A Blush of Robins

 There's several collective nouns for a group of the nation's favourite red breasted bird but a 'blush' of robins is definitely my favourite.

This particular blush was created last weekend at a needle felting class I taught to ladies of Aberdeenshire Federation of the SWI (Scottish Women's Institute) as part of their Autumn Academy craft programme.  I always love that everyone starts out with the same materials and receives the same tuition yet each lady has created a robin individual to her.

Prior to teaching, I always like to remind myself what I'm doing which has resulted in me having a blush of my own!

Seeing the birdies grouped together made me think back to last summer when I created another blush of robins, but this time in mosaic.

A while back, my Mum's beloved glass ornament broke.  

It got inadvertently swiped off the window ledge whilst the curtains were being opened.  There was no way of successfully fixing it so the following Christmas I bought Mum a Royal Crown Derby replacement robin.  However, I kept the broken bird as I'd always liked the simple fused glass shapes and had often contemplated translating them into mosaic.

After making a rough sketch (so rough it's on a shopping list!) I transferred the image onto tracing paper.  This let me draw the shapes I required onto glass which I cut with hand tools then smoothed with the grinder.

The transparent pieces needed to be backed with foil before being stuck onto the slate substrate.  This served two purposes - the cement didn't show through and the glass colours became more intense.

Once the cement was fully dried, the messy process of grouting could begin.  I keep special gloves for just that purpose!  Both the cement and the grout used mean this can go outside.

Once the robin was polished up I opted to glue on his millefiori bead eye and really bring him to life.  I gave this robin to my sister-in-law, Carol, as a gift last Christmas.

Then I made another which I gave to my friend, Susan, to raffle as a fundraiser for the good causes she supports.

And I made another, also gifted, which hangs in my friend Brenda's garden.  

I must've been in a hurry as I only have a picture of this one prior to grouting.

It appears I'm not done yet, as this work in progress shows.  Maybe I'll manage to make one for my own garden before too long.

 It's lovely to know that my blush of mosaic robins has flown far and wide - but this one is coming home to roost!