Tile Trivets & Late Summer Swallowtail Butterflies

Beyond my frenzy of late to create cards from my artwork, I've also been making 6" x 6" tile trivets or I know, as lots of people like to call them.....hot plates.

These are 3 or 7 different varieties so far, that I'll be adding to my ETSY site little by little.  Along with cards though, I'm really looking forward to selling the trivets at crafts fairs when I relocate. 

I cannot wait to have tile murals of some of my painted pieces, I think they will be very dimensional and fun.  My husband will be my grout and frame man, piecing everything together, grouting to connect the segments and finally, finishing with a custom made frame.  Think of one of the above images much much larger and broken into smaller segments, connected to make a larger, ceramic piece of wall art.....and if you can imagine that, you will have imagined what I would like to create. 

These are all late season swallowtial butterflies that have been visiting my garden in the last few weeks.  I'm actually creating a painting now with 4 different kinds of butterflies and two of them are swallowtails so these beauties couldn't have fluttered into my garden at a bettter time.  The inspiration they gave me has been amazing.

I hope you find some lovely inspiration in your end of the season garden as well.

Address Tiles

A very good customer of mine recently ordered some handpainted address tiles. I also painted a mailbox in the same design.

These are Texas Bluebonnets & Daisies , painted on 6" square ceramic tiles.

I used paints that I can put right in the oven. First I did the numbers and background and then baked the tiles once. I did this so I wouldn't have any problem with the background pulling up as I painted the design or if I made some mistakes on the design and needed to erase as I went along, I wouldn't have to worry about the background coming up with it. Once the tiles are baked in the oven, the design is bonded to the tiles and will not come off.

I enjoyed painting them so much that I think I will add them to my website sometime in the near future.