31,140 pennies, some grout, and a little sealant later, and we have a pretty cool kitchen floor. :) The pennies are all heads up, facing the same direction.
I covered an old bowling ball with pennies and use it on a stand in my garden. It looks like a brass ball and it gets a lot of comments. My granddaughters helped me with placing the pennies and we all had a great time working together.Marty Martin, Winfield, WV
Linda T - perhaps people respect the patience that others possess? Not all of us on here do have all the P-words that you promulgated. Personally, there are times when it is worth it to me to pay someone a pretty penny in labor, rather than do it myself. But that's just me.
As a mosaic artist, I found this and the panel on the counters side extremely appealing! Arts and crafts are all about patience, love for the craft, and a desire to do the best that we can do. If you can't do this kind of thing, have the $$$ to have someone do it for you then go right ahead, as long as you plan on staying in your home...selling a work of art like this would be difficult.
Thanks all! I'm a mosaic artist by trade... so I'm always looking for things to cover with small pieces of glass, rock, shells, etc. If it's not your passion, then it likely takes more patience. :) I added a page to my website about the floor.. how-to's and such, if anyone is interested.
@ Amanda, your web site was wonderful when I first saw it, but the addition of the penny pics is terrific and very inspiring. I LOVE your 'beach' wall too! It looks so 'touchy-feely-strokable'!
I feel as if MJ C was chastising me for talking about our passion for doing our own work, but in fact, I too took a long time (about a month -5 weeks) to do the mosaic on my kitchen wall, because I am old, and very persnickity, so had to keep climbing up and down the step stool to break or
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find exactly the right shape to I worked until my back hurt too much and then went back to my other loves, cooking, X-stitch and knitting.
Rather than getting others to work for me, I HAVE to create. I was never allowed to sit and do nothing, in front of TV, so it became a habit early on in life. I am always doing something and my end of the couch is surrounded by yarn, beads, sewing, mending, and always a mess! Love it.
When I had stripped it (the original paint was like egg shells, hard and falling off) There was a lot of residual red colour on/in the wood, so after I painted the green and sanded (antiqued) it, there was pink showing through, which then dictated the colours of the beads and such. I even used some sterling silver earring bits on a few of the 'dangles', which are done with strong fishing line threaded through little eye hooks. As I mentioned above, I don't plan ahead, and it all just
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'happened'. I think one of the best ideas I had was to mix green acrylic paint into the white grout
Thats very cool the total amount of the 31,140 pennies comes out to $311.40 which is actualy what it would cost to redo a floor in the first place so Kudo's to you awesome art work and creative thinking!
OH MY GOSH, AMANDA!! I seriously love this!! I was planning to do that!! I NEED YOU TO CONTACT ME!! I would love to hear how you did this wonderful project, I have soooo many questions!!!!
I actually though it was the mosaic on the front of the island that is much nicer than pennies as the floor!!! Must have taken a long time to do to have all facing the same direction. What I might have done though is put one penny in that is tails up.
I am all for the unusual. This floor is unusual and I love it! I wish I had the time and expertise to try this, of course our kitchen is probably a lot bigger that this one. But hey, I guess I can start colletcting pennies now. Pennies aren't worth much as a coin but as a floor covering-----. Great idea!!
http://www.mandolinmosaics.com/installations...
I feel as if MJ C was chastising me for talking about our passion for doing our own work, but in fact, I too took a long time (about a month -5 weeks) to do the mosaic on my kitchen wall, because I am old, and very persnickity, so had to keep climbing up and down the step stool to break or ...»
Rather than getting others to work for me, I HAVE to create. I was never allowed to sit and do nothing, in front of TV, so it became a habit early on in life. I am always doing something and my end of the couch is surrounded by yarn, beads, sewing, mending, and always a mess! Love it.