The Snake Project and other stuff...

Well it's been some months now that I have been busy on the snake project, although I started it shortly after we bought the house, I have worked on it on and off for just a couple of months altogether..but spanning over two years....Yes I know that seems like very long, but as I said, it was on and off as time allowed..So this is how it started...

I attached ropes in different thicknesses to the wall by hammering them in with nails and then plastering over the rope with a few layers of plaster. Then I painted a ground coat on and left it for two years to dry and mature..

Anywayz.. it is a crepresentation of the tree of life art thingy with the snake in the tree, and the whole Adam and Eve trip, the temptation, and the creation and what all, and I originally intended painting it up in bright ethinic colours and designs..but then I decided to hold off and renovate the toilet upstairs. So I got isdetracked and decided to do a bit of a mosaic trip around the toilet window, (which I did in black and purple irridium tiles, and it looks really beautiful) then I found more awsome tiles that I just couldn't limit to a brief appearance in the toilet, and sooo I was bitten by the mosaic bug and the rest is history..

So back to the snake and the tree of life...so I got hooked on mosaic, and wanted to do more, but needed a bit of an intro, and couldn't find anything online that really grabbed me by the boo boo, until...I bought Laurel Skye's book on millifiori mosaic! That just blew my socks off..and I thought, hey girl GET CREATIVE and don't make any lame art! So of course Laurels work inspired me no end and took everything into a much higher stratesphere, and then my inner demon told me that the only way to go with the snake would be mosaic...and not just any old crappy broken tile reject mosaic..but coloured mirror and glass mosaic..and thats the way I took it..! In November while my Dad was visiting at the start of winter, and I had finished up working at the park, I pulled finger and started on the snake again..

So a long hard slog ensued where I had moments when my feet were killing me from standing on the ladder, my back was aching from bending doubled over on the floor and my fingers were bleeding beneath tattered rubber gloves from grouting sharp pieces of glass tile..and to be honest I did sometimes wonder why I didn't just make a bleedin table like everyone else...

But hella freekin loo ja..today..I finished da snake..!!!..and it looks so darn good that I could just pee myself with delight and self satisfaction!
Once I got going, I only realized what a job it was..

 At this stage it was starting to look like something and that really gave me the push to get cracking and get it done..

 But once the tiling job was done I thought, oh bliss, now just one day to grout it and then its finished..WRONG...it took me three days to grout..it was a killer job, I went through 2 rollls of kitchen towl just rubbing the excess grout off...the mess was incredible, as of course..I had to use BLACK grout..that just got everywhere..I was sooo happy once I had that job behind me!

 

The finished work looks amazing, all the negative areas cleaned up  and painted...the mirrors...ahh..WOW..I just love the coloured mirror so much that if money was no object I would probably end up tiling everything in coloured mirror. I love my snake, and am very happy that I decided to go with the glass and mirror mosaic, when I look at it now, sparkling and shining, it makes all the hard graft worth while!

 

The funky frames above the doors

Then...as if the snake wasn't enough, I also mosaiced the frames I put above the doors leading off the gallery...(these I also did when we first moved in, and have been chilling for two years..).I used plaster board which I cut into my shapes and nailed to the wall, then same as the snake I plastered over the boards and primed them with a coat of wall paint..and then tiled...

They have turned out fantastic, and look absolutely amazing against the new colour on the walls...they shimmer and glitter the big square tiles are glass backed with hammered metal, and they look fantastic..I love them.

And now the front door...

So now tripping on my high, I decided to renovate the old front door that was so dirty and terrible, and bloody hell, after a good clean and a sanding, taking out the broken old window panes at the top and putting in to-die-for poison green and blackberry purple colourd glass panes..TA DA..Old Crappy Door is now WOW GROOVY DOOR.. it looks so good that I have fallen in love with it and want to make it into a real show piece with a good coat of wood protector or whatever and a fancy new door handle.

 

The rest of the gallery I am still busy with (but nearly finished)...I painted two of the walls in my fav colour...yip..DEEP PURPLE...yeah...sexy...put up the old junk vitrine wall cabinet, which I decorated with some of the funky hats my Ouma made and some folaige... and a stuffed raven..and boy does it ever look kewwwlll! So all in all the gallery is comming together really well, and as I see the light at the end of the tunnel I am starting to think along the lines of opening night/ first exhibition tra lal la la la...

I am also mega inspired by all this renovating and fixing up and painting and decorating and and and... and can't wait to pull finger in the workshops and start MAKING ART..!!!

I will keep yeall posted about how things are getting along..I'm very busy and have chewed my nails down to the quick, so if my posts on here are slow you know why..!
Take care and keep cool!
Cheeerrrrrzzz....