March, 2007

First, I need to thank all of my newest customers (and some devoted customers as well...Leslie!) who wiped me out over the weekend. Wow! What a great response! I'm starting my inventory from scratch right now so please check back often and I'll be listing more & more original mosaics and supplies every week... Here's a little bit about myself..

I graduated from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit with a major in graphic design, back in the late 80's. I then did a 10+ year "sentence" at an automotive company as a designer. I created many of the badges and nomenclature you still see on many cars and trucks on the road today. I loved what I did there, but I was becoming increasingly frustrated as the idea of "branding" was coming into vogue. Any of you slightly familiar with the corporate/creative business will know what I mean.

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After having our first child, my husband and I decided to have me become a stay-at-home-Mom. I'd made something of myself, so now it was time to make something of someone else!

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I quickly found that my creative juices were overflowing and I needed an outlet. Naptimes for my daughter were creative times for me!

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I had an over-abundance of creativity pulsating through my veins! I started to create mosaic garden globes and sold them at a farmers market during the warm weather months. (thus, the name "Garden Candy).This quickly evolved to mosaic birdbaths and chairs and then to painting chairs and anything else I could get my hands on! I'd say that the rest is history- which is funny because in art school, I didn't give a flying rip about art history and now, I'm always finding myself refering to so many to the famous painters (Klimt, Mucha, Kandinsky...) I couldn't be bothered with back then.

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Aside from my ebay activity, my wonderful and supportive husband and I now have another child, a 4year old son, brother to our 8 year old daughter.

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Just about 2 years ago,I was given the honor of creating a 'cat' for a huge charity fundraiser for the City of Dearborn's "Stray Cat Strut". This event was fund raiser for the Dearborn Animal Shelter's expansion. The shelter is the type of shelter that does NOT euthanize homeless animals, rather it boards them until suitable homes can be found. Now that's humane! About 30 area artists had been chosen to apply their craft to large fiberglass cats, (approx 4' x 5'). The cats were auctioned off on September 16th. My "Klimt Cat" fetched a whopping $2200 (for the Animal Shelter) and It went to a very generous cat lover ...the highest bid of the night! Here are a couple of photos of my completed cat, and a few more of the work in progress.

Here are some shots of the tiles after grouting with charcoal grout...

I am a proud member of the Ebay VeRO program. Any attempt to copy my designs and then sell them through eBay will be met with VeRO cancellation of any such auction.

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Here are some of the latest mosaics I've done (with my own tiles, too!)

Cool necklaces using both my own hand painted "Stained Glass-looking" tiles and colored glass.

This is a "chair rail" type of detail I did on a textured wall in our basement bathroom. Amazing what some cool tile can do for a tiny basement bathroom!

Dimensional coppery tiles I created for a favorite customer of mine

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My husband and I have been collecting original vintage advertising posters for longer than we've been married so of course, I can't help but be inspired enough to create tiles like them!

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Here are some of my favorite links:

www.americanmosaics.org