Patrick, my dad, wanted a piece of art for his front window, and it was a perfect space for a mosaic!  He wanted either a scene with birds or a coral reef. I love both. Growing up we went on many bird walks and I also went to a Oglebay Nature camp where we would get up at dawn and go on a bird walks before breakfast! Many special memories are of the ocean too, vacationing as a child every other year we would go to a scuba diving resort on Andros Island in the Bahamas, Small Hope Bay. The decision in the end was to do a mosaic that Patricia (my mom)  would love. She loves birds and the ocean but Patrick thought she really would have wanted to have an ocean scene.

The window is a pretty large space by the front door  (33×58). We decided to make a mosaic that would fit into the already existing frame rather than trying to install a new window. The piece will be glass adhered to plexiglass  a special type that is is a stronger version of a polycarbonate. Then we will install it with quarter round molding to hold it in place.

These are the first sketches…

Here is the basic layout…

1-01-10

The lay out is almost done. I have locate a large piece of "Lexan" now. Lexan is abrand name for a high density polycarbonate (plastic sheeting similar to Plexiglass) This type of plastic sheeting has UV protection to proctect the piece for  years to come:) What a fiasco, I think I finally found some at Lowe's "special order" so it will be a few days before I can start cutting glass:( I did receive a very generous gift of glass from Jeff Kuchma, he had been given it from an stained glass artist friend It was not doing anything in his workshop and he wanted it put to good use so he gave it to me plus some very fun tools:) There are some really fun colors that will be great for the coral and some of the fish!

Here is where I am today with the project..

1-8-09

I have been working on plexiglass for the last week! It is cut and sized to the window. So the underwater creation is underway.

I wrastled with the grouper for awhile and the Rock Beauty (black and yellow fish) that was swimming toward you looked psycho so he got nixed.  I recalled last night at 3am what the sand on the ocean floor looked like, I hope I can recreate it. I'm thinking there needs to be some sea urchins too, humm… anyone else have any thoughts/ideas?

1-27-10

Here is where the mosaic is now…

All ready to install!

We installed the window weeks ago and I am sorry I haven't put up the final installation!

The window is pretty big so transporting was a big concern.  Without the grout the window was still flexible, I was really afraid that the glass would poop off when we lifted it up. This is the space it was going into…

Here it is being put in by Lee…

I mixed up the grout with a blue tint and had just enough to cover the whole piece, I was VERY close to not having enough. Lesson learned!!!