A RARE GLIMSPE...

INTO A BRILLIANT MIND

THE WORLD OF KATHERINE ENGLAND

Recently I dropped in on my dear friend Katherine to buy some sanded gout for my 3-D kids 

who were working on their mosaic frames.

And I just happened to have my camera with me,

 so I couldn't pass up the wonderful opportunity to capture the eye-catching visuals all around me.

Like this sweet little house library in front of her studio gate.

You take a book out and put a book in.

I always carry reading material in my car for red lights,

so I pulled out the two books below and replaced them with two I've recently read.

Pretty darn cool!!

I want one of these in front of our cabin.

Love Katherine's gate into her backyard and studio.

She and her husband built it many years ago.

The welcoming mosaic hand pointing to the entrance is a great touch made by Katherine.

Katherine also shares a love of gardening with me.

So whenever I visit I enjoy whatever her current project is.

Right now she is ripping out her old landscaping

 and replacing it with more drought tolerant succulents.

You can see one of her mounds is complete (mid center).

And check out that trumpet tree against her lavender painted house.

Lavender?

How artsy fartsy is that???

And finally,

her studio and teaching space.

Let's see what's inside...

And what's outside dotting her landscape...

Hope you've enjoyed this visual treat.

I sure did.

Creating Beauty thru Recycling

MOSAIC FRAMES

BEGINNING 3-D ART

glass shards on wood frame

The kids love this assignment and work so hard to get their designs just right.

Enjoy!

Senior Megan Yeu

Senior Jinne Choi

8th Grader Cassidy Chansirik

Junior Bianca Tolentino

Junior Payal Morari

Junior Kaili Hamada

All Boxed Up

MOSAIC TILED BOXES

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

wood box, polymer clay, glass shards, wood stain, gold, copper and silver leaf, india ink

Juniors Laarnie and Reis just finished up these stunning boxes in time for the Open House show.

Laarnie picked a wood box with a glass insert and filled in the glass area with polymer tiles embossed with gold, copper and silver leaf.  

Around those tiles she fit in bits of glass shards.

All pieces were glued down with tacky glue.

After staining her box she came in with india ink and dew lots of design elements to enhance her piece,

And when you open the lid you have addition mosaic surprises along with a bit of colored sand.

Tons of hard work went into getting this piece done on time.

Beautiful Laarnie!!

Reis picked out a round wooden box.

Both kids worked to a forest theme.

Reis focused on the age rings inside the tree truck for his lid design, using alternating rounds of polymer and glass.

He spent hours on the box side fitting together glass shards to ring and flow around it.

What precision!

Tremendous patience  :)

A Mosaic Must See at Vroman's

This last year when my student Rita Labib had her photo showing up in Pasadena, she told me about the most amazing mosaic wall and staircase located at the back of Vroman's Bookstore.  Vroman's is at 695 E. Colorado Blvd between El Molino and S. Oak Knoll.  I adore bookstores and Vroman's is my new favorite.  And just go out the back of the store to see this incredible mosaic work.  Most of the pieces are low-fired ceramics, and worth the drive.  Plus the bookstore is huge, 2 stories with lots of book related gifts and just so much more.  I spend hours there in the Arts/Crafts section.

Sorry this close-up isn't a bit clearer.

A Three Part Glimpse of Mosaic Artist Katherine England

Katherine England, my friend and mentor, who I started taking classes from in 2008, has recently begun teaching from her home.  She has taken her garage and turned it into her art studio and classroom teaching space.

Katherine's Backyard and Driveway which is her extended Workshop Space 

She is currently working on a commissioned mosaic work for the city of Anaheim for a new park they are dedicating to Paul Revire's Ride. 

The piece will be enormous, on a monumental scale, and Katherine has drawn out her design on paper and now she is gluing her mosaic pieces onto a netting over top the paper. She told me she has incorporated a couple of the drawings her children did when they were little.  The entire piece takes up several long tabletops.

She still has a ways to go, so I will let you know when it is installed in case you want to take a peek.

And here's a little cutie below that she recently finished.  She works both 2 and 3 dimensionally, and if you are interested in taking classes from her, or buying a piece, just click on her name above.  She is a dynamic teacher and also offers classes in other media as well, such as bookbinding and journaling, fused glass, shrines, and soldering.  I believe in the summer she also offers children's art camps.  She is located in downtown Fullerton.  Tomorrow I will give you a couple more peeks into her art and life.

Mosaic Frames - Student Art

Gorgeous work is what my Beginning 3-D Art kids are creating for me. Just look at the detail in their mosaic work. From strong designs to great looking colors to interesting shards, and then just the right color grout, these children are going above and beyond my wildest expectations. I couldn't be more thrilled with their finished products. The piece above was done by senior Eunice Pang and purchased at Open House by our Vice-Principal, Bryan Glonchak for big bucks. Way to go Eunice!!

This exquisite frame above and below belongs to senior Hannah Park. It is amazing in person with all those tiny shards of mirror that she put in. Plus the lattice tiles are so cool and makes this piece a real stand out.

I bought both the frames above at Open house from seniors Ashlee Chang and Anne Guu. Ashlee's frame is already hanging in my daughter's bathroom that she just redid, and it looks great against the chocolate brown paint that she picked out. And Anne's piece is going into my new home/studio with a pix of both my children in it. Check out the text that Anne glued under her clear rounds in the right corner that are balanced off with the mirror shards in the upper left corner. I'm telling you, these kids are fantastic designers.

The piece that got the most attention was done by Kevin Ni (above, top). It was very unusual in that he allowed his shards to hang over the edge of the frame. He also incorporated text under a few clear pieces in lower right corner. And then the bottom most frame belongs to one of the sweetest seniors in the whole senior class, Sherri Singh, who has been an absolute joy to work with in the classroom. Extremely attentive and hardworking, Sherri has created some beautiful work this year. I hope you enjoyed seeing these frames as much as I enjoyed sharing them with all of you.

Finally Finishing up my Garden Sphere

Finally, after 10 long months I'm gluing on my last piece of glass to my sphere. That was a couple of weeks ago.


Here I am last nite finally grouting the damn thing after driving everyone crazy in the class trying to decide which color grout I should use. Sorry I was such a pain in the ass!


I ended up choosing the grape grout which looks kind of black in these pictures.


And here's my good buddy KK who helped me every step of the grouting way wearing this really funky crown that she found laying around the studio. KK you are the queen of my heart. Thank you for your patience and kindness.


Here are several views of the finished sphere.

Can't decide which side I like the most.

The only bummer with finishing this up is that I'm gonna have to figure out what to make next. So many ideas. So many decisions. What to do? KK, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Tuesday Nite Mosaics Class Update

So excited, this Tuesday nite I'm going to be grouting my sphere, FINALLY! It's only taken me 10 months to glue the glass down. I'll be the very last person from the original class to finish. The pix above was my very first mosaic done in Katherine's class from last summer, but I forgot to post it. I was inspired by Katherine's whimsical trees that she did in glass that edge the doorway to her studio at the Muck where she teaches out of. Katherine has everyone start with an old silver tray base for their first piece.

Both of these trays where done recently by two of her beginners. Aren't they fabulous!


And this last piece was done by one of her advanced students who lives out San Bernadino way and drives all the way in to Fullerton to take her class. What a great piece! So hopefully real soon I'll be able to post my finished garden sphere.