Mosaic Me a Story Mr. Monrow

CLASSES ARE OVER! Now I can get on with whatever I've been saying is more important than school. Like knitting. Or petting Mr. Monty-buns. Here are the remains of the day, the final pictures of my mosaics and then the rest of the classes'.

So those were mine. There was a bit of technical trouble with them but they're done and now I don't have to worry about them.

These are pictures of my classmate's mosaics.
Someone did a gourd, an idea that I don't think would have ever occurred to me.

Someone else did a mould of a pregnant belly and then mosaicked over the surface of the plaster. Apparently the woman whose bod. it was went into almost immediate labor once they were done. The piece was too big to bring to class but I thought the pictures were neat anyway.
Chick-chick CHICKEN

This piece was gorgeous. The woman who made it spent the entire quarter on it and I think the end result is stunning. It's a mosaic of her puppy, he's eleven weeks old today.

The light actually comes through on this one because the glass was glued onto plexi-glass so that Jen could hang it in her window.
This last piece was the most amazing work I think I've ever seen, let alone a student project. Noah is also in the Neon art class and works as a studio aide within the neon studio so he combined this mosaic of space with neon to make something truly amazing.
Detail around the sun.

The full piece. It's actually in three separate pieces but they're meant to be seen as one piece.
The Earth.
Peace and Uranus.

Or Pluto. Or Saturn. I can't remember which has the ring or rings.

The sun.
The whole piece from the opposite end.

The final presentations went well, but I'm glad it's over and I can get some sleep (I got about four hours of sleep because I still hadn't finished gluing tesserae onto my vase at 3 am this morning, let alone grouted the darn thing. But then, what is art without sleep deprivation?)

Plants, Water, Fishies and Pavilions... It Must be the Classical Chinese Garden!

For my Art of the Mosaic class our teacher had us go down to Portland for the day to take a tour of the Classical Chinese Garden in the city. It was a lovely day, warm and a little overcast but it didn't rain so even that was just fine. The gardens were a little tricky to find, but once I realized they were in the Chinatown part of the city (DUHHHH, but hey, I never claimed to be a genius), the rest was easy.

The garden was formed as a result of Portland's sister-city relationship with Suzhou, China. We gave them a rose garden, they gave us a traditional housing compound. Makes sense.

This was a bit of rock, one of many, that was hauled out of a lake bed in China and imported into the United States for the purposes of being used in this garden. The currents of this lake are strong enough that they wear away the stones in these unique patterns. The stone is called Taihu stone , and is now illegal to export from China because it is considered a national treasure.

After looking at the plant map for the gardens, I haven't been able to figure out what this flower is. It was in the L/K area but it doesn't sound like one of the plants listed. Oh well, it was my favorite plant, I think.

Our tour guide, she did a wonderful job and I think that if you go, it'd be worth it to take the tour. It should take about 45 minutes (ours took 2 hours) and gives a nice history to the area that you wouldn't otherwise get. Since the gardens are pretty small (.8 acres), going through the gardens on their own is quick work, and the tour forces you to slow down and see everything. There's alot crammed into this small area.

The moon gate.

This tree was wrapped around a rock, the whole thing reminded me of the mandrake root on Pan's Labyrinth.
Plum blossoms.
Pretty purple thing.

Part of the stream that fed the pond. The pond had a couple schools of goldfish that seemed very happy floating around.

The water fall next to the tea house where you can have tea. Next time I think I'll stop in.

I DO remember what these were called. These are paper flowers and they smelled sooo pretty.

And here are the mosaics the class came to see. I'm not sure how relavent the field trip was for the class but the gardens themselves were beautiful enough to make the two hour drive worth it.

All of these mosaics paved the pathways between pavilions, courtyards and around the pond. I think I'd like to do some of these whenever I get a house. I always like having moss grow on things, especially on pathways like these.