It was a busy mosaic weekend.  On Saturday I had my friend Linda over and we grouted her stepping stone and my mosaic bowl.  I have been putting it off because grouting isnt my favorite part of the process.  It's dusty, dirty and I have practically ruined projects by using too much water wiping excess grout.  But overall I'm pleased with the way the bowl turned out. I might have liked a little darker color of grout but Linda told me she loved it, with the colors of white, bone and just little dashes of pink and green. Some of the dishes used for this bowl were from my childhood home and belonged to my beloved aunts, Lorna and Verva. So while I had intended this bowl to be a gift, I found after working on it and seeing these tired worn plates that I had eaten from as a child made into something pretty....SIGH....I now cant part with this part of my sweet memories.

Then I moved on to make some progress on this bowling ball.  WHO KNEW THERE WAS SUCH MASS to cover on a bowling ball?!  It is a JOB to make headway on this thing.  The teacher at the class where I started it had me use Weldbond and early into the project I was wishing I had used my old standby silicone.  Pieces hold better on a veritical surface with silicone.

Tape helps to hold the pieces until they have a chance to dry.

 The best way to make progress is to leave it out and put a couple rows on when you walk by and notice the last ones you did are set and dry. Kind of a love/hate thing I have going here.  This is MY bowling ball from 15+ years of bowling in my 20's and 30's.  At that time I loved my bowling nights which represented freedom with my friends, and working on this, I cant help but think back to those happy days. I live to create "memory art".  It helps guarantee that some of the items that cause those warm fuzzy feelings in your heart can remain close by and given a new purpose in a totally lovely, new way.