"Imperfection is perfection to a beautiful perspective"
This piece is very special to me for so many reasons. It challenged me as an artist, it challenged my creative thinking and it challenged my problem solving. I discovered so many new craft materials and tested my patience...a lot. Two years ago my sister and I found this mirror at the Goodwill, she handed it to me and said "Craft me something and gift it to me for my birthday." Shout out to her for waiting over two years on this birthday gift! It took over a year just to have a spark of creativity, I wanted something elegant, something that can go in any room, no themes. The mirror mosaic shapes, I loved them, but when I started putting them on the mirror, it still didn't feel complete. And then I came across the crushed glass, it was so beautiful and enticing and I wanted to use it. The materials came together perfectly, I was inspired and from there it was just putting together broken pieces and making something worth looking at!
The Details:
- Total Cost: ~ $110
- Total Time: ~ 20+ hours if you're recreating my design, 70+ hrs if working from scratch
1. Gather your Materials:
- Mirror shapes
- Mosaic cobblestones (OPTIONAL)
- Crushed Glass
- Mirror OR any surface you'd like to do your artwork on
- Paintbrushes - very cheap ones you don't mind parting with
- Wellbond glue
- OPTIONAL - paper towel, surface cleaner (ex: lysol wipes), blade, tweezers
2. Play with the Shapes!
So much of this piece is simply playing with the mosaic shapes and whether you like the look or not! I HIGHLY recommend just playing with shapes for quite a while before you decide to glue anything. Keep in mind that the crushed glass will go in between shapes, so leave space for it when gluing. Don't worry about having a plan for the entire thing to begin with, work one side/corner at a time and ideas will just come to you.
DISCLAIMER: The mirror shapes are SHARP, please be careful with them! KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN and handle with care!
3. Start Gluing
Clean the surface before gluing. I glued down a few of the mirror pieces at a time (about half of one side) and then added the crushed glass before continuing. I used the paintbrush to spread the glue nice and evenly in the spaces that the crushed glass was going. I recommend trying to avoid getting it on the mirror pieces, if you do either clean it off right away or right after it's fully dry. Most of the time you're able to just sprinkle the glass on there, the Blue and Gold you needed to spend more time shaping and fitting pieces in there. Don't worry about cleaning the glass, that can be done at the end.
* Here you can see I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish that first side, so I just moved on over to the next edge.
* Here you can see I got rid of that circle with the triangle cobblestones. I hated the way it looked! I recommend using the blade and some Nail Polish remover to get rid of something you've already glued. Let the nail polish remover sit for a bit and then blade it off. BE VERY CAREFUL!
4. Clean Up:
Once completed to your expectations, I suggest standing the piece vertically and hitting it a bit from the back so any stray crushed glass pieces can fall. You're also welcome to brush them off in whatever way you want to. I would then go through and clean off the Mirror Shapes with some sort of glass cleaner (I used sunglasses cleaner). I would also go ahead and add crushed glass to any place you feel there is a need to.
I am extremely proud of how this stellar piece turned out and can't wait to see where my sister decides to hang it! Happy super belated birthday gift....and hopefully it can count for more than just one...! You're welcome to keep it like this, or if you feel like it's pretty dangerous like I did keep a look out for my post on Art Resin coming next!!
Hope I inspired you today!
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