Bead mosaics - fancy paperweight and pencil holder

Home & Garden Completed Projects
#1

@Abbeeroad and @MistressJennie introduced me recently to the wonders of Apoxie Scuplt which is a miracle substance, much like clay, that hardens to a water-proof solid that is a great foundation for things like mosaics (without all the mess!).

I was intrigued and had to try it out. After acquiring the miracle product, I dug out a bunch of bits and bobs and then went to town. Warning though, if you want to try this, be prepared to be patient. Placing all the tiny beads and baubles takes a while. It’s really helpful to break up your project into smaller areas instead of trying to cover a whole surface at once. The clay is mouldable for a couple of hours, but not forever!, before it starts to stiffen and cure.

Here’s a couple of rock “paperweights” and a pencil holder - though I think the pencil holder could make a super cute small planter.

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20 Likes
#2

How awesome are these?! I love the first paperweight with the chevron beads. And so much detail on the pencil holder! You are the mosaic master.

Ah! Love that you’re using the moon dish! :grin:

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#3

Haha yeah I need more tiny dishes for holding all the beads so they don’t run away. The moon dish you made me was so perfect, and it’s pretty :smiley:

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#4

These are so cool looking, and they’re a bit like a I Spy version of beading components, as a bonus. I love how you incorporated such a variety of elements.

I’ve never heard of Apoxie Sculpt before but now it’s on my radar. So you just smoosh things into it and they hold in place without added glue once it cures? I like how it allows the beads and other things to stay visible on the surface and not be deeply embedded.

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#5

Yes Cindy! Its sort of a tackier version of polyclay but cures via air instead of oven baked and ends up water-proof and seemingly very hard to damage. People use it for sculpting too, but I’m using it more like a grout for mosaics. You can consider it a clay form of glue too if you want to bond something to something else. It’s really neat.

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#6

That is so neat! I’m definitely going to try it at some point. I’m off to look it up! :slight_smile:

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#7

These are absolutely stunning!

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#8

these are the coolest, I’ve never heard of it before. Great job! Thanks for sharing!

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#9

You can also build of of previously dried apoxie sculpt, with new apoxie sculpt. Some of the folks doing large sculptures do that, building upon itself a bit at a time.

@sheepBlue, these came out SO stunning! I love your use of color on each one. Hoping we can have sculpt party together in person someday. But in the meantime, another zoom version would be fun. I need to see if friend David will cut me some more house shapes, so I can make a cluster of houses to go with the one I already finished.

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#10

That’s really neat-o!

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#11

These are so pretty and colorful. I love the use of Apoxie Sculpt. I used to use it in sculpture years ago. I only used gray though. I didn’t know it even came in black. Does it come in a variety of colors now?

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#12

Each piece is so engaging to look at. I think I have received some epoxy sculpt as a gift… after I forgot what I wanted it for. Now I feel compelled to look for a project!

#13

These are so pretty! I love the way the beads and other pieces are so bright against the black background.

#14

@MistressJennie - Yes we need to have another zoom craft date. I have some more stones that need some mosaic-ing.

@gozer - Yes! It comes in all sorts of colors now and you can mix them to make other colors too. But my go-to for mosaic type art is always black. Can’t beat a classic.

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#15

I love this!!! I’m thinking I could use sour cream containers to make indoor planters with this technique (oh how I love sour cream).

A sculpt zoom party would be nice as I’ve never done something like this and I didn’t like that it was a 2 part compound. Lol. Scary!!

#16

These look amazing!

#17

Super cool! The clay looks a bit leather-like, sets off those beads and doo-das brilliantly.

I wonder if you can resin over it? Or if it takes paint… hmm…

#18

Oh wow! So much work and detail! I feel like once you get in the groove of these it would be like meditation.

#19

Yes you can pour resin or paint over it. I’ve seen examples where artists dust the final project with mica powders, etc. It’s incredibly versatile :heart:

#20

Very very cool!!