We made it! The mosaic parts and me have arrived safe in Ayvalik. All went well. The only tricky situation during the trip was when I arrived in Istanbul and the costums officer asked me to open my suitcases. Oh I was sweating! They brought an extra art specialist to look at the mosaic but he immediately recognized it as new. I was sweating not only because I feared they would confiscate it but also because I had to open the elaborate packaging – it took me over half an hour to close it again.  Which was  then lovingly handled by our friend Ümit who picked me up  in his red car at Istanbul airport and together with his wife hosted me for one beautiful day in the city by the Bosphorus. On Monday night I arrived in Ayvalik. Tulya my dear friend fetched me at the bus stop in the middle of the night with my super heavy suitcases. It is so nice to be back and feel soo at home at her house. …

I am writing this blog at 2 am at Sao Paolo airport waiting for my flight to Istanbul depart in  2 hours. The mosaic parts are in my two suitcases which are weighing  almost 50kg. Luckily I did not have to pay excess luggage . The check in personnel had a good day. Its nice to stay awake at such odd hours because I really want to tell  you about this exciting last week. On Tuesday I set the last stone. Already when finishing the last figure I felt a slight feeling of procrastination. As much as I do want this project to come to completion as much I dread to let it go. Its my life since almost a year. And I also grouted the wave mosaic with dark grey grout. I actually only had light grey so I mixed some black pigment in it.  I hope it will not harm the quality of the tile grout. On Wednesday my daughter Louise helped me to tidy up the studio and arrange the mosaics for …

All is good! Thanks to all your supportive messages, jokes and calls  the dark forces from last week could not get hold of me! On Monday morning Robson and I sanded most of the stones in our garden. It is much better to do this very dusty work outside, and in the tropics it is possible to work outside all year round In the afternoon Cida and I put the trial mosaic onto a wall close to the floor as this will be a similar place for the AYVALIK MOSAIC too. First we filled the gaps with fine sand, then covered the mosaic with tile cement then pressed it  onto the pricked and wetted wall On Wednesday I went to the Vitoria stone fair for one day. Vitoria is a coastal town just 1000 km east from Brasilia, a little bit north of Rio de Janeiro. The amount of beautiful stones was overwhelming and fun to see. Much more vivid colors than in Europe. Especially the blues are amazing. In Vitoria I met with Evren …