It is Saturday late in the afternoon and I taught a mosaic class today, with the large onion on the end of the work table looming over a handful of students. A living example of what is possible in the realm of mosaic art. Walking into the studio and seeing the onion come together, where you can visualize the final product is pretty nifty!

The big decision of the week was the veins in the onion. Ron and Floyd settled on a yellow that is complementary to the bronze color of the "skin" of the onion. I am loading two pictures for you to see it close up. Keep in mind that the white of the "frame" of the onion will go away when grout is applied. More about grout later. The three of us are so tired of cutting and snipping and gluing that there was little discussion about the color of the veins, it just happened.

Someone visiting the studio asked if we would build another one, if someone asked us and all three of us looked at each other and said yes, but it would cost a fortune. This one is for the "art" of it. But, it is quite elegant and if it ends up in a public location with lots of people being able to visit it, we will be happy.

Grout. Nancy, the mosaic teacher, has been nagging about grout for weeks. Neither Ron nor Floyd wanted to discuss until we were closer to the end. . .not something Nancy, the planner, particularly appreciates. But, as we near the end grout is looming and so experimentation is underway.

The first step was to check commercial non-sand grout at Home Depot. Close and we can use in a pinch, but none of us really like it. We decided that we want the grout to be as close in color to the tiles as possible. So, using fabric dyes to tint white grout, we will commence making practice tiles to get the right effect. As I key this in Floyd is gluing up practice tiles for us to experiment with color. Grout has the capacity to make or break a project, so this is a biggy! And the clock is ticking.

We got help this week from Nancy's friend Lori C. who glued, and glued and glued, when she wasn't fixing my errant Web page that I had screwed up. We sure can use the help. We all need massages of neck and upper back and I am developing a callus from snipping the tiny tiles, over and over. Made 340 this morning while mosaic students were working on projects.

You can write questions and comments. They are always welcome.