While the Moon Gently Weeps

The title of this piece came to me through the radio whilst I was making it. That beautiful song written by George Harrison “While my Guitar Gently Weeps,” was playing. All I had to do was replace the guitar for the moon!  It was exactly how I saw my mosaic. A waning moon weeping pieces of itself . Leaf shaped pieces that could also be tears.
I had made the first sketch a few months ago and after a couple more drawings I was ready to start.

This piece was not without it’s difficulties. I made it using the indirect method to obtain a flat surface. I wanted to  use my metal leaf glass together with the thicker depth of the  ceramic and glass mosaic tile.

I removed the paper whilst the adhesive was still wet so that I could change anything I wasn’t happy with, and I realized I had forgotten to add more adhesive to the metal leaf glass that I had used for the rings around the moon. I could have removed the pieces and added more adhesive to make it level, however I found that I rather liked the effect of the moon that stood out in relief from the rings. It’s difficult to show it in a photo, you will have to imagine it! (Sorry I can’t just show you the moon, I have to show you the owl too!)

I attempted to make the shadows contrast with the shafts of moonlight  like I had drawn them. I used paler glass for the leaves in the moonlight, but my attempt to define this even more by use of pale grout and then silver ink just didn’t work, so I grouted it all in black. If you screw up your eyes you can just make out the rays of moonlight across the leaves 😉

Finally I used silver ink around the trees to emphasize the moonlight and allow some contrast between the trees and the dark blue night sky.

Again it is very difficult to show the mosaic accurately in a photo. I took the photo outside on a dull day and I even shone a light on the leaves, but they look almost as if they are made of paper coloured in with crayons, you can’t see the shine on the glass.  I’ll try again when it is framed and on a  wall.

Thanks for reading 🙂