a little ornament

I bought a pack of little 2X2 inch squares on a whim a while back and decided I should see whether I could think of something appropriate for an ornament. I needed a break after the last big project and wanted to do something small.

With the light gleaming off of the polished surface, it looks pretty neat. Straight on it is not as dazzling. This picture almost seems too up close and personal, with all the imperfections showing.

However, I am pretty pleased with this little project.  Here's how it began. First I drew on the mirror with an old overhead marker.

I knew I wanted the dove to be white (of course). I like to try out other colors by placing them near each other.

I began with the dove, erasing the purple lines as I worked.

Then I checked my color plans again, and kind of laid out some patterns. One of the biggest problems I have is that I don't work on the mosaics at consistent times. And if I'm working late at night, and then skip a day, on the following day I might forget some little aspect to what I was doing. For instance, if you look again at the completed dove, you will see that I was not consistent in how I treated the yellow starburst. 

In the top right corner, it is bordered by light blue glass going in the same direction. Actually, the corner looks fairly messy, and the yellow isn't even straight.  It was the first corner I did. The last corner was the bottom left, which is very straight but I totally forgot to have the blue glass going parallel with the yellow. 

I could continue to pick it apart from the edges not being perfectly straight to the starburst being off center, but it's art. It's in the moment. I wasn't going for absolute perfection but the joy of creating.

​And when the light hits the shiny glass, it's lovely.