I am now continuing to stick down more tiles after my other batch has come out of the kiln. It isn't taking too long to stick them down and the tile adhesive and drying quickly which I great. This is what it is looking like so far:
I placed some tiles that hadn't get been fired around the tiles that were already stuck down to see how much space was left for my oil painting, seeing whether I needed to stick the painting down before I added the second strip of tiles, which I found that I did, as the second column on tiles slightly overlapped the painting.
As you can see, I have now stuck down my oil painting before adding my second column of tiles.
I have covered my oil painting with tracing paper so that it can be protected whilst I add the remainder of my tiles onto the board and also when I start to cement the gaps in between the tiles.
I have also made some more tiles, as a few have cracked in the kiln so I wanted to be safe and make more, rather than having less.
The last space that is left at the bottom of the board is for my 'mum' tile, as that is currently being fired in the kiln.
Below, you can see that I have started to add the cement in between the gaps of the tiles and it working well. I squeezed some cement into the gap and using a wet finger, I smoothed the cement out to create a neat line in between the tiles, giving it a better finish.
Below you can see that I have started to wipe away the excess cement on top of the tiles so that I am ready to lift the tracing paper and start assembling my final piece all together.
So, I have my fireplace and my oil painting and I have recently bought a 900/900mm piece of wood to attach my tiles and oil painting onto so that they will stand in the middle of the fireplace.
I covered my tiles in crocus oxide to bring out the words and the lines of the label, enabling them to stand out beneath the glaze and they have turned out really lovely and developed into a browny colour, which really compliments the hair on my final piece as I lay the oil painting in the middle of the tiles that I have glued down.
I have left small gaps between each tile so that they can be filled in with cement once all of the tiles are stuck down, ensuring that there is a neat finish to them.
I am currently waiting for the remainder of my tiles to cool down, as they have been fired in the kiln and when they are ready to be taken out, I will continue to stick the rest of my tiles down onto the wood. Also, one of the tiles cracked unexpectedly in the kiln (my Mum tile in the above images), so I have remade it and that will be fired as soon as my others are out. I have made a few extra tiles as well to ensure that I have enough if anymore crack:
Once I have got all of the tiles around the outside of the wood, I will stick down my oil painting and then continue to add another line of tiles around the sides to make it all look neat and then I will be able to attach the piece of wood to the fireplace to start putting it all together.
I will keep posting images as I progress with my final piece.
