Monthly Mosaic Blog

 I feel very fortunate to have been able to attend the Chicago mosaic school for a 10 day workshop with Giulio Menossi. He did not speak English so we also had the honor of having Matteo Randi in the workshop helping with translation.   Giulio taught us the Classical Venitian Method for making mosaics which meant working with the hammer and hardie using the double reverse method.  This was very difficult to learn the precision cutting that was required.  By the end we were starting to get use to it.  Giulio did say that it takes years of practice to get to get the hang of this technique not just 10 days.

 

 

 

Here is my finished landscape mosaic.  We were given a few different landscape designs to choose from.  The materials that we used was Smalti.

I am glad to be home and finally getting into my next mosaic design.  It will be 2' x 3' and is for our Bedroom.  This is a play on the Jacobean prints and is representing a happy marriage. There is a female flower and a male flower and a vine that is a heart shape.   I am thinking of putting in words in the background with some of our songs we had in our wedding. I'm not sure how I will attempt this yet.

 I was thinking of just a blue and white theme but it seemed a little boring and cold.  I decided to add some other colors to warm it up.

 I am working on Wedi board and I like to paint it white first so that the glass seems lighter when place on top. You can see that I also drew the design onto the board.  I am now going through the process of deciding on materials and placement.  I started adhering the "frame" that is out of stained glass and vitreous glass.  I also made strips of stained glass to cover the edges of the Wedi board.

Here are some of the materials and colors I am thinking of using within the mosaic and will be adding yellow and a touch of red.  I like to have that "eye candy" in there. 

For hanging I decided to use two large T-nuts and a 5/16 x 5/8" bolt.  I put these on before I painted the Wedi board then put a thin coat of Apoxy Sculpt to hold it in place.

Goals for this month
-Continue my work on this current mosaic.
-Study Italian-I am heading on another educational trip to study mosaics in Ravenna Italy along with going on the Julie Richey mosaic tour!
-Attend the Mosaic Guild meeting and bring in mosaics for the show at Mosaic on a Stick.
-Attend the Art Guild meeting-we are doing some sketching outside.

Quote of the month
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step"    -Lao Tzu