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texaswild

The Head WIP

texaswild
15 years ago

Just so y'all won't think I'm goofing off and not mosaicing, I'm posting the continuation of a project I started about three Augusts ago. Don't know why I wait 'till August to mosaic outside stuff. The wall within the red frame w/be mosaiced in mirror shards w/a small shelf at the bottom to hold votives. Around the frame w/be 3-D tesserae. The toidy w/be a planter for pereniall ferns. There'll be a path to it off the main path, made of mosaiced stepping stones. Had thought of a water feature, but decided I didn't want the toidy to be so prominent - my kids are having cat fits to see their mom putting a toilet in the yard!!!!!!!!!! - begging me "please, Mom, don't do this". Eventually, it'll be covered w/plant growth. Any suggestions at this point w/be most welcome. The styrofoam "head" is next to be mosaiced to sit where it is shown.

WIP on The Head

Comments (59)

  • crackpotannie
    15 years ago

    yep our Slow is a wizard at making all things beautiful.This is the most beautiful toidy I've ever seen,it even matches your red bathroom!My gosh you are something else....I just can't get over the pieces of art you turn out.And the speed at which you do them.Another amazing job!

  • Louisiana_greetings
    15 years ago

    That is too cute!! maybe a mosaiced hat would look good on your queen, some big fancy Kentucky Derby Hat?
    actually a whole body stuck upside down in your toidy would be cute, BUT your kids would look me up and ...
    when i moved to the country , the first thing my DD says to me " mom , you are not going to put a toilet, shiny ball or those pink birds in your yard, are you? :-) of course i managed to put everything but the toidy.
    i love your idea, it is so great can't wait to see it finished.
    bonnie

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Y'all amaze ME. You just never cease to make me feel better and happy w/my efforts. I LOL at you, WACKY - your living room??? Toidy - don't know when I first heard it - we southerners have lots of words noone else uses. Yes - using the Mapei mortar - thinset - it's pretty sticky stuff, holds well immediately w/no problem on the shiny glazed ceramic w/no prior preparations. Just like the duck family, I didn't rough it up. Re her crown - I'm toying w/the idea of using the HobLob tree topper in the shape of a crown. Have had that thing for several years, and while I don't know how long it'll endure the weather, I think this is the place to use it, even though it just sits atop her head - seems fitting for the "wild" you mention, FLAG. Thank y'all for cheering me on w/my "wildness". Oh, BTW, LA - I HAVE thought of mosaicing one of my hats, but just haven't gotten there yet. This could be the perfect place for one, had I not already decided on these other toppers. Thank y'all again.

  • daisyme
    15 years ago

    By the way, Slow, I love the frame too. What a way to jazz up that wall! I'm a BIG fan of anything red, and will be watching for up date photos of THAT project too! I already love it.

  • trancegemini_wa
    15 years ago

    wow, now this is what I mean about artistic, you have the gift slowme! I never thought a toilet could look so good! and I love the frame, I cant wait to see what you do with that too

  • nicethyme
    15 years ago

    BAH HA HA HAAAAAAA That looks ROYAL!!!!!! TOO FABULOUS SLOW!!!! AWESOME!!!! its wonderfully fun and will bring smiles to the faces of strangers!

  • shrty411
    15 years ago

    That is awesome!! I think it would look great at the end of my driveway.....

    I guess I'll have to find my own..toidy. I've heard it before ,can't remember when. Fun stuff

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Y'all are so much fun. I LOVE performing before y'all. More of my wildness follows. At this point in a project, I tend to get lazy and impatient. I don't know how to do these head thingys, so here's my lazy way. I KNOW the headdress is too large, but hey - this is a nutzy project anyway, and I want to get this crown outta this room. It w/be added last - not quite finished w/the toidy - a few more pieces need to be added on the back, in front of her majesty.
    WIP update

  • katkerri
    15 years ago

    that's the most coolest toidy i've ever seen or even heard of! and are the head's ears really made of cup handles? wow i just love looking at these pix !!! you sure are one wild and inspiring artist, slow..i can't wait to see what-in-the-world you'll do next.
    (this place is way more entertaining than tv)

  • theeggshelllady
    15 years ago

    Wow!!This is amazing. Where do you come up with all those cool ideas? You are a true artist.

  • daisyme
    15 years ago

    Oh, my gods, Slow! The crown, the beads, the ears! What a character this head turned out to be! Your art is amazing! I love that you push the limits and that you're not afraid to try anything. Yes, you are wild....no doubt about it....and wonderful! What an inspiration.

  • texasfern
    15 years ago

    I LOVE IT!

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Y'all continue to make me smile. Yep - cup handles, and old necklaces of mine for her choker beads. Those'll be awful to grout. I wouldn't call myself an artist, but I do love to mosaic. Getting older, and my attention span shortens, though.

  • barbfrizzell1955
    15 years ago

    Whoa...when I read the title I was expecting to see just another "In her cups" and then discovered it referred to both a toilet & a head!!! LOL

    This is so gorgeous and fitting for you Slow! I love it all and the crown is a very fitting piece to finish it all off!

  • nicethyme
    15 years ago

    ROFL!!!!! wonderous, wonderous and whimsical!!! !

  • flagtruck
    15 years ago

    WOW..you are over the top with this one. What a hoot! She is funnier than "In her cups" and I didn't think you could get any wilder than her. Love the crown. who cares how long it lasts? Just throw a plastic bag over her this winter and I bet it won't even rust. LOL
    Good job wild lady.

  • sunshine_funshine
    15 years ago

    LOL Slow! You have made my day with this dear! I love it! Am patiently waiting to see it installed on it's place of honor. Totally fabulous!

  • Mermaid
    15 years ago

    What a HOOT is right!! Slow you sure are keeping us entertained. Love your toidy!! Does she really have a shell for her nose?? I couldn't quite make it out. Love those ears, crown ,
    Can't wait to see the next installment!! !!! I am amazed at your talent and creativity!!!

    Don't make us wait too long for a next Slow fix, k?? LOL

    You go girl!!!!!

  • lovemosaics
    15 years ago

    OMG! You just beat all!!
    You are the most inspiring person on the web! I just love you!

  • cindiloo
    15 years ago

    WOW! The crown is NOT too big at all, it's perfect!
    The whole thing is perfect...in the one and only SLOW way!
    I sure hope you are having as much fun as all this looks!

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    There goes my mouth into a smile again. What a wonderful way to have morning coffee. Won't be able to work on this much in the next few days, but thank y'all once again for your cheering. MER - yes, it's a shell. Y'all make me feel good.

  • crackpotannie
    15 years ago

    Hey Slow I'm in Vegas at my daughters,that beats anything I've seen here,like someone said what a hoot!!!You really rock!

  • lovemosaics
    15 years ago

    I just saw the update! OH MY GOD! The crown is just over the top! Way too cool Slowmewdown!! Just unreal! Your name is so fitting! Your stuff is just way too fun!!! Makes us
    all reach outside the box! I really love this!!!....They called you the QUEEN, and they weren't kidding! Even the QUEEN OF THE CRAPPER! Only you could make a toilet freaking cool!LOl!!! Just way too much!! Love it!!!

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Y'all are so funny! How long w/you be in Vegas, CRACK? LOVE - Queen of the C???? That's pretty cool. Thanks again, y'all. I've finished grouting, and boy, that mortar is like spreading peanut butter and honey - sticky goo!! After this project, I'll be ready for something nice and small - like maybe a 3X5 FLAT something. Don't know why I keep making stuff so danged hard to grout. Anyway, here she is grouted. The head isn't glued on - w/do that when I can get my yard man to set it up in the garden and start building the path. Hopefully w/start tomorrow on gluing the mirror to the wall inside the frame, if I can work around the sprinkler man who is to come and totally re-vamp the sprinkler. Tired of hand watering those dry spots. A section on the rim I forgot to put the red glass tiles, so had to add them just now, and w/slap a little grout on them at garden setting. Also w/fill in w/beads over the white raised section in front of the head. Sick of this already.
    The Head Grouted

  • Mermaid
    15 years ago

    Double wowzoozies!!!

    Slow, that makes my day. She is a beautiful Queen, can't wait to see her in place. I'm going back to look at everything. There is so much to see and it all flows together!! You are indeed a Queen of mosaic's!!!

  • cindiloo
    15 years ago

    Oh, Slow, she is just beautiful! I can't stop looking at her! What a wonderful, wonderful, amazing job!

  • katkerri
    15 years ago

    slow the head planter is really fabulous !
    those dynamic circular patterns on the sides
    just keel me. gives me the idea that itÂs
    moving or about to move, like a fantastic vehicle.
    are those sun medallions on the sides?
    just totally awesome for real .

  • hrsg
    15 years ago

    In true slow form we see art come form on something no one would have suspected, or given second thought to.

    My dear lady you are pure genius! Gorgeous work as always.

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    There y'all go again making MY day. The sun medallions were cheap plastic curtain tie back thingys. The circular part under the crown is one of two rings that held a little mirror/magnifying makeup mirror. When the mirrors fell out, I saved the parts, not knowing how/where/when or in what I'd use them. The crown is a HobLob tree topper. Thank y'all again.

  • curbdiver1954
    15 years ago

    What a wonderous creation!! She will look so-o-o-o-o-o awesome in your yard! Can't believe how many ideas you come up with and execute to beautifully (and FAST!).

    One quick note, tho....from very itchy experience. Be sure your handyman drills some drainage holes in the bottom of the 'trap' before you install it and start watering plants! The runoff will fill the trap and breed mosquitoes! I had millions of wrigglers in mine a couple of years ago...made the frontyard unusable till I figured it out!

    Pat

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    OH, CURB!!!!!!! You mean you had a toidy in your FRONT yard??? Yeah - someone else that's as brave as I. I had planned to mosaic the tank to sit atop the sprinkler system box near the street out front, but alas, couldn't loosen the hardware, so had to break it up. Thanks for the tip. B/f I decided to make it a planter I was gonna make it a water feature, so I closed the hole on the bottom w/a piece of hardibacker, and cemented around it. Now w/have to lay this sucker on it's side to try to chisel that out. What do you mean about the trap? Where is it. Won't the water flow through the bottom hole? I know there's a reservoir in there somewhere, cuz when I set it on my table, more water/bleach spilled out of the hole. I must've used a gallon of bleach on this sucker. Do you have photos of yours? W/LOVE to see them, please. Got chased in by the rain - therefore the spots in the picture. Got the mirror shards in - they're covered in fingerprints. Next step is to start gluing 3-D stuff around the frame. The face mirrored is a shovel head I mosaiced and put on a piece of rebar next to the fountain area.
    Update w/mirror shards/shelves

  • curbdiver1954
    15 years ago

    ROFLAO!! Yep, in it's un-mosaicked nekkedness, at the bottom of the steps right in front of the front door! Put a hanging basket of airplane plants in it, so in a couple of months you couldn't tell it was there unless you looked closely. Didn't get a photo, tho....

    I broke the tank accidently while DH was out of town...50+ year old porcelain can be a bit fragile, but I had the cleanest floor in town!! I got it as far as the front walk and couldn't carry it any further (too many more stairs out the back door). Stuck the plant in it, sat a few around the base. Took awhile before I figured out where the extra skeeters were coming from...put a "Mosquito Dunk" from HD into it and got rid of them. Lost the battle over it with DH last fall.

    The trap is where your bleach water came from...flip it over and you'll see it - the lowest part of the curve. A few holes with a glass and tile bit should solve the problem. The water will stay in the curve and prevent sewer odors in the house, but outside it becomes a skeeter nursery very quickly.

    Pat

  • nicethyme
    15 years ago

    oh my word, that is AMAZING. Slow even if it weren't a toilet and head, it would still be an extarordinary piece of mosaic - love the combinations and designs! Add to that the very COOL toilet /head and WOW! its just so very cool!!!!

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thanks again. It's still raining, but since it's under a very wide eave of the house, I've been able to get this far w/the 3-D stuff. I'm really stuck here, girlies. I need some in-put from y'all. I'll fill in the holes here/there, but I'm wondering just how far, and how deep, how many layers I should make these 3-D things? Should I just fill in the holes inside the beginning brown tiles, and call it done? It could be a virtual perpetual project. One could just keep on adding and adding, but I'm tired of it, so I sure could use some suggestions. C'mon, y'all. Tell me what to do. Oh, BTW - those cups and broken things w/hold more votives. Gotta cover the backs of the tiles that hold the two top cups. There were gonna be for the votives, but I couldn't get them taped to stick. Therefore the backs of the tiles are visible, and I can cover those w/baubles.
    Update w/3-D stuff

  • barbfrizzell1955
    15 years ago

    I like the way you used the cups around the frame...it could almost be a mirror for "In Her Cups". Very clever idea to use the cups for votive candles. In my opinion it still needs some of your signature bling added to it...it's just not as bright and vibrant looking as your stuff usually is. Of course, if you want to keep adding momentos to it later on, then this could be a good place to stop...for now! LOL

  • katkerri
    15 years ago

    i'm imagining how the reflections, candlelight, and ferns will be all around The Head. it will change with the sunlight, moonlight too. it's so exciting, slow. but please do take a rest from it if it's getting on your
    nerves! one thing i noticed when i made this little
    fotomosaic was see how the head (front) is only shown
    one time in there and there's a white fan next to it?
    well that fan is looking like a fullmoon to me when i squint my eyes. also, the whiteness relects some of the bowl's cool whiteness. so what if there was a round white fullmoon form on the back of the head or a small one back of crown that could mostly be seen only in the mirror reflection?
    {{!gwi}}

  • flagtruck
    15 years ago

    I agree with Crafty, it does need some of your "Bling" maybe work out a little more and cover the drab brown tiles?Will the cups on top for the votives hold water? Put a little sand in them to hold the votives and maybe what little water gets in there under the eave will evaporate?
    maybe a little more mirror and jewels on the outside? Who knows, with your imagination you will come up with something. All in all I love it. Makes me want to start on mine now. LOL

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    oKAY!!!, ladies. I GOT it!!! Yes ma'ams, gonna bling that sucker up a bit. Good advice - knew I could count on ya'll to bring me back to my senses. KAT - howEVER did you do that photo mosaic. Wish I knew how to do stuff like that w/my camera and the Paint Shop Pro program I can barely use to get far enough to post. That's a neat idea. I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm switching gears. Funny thing is, I'm seldom outside at night lately. Perhaps when I get the backyard going - w/all the plans in my head - I'll invite more people for lunches. Changing things on my patio too, for more entertaining w/the family. Thanks for the suggestions. Y'all are great. FLAG - no water in the cups. The eave is so deep, no water hits that area. SO anxious to see you start yours.

  • stjohnsgypsy
    15 years ago

    OMG........HOLY COMMODE woman! No lack of boredom here! Just when I think you couldn't do anything better than the last thing you did...........BAM.........you are something! Your strong artistic abilities blow me away! My eyes are constantly moving and soaking in all the color, design, bling.... blang....blong of your newest! What a feast for the eyes I tell ya! So much to look at.....bam...you did it again..........this is another favorite at the top of the list of yours.......I wish I had "a thimble full of your talent!" Can you tell I LOVE THIS! Getting up to get a drool rag!!!!!

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Glad to be finished w/this mess. Grouted w/mortar and lots of the charcoal colorant and it is still syrupy. Don't know if it's the effect from the liquid colorant or the heavy humidity today, but wish I'd used grout instead of mortar. What a mess - so still needs major cleanup and polishing but HERE IT IS! Oh, BTW - last winter when all the tess fell off in sheets from a large pot (cuz I'd sealed it w/Weldbond in my early learning days), I picked it all up and wondered how I w/be able to re-cycle it. It was perfect for this piece. Just covered all the originally-placed brown tiles w/it.
    Finished

  • stjohnsgypsy
    15 years ago

    OMG Betty.....this is spectacular!!! You could probably mosaic a cold dog turd and it would be a work of art! I love this! This pot sure has punches of personality ! I'm surprised KOHLER hasn't called you to mosaic some of these babies for them! The bold look of SLOW! Could be called Slow's Artful Commodes (I was going to say something else instead of commodes...LOL...I'll email you and tell you) The the whole vignette!

  • meadel
    15 years ago

    It's a Royal Flush made by the Queen herself !!!
    ( and you know it takes me hours to go through your site..with sharp intakes of air at every picture...you are an amazing woman !!)

  • crackpotannie
    15 years ago

    You right janet ,she could mosaic a dog turd or a live dog if it would stand still long enough.Oh my gosh I remember that mirror on the wall barely anything done on it then and look at it now...tell your girls they should be proud of that toidy,it's amazing!!!rock on !!

  • wackyweeder
    15 years ago

    I have loved the toidy since the begininng, but that mirror! holy cow! and the combination! Its like a throne room! Its absolutely fabulous woman!

  • katishooked
    15 years ago

    Slow my dear this is totally awesome. Man which part is my favorite? Everything. It takes a while to take everything in. Each piece has so much to take in you just have to stare.

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Well GOOD GRIEF, y'all. Thanks. Y'all sure started my morning of w/smiles. I'm floored. Gee whiz! REALLY????

  • roseandfox
    15 years ago

    OMG, Slow -- I just checked out the head. Great work. Your colors are so exuberant, probably just like your personality. All your grounds look wonderful, a nice place to live. How do you do ALL that mosaic and still keep everything so perfect? You truly inspire me.

  • texaswild
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Ha - you should see the weeds in half the garden, FOX. I get derailed when an idea pops up, and - well - everything is a WIP around My Queendom. Thanks.

  • silvamae
    15 years ago

    Can I come and live in your yard?

  • Calamity_J
    15 years ago

    I LOVE the red too!!! And it is so perfect that it's all together, gives the eye some travelling...up...down...back again!!! Shesh, to think I once thought I could almost keep up to you! hahahaha! Oh, BTW, Klinger and Myself and DH are booked for PV, the first wk of feb/09!!!! Can I hear a YEEHAW!?!

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