MOSAIC ART: Old Technique – Modern Expression
Why Make a Mosaic ?
Creating mosaics is a creative craft that is easy to learn. Working with mosaics is rewarding at any level of expertise and even as a beginner, your mosaic projects will give you hours of pleasure. You do not need to be a great artist or clever handyman to create a mosaic artwork that has beauty, usefulness and durability. Moreover your mosaic creation will last for years, looking just as good as the day you first made it, with no more attention than an occasional quick wipe with a cloth to keep it bright.
START WITH SOMETHING EASY – Its great fun to make a mosaic with a child
A beginner does not need to start with expensive materials to create something that is interesting and attractive. Broken crockery, reject ceramic tiles or even stones and pebbles can be used to make your first mosaic - and cements, glues and grouts are cheap. All that is needed is a little imagination and a suitable surface to cover. You do not even need to have a firm plan and can just let your expression run free, creating a splash of color in an otherwise drab part of the home or garden. For the less adventurous there are ready made mosaic kits that can be purchased on line or from craft or hobby shops. These kits have everything that is needed to create a stylish set piece and come complete with full scale plans.
A SPLASH OF COLOR IN A DRAB CORNER
On the other hand, mosaic can also be great art. Mosaic artists such as Antonio Gaudi have created sublime works, selling on commission for hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a medium, mosaic art is ideally suitable for adorning large surfaces in prominent sites as it exudes a vitality and ambiance that is hard to recreate in less durable mediums. Mosaic art is the ideal compliment for good sculpture and can be incorporated in theming both internal and external public spaces.
THE IDEAL COMPLEMENT FOR AN UNUSUAL SCULPTURE – Jerusalem
What Actually is a Mosaic ?
Any definition of Mosaic has to recognise that it is really an effect or art style, rather than a particular artistic technique and is not bounded by the usage of any specific medium. The mosaic effect is to create a picture or pattern on a variety of surfaces, assembling large numbers of coloured shapes or blocks to generate a pleasing overall impression when viewed as a whole. Mosaics can be applied to any number of surfaces, using shaped blocks of whatever material catches the mosaic artist’s imagination.
ROMANS USED A SMALL PALETTE OF COLOURED NATURAL STONE – Israel
Mosaic art may have the permanence of centuries old marble chips, cemented onto the floor of a Roman Villa or just a passing moment of glory when a scrumptious mosaic pattern of brightly coloured candies is pressed into the icing of a birthday cake. Romans created wonderfull patterns using a limited palette of just a few natural stone colours – and Byzantine cathedrals had complex mosaic icons of of outstanding brilliance, using the reflecting quality of a huge range of mineral stained glass and gold leaf blocks . Today the mosaic effect may be displayed as a fleeting patchwork of colours arranged on a screen to form a computer mosaic – either as a mosaic design aid for creating a permanent mosaic work or simply to have your own stylised mosaic screensaver. However, for our purposes, the mosaics we describe here will all involve the traditional cementing or gluing of small stone, glass or ceramic blocks or tiles (called tesserae) onto firm surfaces or objects to create a mosaic works of lasting value.
Now go for it!
The Fundamental Techniques
There are two fundamental techniques for making mosaics, that may be applied in the creation of a large variety of mosaic projects, using different mosaic materials, adhesives and forms of artistic expression. These two mosaic techniques are called the Direct Method and the Indirect Method. Each has their place. However, irrespective of the actual technique used, the final objective is always the same – simply to fix a pattern of mosaic tiles or blocks into a bedding of adhesive or cement, pasted onto a receiving surface – in order to form a pleasing or functional design. Generally, after the mosaic bedding has cured, the gaps between the mosaic pieces would be grouted, usually with a cement based tile grout. This mosaic grout (which may be coloured to suit) adds strength and stability and is essential, if the mosaic is to be used in a wet environment, or where it may be subject to frosts.
The Direct Method
This method of making mosaics is to set your mosaic blocks (tesserae) directly onto a prepared bed of cement or adhesive. In one sense this method is easier to control, especially for the mosaic beginner, because you keep the bright side of each tessera in view and, as you progress, the pattern or picture develops in front of you. This is fine if you are mounting your mosaic onto a board or firm object and applying the adhesive to the tiles. However, if cementing your tiles to a wall or floor, unless you apply the paste for only one or two blocks at a time, the mosaic adhesive or cement will tend to hide any underlying mosaic pattern that you have prepared on the backing surface, leaving you without guidance. In this case the restriction of setting up and bedding the mosaic pieces individually or in small groups would be a slow and laborious way of proceeding, especially with a mosaic project of any reasonable size. Moreover it is virtually impossible to achieve a very flat final surface using this method as the mosaic pieces tesserae would inevitably show some variation. Thus the direct method is more suited for small mosaic wall panels, mosaic plaques, or for the mosaic decoration of three-dimensional objects, such as flowerpots, lamp stands and vases, where a truly flat mosaic surface is not that important. Actually the variation of the tesserae surfaces creates a sparkle effect, which adds interest and will enhance the appearance of your art work.
The uneven suface of this wall plaque adds interest
The Indirect Method
The other method of making mosaics is completely different in concept. The idea here, is to split the work of setting up your mosaic into two stages. Firstly, you create a temporary “sheet” of inverted mosaic blocks, made up to the desired mosaic design. This “sheet” is prepared by tracing your mosaic pattern onto a backing sheet of craft paper or similar, which is spread tightly over a flat working surface such as a kitchen table. Then each individual mosaic piece (tessera) is glued upside down, onto the backing paper, according to the pattern, using water soluble glue. On completion of the temporary gluing, you will have a flexible “sheet” of prepared mosaic tiles, which can then be turned over and pressed into a fairly thick layer of cement or adhesive bedding, which you spread over the permanent surface upon which the mosaic is to be applied. A flat board is used to push the mosaic “sheet” into the bedding. This ensures that the upper (pasted) surface of the tesserae are kept flush with each other – all in one flat plane. If the mosaic is large, the backer paper may be cut into portions for placing in sequence onto the bedding. On completion, after the bedding adhesive has set, the craft paper is rubbed off with warm water, before grouting.