A Heart On the Wing

I call this small piece my New Year's hope mosaic. I pieced the heart on New Year's Eve and kept having thoughts of piecing together my own heart from these shards of beautiful stained glass. The "sky" came together the next day -- New Year's Day -- and after grouting the piece last night, I added the hand-wrought brass wire hook and tiny brass bird this morning. I think it's finished, though I am thinking about how to finish the edges (maybe paint; I'd love to do a wooden frame but am no kind of woodworker and don't really have the time to learn yet another skill). I might also need to seal the grout because it's a bit crumbly, and who knows, I might add a few more treasures to some of the larger grout spaces. I'll sit with it and see how it evolves; aside from first imagining a piece, my favorite part of the creative process is "living with" a piece and figuring out how to bring the real thing closer to my original vision for it.

I have several more pieces in progress, and just six days left to finish them before coursework descends on me again next week. Most of the pieces are small like this one (it measures just 4 by 6 inches), which seems manageable... It's strange to be creating so avidly just as my friends and I close our gallery...