Category: Inspiration

  • Mounting and Grouting Moses Mosaic

    Mounting and Grouting Moses Mosaic

    I have mounted my mosaic Moses Dreaming on Sinai on an irregularly-shaped backer and grouted the mosaic. I have made videos of the mounting and grouting processes.

  • Mosaic as Thoughtful Art Experience

    Mosaic as Thoughtful Art Experience

    Ros Edmonds of Art Docents teaches art interpretation and technique to children ages kindergarten through eighth grade, which is the most important age range for teaching art and science and “planting seeds” that change lives. Ros emailed me some photos of her Mosaic Coaster Project with fifth graders, and I am happy to announce that…

  • Case Study: Mildred Mosaic Portrait

    Case Study: Mildred Mosaic Portrait

    Artist Mary Spadaro’s mosaic portrait Mildred is a reproduction of a mosaic she saw on Pinterest. I am reluctant to show the model image because I think the photo may be somewhat muted and blurred to enhance its verisimilitude:

  • Original Mosaic Designs by School Children

    Original Mosaic Designs by School Children

    Art teacher Bailey Smith has done something truly amazing. Instead of having her seventh-grade students work on one large mosaic mural to impress parents and administrators, she allowed her students to make their own designs. This gave her students a real art experience that allowed them to be expressive instead of merely being worker bees…

  • Azerbaijan Mosaic Artist

    Azerbaijan Mosaic Artist

    Samir İmamverdiyev is the son of the accomplished Azerbaijan mosaicist Musa İmamverdiyev, and he is currently in Iceland and looking for opportunities. I get the impression that Samir would consider opportunities anywhere in North America or the E.U., particularly in Iceland. Samir’s mosaics are impressive architectural murals. His subjects are portraits of medieval poets of…

  • Mosaic Garden Art: Fun Group Projects

    Mosaic Garden Art: Fun Group Projects

    Artist Donna Stern recently completed a series of abstract mosaics that are exactly what I think of when someone emails asking for fun project ideas for a group day in the studio. Series of Smalls The first thing is that it is a series. More importantly, each element in the series is the same size…

  • Harmonious Hues and Abstract Mosaic Art

    Harmonious Hues and Abstract Mosaic Art

    Artist Zane Pahl’s recently completed mosaic patio table is a solid example of using harmonious hues in an abstract design. I have not written enough about this type of mosaic, especially considering its popularity and its accessibility. Zane’s mosaic is an interesting teaching example because the color scheme is about harmonious hues instead of contrasting…

  • The Amazing Stylistic Range of Figurative Mosaic Art

    The Amazing Stylistic Range of Figurative Mosaic Art

    Artist Jennifer Kuhn has an impressive body of work that demonstrates the stylistic range of figurative mosaic artwork. Normally when I need to describe the range of styles of mosaic artwork, I emphasize how found objects can be used as improvised tiles and how that multiplies the number of styles of abstract art that are…

  • Floor Inset Mosaic Medallions

    Floor Inset Mosaic Medallions

    Artist Catherine Augustus recently installed some mosaic medallion insets in the floor of St Clare of Assisi Catholic Church on Daniel Island, South Carolina, and you might want to take a look. These mosaics were a volunteer project for the artist and her team of parishioners. They learned on the job and had to dance…

  • Masterpiece Miniature Mosaic Series

    Masterpiece Miniature Mosaic Series

    In centuries past, crafts people worked in guilds, with a guild for each craft: shoemakers, gold smiths, etc. To join a guild, a person had to apprentice themselves to a member of the guild for years and work themselves up from repetitive physical work in the studio to more and more advanced tasks over time.…

  • White Tile in Mosaic Artwork

    White Tile in Mosaic Artwork

    Artist Brad Srebnik‘s latest mosaic street number sign is a good example for a discussion about white tile in mosaic artwork. I also think the color scheme is excellent, and I wanted to say a few things about that. The green and blue and red are all intense but not bright. The color scheme is…

  • Case Study: Non-Sanded Grout for Mosaics with Incidental Gap

    Case Study: Non-Sanded Grout for Mosaics with Incidental Gap

    For better glass mosaic images, tiny incidental gaps are the way to go. Just forget about grouting and fit the glass as tightly as possible. Or better yet, cut the pieces less precisely and use the slight errors in shapes to form an incidental grout gap. I highly recommend this latter mode of working because…