Many Stages of Mosaic

I've been working on a mosaic for my art class for the last five weeks. I should have taken pictures from the very beginning, but I didn't...sad. I wish I would have kept track of how many hours this took me too, because to look at it, you wouldn't guess how long it took to put together. The eagle alone took me about three hours, and that was after the white was already done!

I really liked working on this project though. It was a lot of fun and I might even try to do one again sometime. Take a look!

I should have put a picture of the original sketched design.  I originally had the eagle much smaller.  I had a house attached to the lighthouse with a Canadian flag.  My teacher didn't really like it, so I changed it to be the design it is now.  I brought the eagle forward, making it bigger, and I ditched the house.  I ended up liking this version a lot better, so thanks to Suzanne.

See the sunshine? This was in September.

I really like how the mountains turned out.

This is the grout.  I pushed it into all the crevices and scraped the leftovers off.  I let it sit for about twenty minutes just like this.

This is after the first washing.  Let it sit another half hour...

Letting it dry overnight.

I washed it again the next day before I turned it in.  It brightened up a little bit.  I kind of wish the grout would have turned out better.  It was supposed to be gray.  It looked a lot darker on the package.  I think it looks really white on the mosaic, and it kind of washes out the white glass.  I think it looks good with the other colors though.  

I had a difficult time getting started on the design because we were supposed to be working on it when my Grandma Low passed away in September.  My teacher suggested that I use the project as a creative outlet.  So then I created this mosaic as a tribute to my Grandma and Grandpa Low.  The background is inspired by Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada, where my Grandpa was born.  My Grandma loved eagles and being patriotic.

For you, Gram and Gramps.