to try real mosaics, but they look so fun and cool. :)
thanks @kristyglas, some of my tile work is more detailed than other projects but I enjoy it all, Many thanks for your support!
Oh my goodness that is a massive amount of work! I love mosaics, how many pieces come together to create the whole. I especially love the colour of the bird in the almost-finished photo. Wonderful art, thank you for sharing! :)
thank you @katrian-ariel!! :-))
That goldfinch is a real highlight! I like the hosta leaves, too. The picture that shows the grass leaves and dogwood blossoms, apart from the other pieces, is really interesting. I wouldn't have realized that you did every single dogwood flower as it's own separate piece. Pretty amazing, even to a non-artist! It sounds like someone else is installing the pieces, since the client is picking them up. They are getting a great art!
Thank you so much, @haphazard you always leave such great comments. yes every single dogwood flower is carved separately and yes someone else installs it. I prefer to let the experts install since it is its own skill for sure!
Your client is 100% right- this is just beautiful and I love it as much as your client, or maybe a tad bit more haha. I love natural landscapes and settings and this piece is just phenomenal. If only you were here or the shipping cost to Pakistan wasn't ridiculously flabbergasting, I'd have ordered this right away and gifted it to my mother first and then ordered another piece for myself. You are right that when you have to make a tailor made piece for a client, you need to do some mind reading to ensure the piece comes out just the way the client wants. I ran my own online apparel business for some time about 5 years back and I used to go through the same concerns whenever a client ordered a customized piece. And I'll be returning for the next article :)
Thank so much @sharoonyasir! You're so sweet, I'd love to make you a piece and yes the shipping would be nearly as much as the piece lol!
Custom clothes are very difficult, good for you for pulling that off. Be well!
Consider joining Steemsugars by the way ;-) here is the link to the discord, nice group of women: https://discord.gg/D2V8nq9
Thank you so much for the invite :) Means a lot.
This is amazing!
thanks @sulaiman4917!
This is so cool 😎 I follow you 😀