It seemed entirely appropriate to design a clock based on a cockered crowing loudly at sunrise.
We have chosen a beautiful sunburst to go behind the cockerel, so it is very important that the cockerel doesn't get lost next to such strong bright yellows. For this reason, dark colours were used for the body, and brilliant white for the head of the cockerel, both of which have strong tonal contrast against the yellow background.
Re-assemble the clock by placing the hands back on to the mechanism. To make the hands stand out sufficiently from this busy background, spray them with gold spray paint before assembling.
Size: 53 * 36 cm (21 * 14 in)
Designer : Kim Williams
YOU WILL NEED
Wooden clock kit
(see suppliers list) Rubber gloves
Two sheets of A4 carbon paper 450 g (1 lb) of powdered grout
Template Bowl of water
Sharp pencil Mixing board for the grout
Tracing paper Trowel
Sheets of newspaper Plastic grout spreader
Vitreous glass tiles as shown right Cleaning cloth
Mosaic nippers Liquid floor cleaner
125 ml (4 ft oz) wood adhesive in a dispenser Abrasive cleaning pad
craft knife Black ink
Safety spectacles Gold spray paint
Face mask Pair of 'D' rings or mirror plates and screws
1 russet vein (3 tiles)
2 gold-leafed (2 tiles)
3 copper vein (15 tiles)
4 pale grey (3 tiles)
5 orange (3)
6 black (45 tiles)
7 tangerine (6 tiles)
8 bronze vein (12 tiles)
9 bright yellow (51 tiles)
10 lime green (6 tiles)
11 lemon yellow (36 tiles)
12 green (12 tiles)
13 pale bule (6 tiles)
14 white (12 tiles)
15 blue (8 tiles)
16 bright red (14 tiles)
1 Transfer the design onto the face of the clock. Colour in the design as this will help you attain good colour contrast between the cockerel and the background. Begin by mosaicing the 'key line' from the cockerel's throat, down his breast to his feet. Try to get a good clean flowing line that will clearly define the cockerel from the bright yellow background.
2 Next, add the cockerel's comb and wattle in bright red, followed by his beak and legs in tangerine. Finally, set the blue tesserae that will form the inside feathering of his tail feathers.
3 Fill in the cockerel's face and head. Lay the black key lines that makes up his tail feathers and the blue one that forms the base line of his wing.
4 In making the eye we chose a tile of copper vein. You, too, should be able to find a similar tile to this. By carefully nibbling around this line, a tessera that looked like a closed eye was made. Continue in this way to fill in the body and tail of the cockerel.
Mosaic the hillcock on which the bird is standing. Remember that things get lighter towards the horizon, so make the horizon line pale green.
5 Introduce more of the darker green tesserae as you add each successive in the two shades of yellow. Try to make the tesserae form lines that radiate out from the vanishing point, in this case, where the sun is. Finally, add the row of black tesserae to make the border, leave to set for three hours, then grout and clean in the normal way. When the mosaic is complete, use black ink to paint the fluted wooden edge of the clock, blending it in which the black border. Reassemble clock components.
WAVE PICTURE FRAME
What better way to show off your favourite picture than to mosaic a frame to go around it? Remember that the strong mosaic colours make for a very rich effect which can overpower or even clash with your picture if it has a lively composition. So if your picture is a busy one, choose quieter, softer colours and vice versa.
Here I have chosen a classical Roman 'wave' border based on a traditional Roman design. It was often used to frame huge scenes with swirling fish of all weird and wonderful manner and description. I have used this border many times and have always found it tricky to divide each side into an exact number of waves. Like a lot of the geometric patterns used in Roman mosaics, the look is deceptively simple until you try to do it yourself.
Size: External dimensions
29 * 23 cm (11 1/2 * 9 in)
Internal dimensions
19.5 * 13 cm (8 * 5in)
Designer and maker : Martin Cheek
YOU WILL NEED
15 mm (5/8 in) thick MDF measuring 29 * 23 cm Face mask
(11 1/2 * 9 in) Rubber gloves
Two sheets of A4 carbon paper 450 g (1 lb) of powdered grout
Template Bowl of water
Sharp pencil Mixing board for the grout
Tracing paper Trowel
Sheets of newspaper Plastic grout spreader
Vitreous glass tiles as shown above right Cleaning cloth
Mosaic nippers Liquid floor cleaner
125 ml (4 ft oz) wood adhesive in a dispenser Abrasive cleaning pad
craft knife Pair of 'D' rings or mirror plates and screws
Safety spectacles
1 purple vein (6 tiles)
2 dark blue vein (50 tiles)
3 dark purple vein (27 tiles)
4 navy blue (18 tiles)
5 Purple (4 tiles)
6 blue (40 tiles)
7 dark viridian (3 tiles)
8 cyan (16 tiles)
9 pale blue (50 tiles)
10 ice blue (7 tiles)
11 mid-pale blue (13 tiles)
12 grey blue (5 tiles)
13 Sorrento blue (5 tiles)
14 sea green vein (2 tiles)
15 blue (37 tiles)
1 Mark the vertical centre line and cut the inner rectangle out of the MDF. To do this, drill a hole 1 cm (1/2 in) diameter to get the jigsaw blade through. Transfer the design onto the MDF board. Then mosaic the outer edge of the frame. Place a sheet of paper under the frame to protect your work surface. Cut the various shades of dark blue tesserae in half and run a head of glue along one side of the frame. Fix the tesserae to the side of the board making sure that they adhere firmly.
Continue on the other three sides - do not move the board around as this will allow the tesserae to come away. Repeat this process for the inner frame using the various shades of light blue tesserae. Leave to dry for about an hour.
Run a bead of glue along the crest of each wave and mosaic down to where it touches the edge of the frame. Repeat with the next wave, then finish off the tail of the previous wave to where it meets the new wave. The reason for doing this is because the crest of the new wave is more important that the tail of the old wave, so mosaic that first.
2 When the inner and outer edges have dried, peel off the backing paper and discard. Cut off any excess glue with the craft knife. Continue to mosaic the waves as described in step 1 until you have gone all the way around the frame. Fill in the triangular areas under the waves - try to echo the flow of each wave as you do so.
3 Now mosaic the sky. Once again, start at the crest of a wave and run a bead of glue along the side of it. Mosaic this line, finishing off underneath each crest in a circular movement.
4 continue all the way around the frame. Fill in the triangular areas above these sky lines, echoing the flow as you do so. Leave to dry for three hours and then grout and clean. Fix the 'D' rings or mirror plates to the back of the frame, glue your picture in place and hang the mosaic.
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