Lisa Vogt Art Adventure Blog: Quality Control

We’re having our typical rainy summer. It rains almost every day which makes it difficult to plan fun outdoor activities with the threat of thunder storms looming. I’m happy to have a big mosaic project that I can work on between office tasks. The mosaic gets me outside and in my happy place, my studio. Plus, friends and family have gotten into the act and I’m thrilled to have them creating right alongside me.

A mosaic of this scale can easily become tedious. And so, I’ve designed several fun focal points into the project to keep it interesting. I also try to vary the shapes of glass used for individual subjects. Again, this keeps the project moving smoothly forward and it gives each focal point its own unique look. One of the focal points in this ocean themed piece is a mermaid. I thought it would be fun to represent her tail with iridized, scale shaped pieces of glass.

I drew a paper pattern of her tail and then cut the pieces of glass. I spent a lot of time planning the subtle color changes and the direction of the scales. I laid the cut glass out on the full size paper pattern to ensure I had enough glass cut. When it came time to apply glue and affix the glass to the wood substructure, it was a breeze. The glass fit beautifully. The colors looked great. I focused light colors on the right side to create a light source. Darker colors were placed on the left side to create a sense of fullness and shadow. I loved the results…until the next day after sharing my progress all over the web. I was admiring one of the pictures I took when it hit me like a tsunami.

The mermaid’s scales were glued on upside down!

NO WAY!

Yes. I was so intent on having them fit well and chatting with a friend, I don’t get to see often enough, that I didn’t double check the direction of the scales. For a split second I thought about leaving them upside down. No one would notice, right? Then, I thought of the mermaid. How could she swim with upside down scales? She’d have so much friction against the water that she’d flounder. No. I had to remove the scales and re-glue them. Surprisingly, it only took about 2 hours to remove the scales, clean the dry glue off and reapply them to the base.

The real reason I re-glued the scales is this. I don’t want to go down in history as the glass artist who doesn’t know which way fish scales go. If I’m going to be remembered for a mistake let it be for something that couldn’t have been changed or was out of my control. No one’s perfect. But that doesn’t have to stop us from trying.

Here’s my mantra. Do your best work. Show your best work.

I hope you’re enjoying seeing the work-in-progress on this colorful mosaic. Next up is the moon lit side of the sky and filling in the octopus.

Happy fusing,

Lisa

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