(16) Butterfly donations

August 8, 2011

I received three more butterfly donations today. The remainder of the mosaics should be arriving in the next few days so stay posted for the last of them.

Artist Yvonne Yaar donated a beautiful (and very large) butterfly made with neon colored fused glass and shimmering dichroic glass.

© Yvonne Yaar

Artist Julie Reeve donated a butterfly duo made from stained glass (some iridized), glass gems and colored mirror. The small red butterfly is actually part of the design and they are attached.

© Julie Reeve

Artist Britta Kuth from Germany donated this beautiful butterfly made with a variety of sparkling materials. Stained glass, millefiori, glass gems and shapes are all part of the design.

© Britta Kuth

I have a good portion of the butterflies packaged up in boxes for tomorrow's installation.

I'll be sketching the design out on the large wall and then it will just be a matter of deciding what will go where. There are no rules for that part - it will just be combining colors and textures until it all feels right...and then applying the mosaics to the wall using thinset.

I'll be using Mapei Ultraflex 2, a professional-grade polymer-modified mortar that can be used indoors and out. It has a work time of about 2 hours...although I've stretched it a bit in the past.

I anticipate the design phase to be the most time consuming tomorrow. There are so many colors, patterns and textures coming together - it's going to be crazy!