Impromptu Mosaics and Other Last Minute Gifts

This December I'm finishing up a huge home improvement project which bled over from November and will be completed possibly two days before Christmas. I'm also packing and organizing for a five week trip which commences Christmas Day. I have plenty to keep me busy... but it just doesn't feel like the holidays unless I'm making a few gifts for someone. I don't know if secretly my hand made gifts are met with groans or simply tolerance but for some reason I just have to do it, so if you happen to be the lucky recipient, just take it out when I visit you and pretend it's out all year.

I decided to make something for my fiddle teacher, Beanie O'Dell, who is a fabulous instructor and gifted fiddler. I happened to find these unfinished wooden violin gift plaques on the Shar Music Website ( http://www.sharmusic.com/Shop-Shar/Gifts/Other/Misc/Violin-Gift-Plaque-with-purfling.axd ) and thought they were a good starting point. They were advertised as something that you could sign or draw on and give as a teacher gift. I decided to take a different approach.

I dug out all my pieces of tile and glass, ordered a few little extra tiles, and then lined up my three violin faces, grabbed my Weldbond glue, and started gluing! Each plaque began to take on a personality all its own. By the time I had finished, the three of them were very different.

The glue took about a day to dry and then I mixed up some sanded black grout and grouted them all. I had to do each one individually because the sponging step was laborious with all those little tiny tiles! Once the grout was set, I sealed it with a grout and tile sealer.

Tomorrow I will attach a sawtooth to the back and wrap two of the three plaques. The second one is for my neighbor, another awesome fiddler and the last one is for me to keep so that I can remember how well my anti-stress, "mosaic therapy" worked this holiday season.

And Beanie, you don't have to hang it. Really.