Orange Gazania

 Orange Gazania Flower, stained glass mosaic on board (framed), 30"x30", 2016 ~SOLD

Sense of scale - the central part of the design. Those tini pieces of glass are all hand-cut and meticulously arranged.

The hand drawn sketches and preliminary color choices.

Progress.

I was having second thoughts about my original color palette so I laid out a selection of colors I liked for the background to get a feeling for what worked best with the arranged flower.

Progress on the foliage surrounding the flower.  Initially I planned to create a broken glass pattern as the background (seen in the neighboring flowers) but as I took a few days to think about the colors, I also changed my mind about the background pattern.

The mosaic is glued, the tape is peeled and its ready to be grouted!

Grouting. 

A couple weeks following the completion of my mosaic gazania, I encountered my first real gazania while walking home from the grocery store.  I couldn't believe my eyes as they flowers looked so exotic and somewhat out of place just growing along the curb of a busy street.  Using my phone, I shot an instagram of one and I think it matches up pretty well with my mosaic rendition - what a fun coincidence.  Seeing it among its leaves also showed me that I made the right call on the color and pattern for the space surrounding the flower.