Tag: contemporary mosaic

  • Mosaic Virtuosity: Stained Glass Paintings

    Mosaic Virtuosity: Stained Glass Paintings

    Artist Lisa Sunshine’s stained-glass mosaics are tiny 4-inch iconic images intended for use in an illustrated alphabet series. I’m not sure whether these images are Sunshine’s own compositions or if she is using an existing illustrated series as a model, but either way the mosaics are virtuoso stuff. Sunshine’s mosaics are “impressionistic paintings” rendered in…

  • White Grout: The Floral Print Aesthetic

    White Grout: The Floral Print Aesthetic

    Artist Masha Leder‘s mixed pique-assiette architectural mosaics using white grout are so good I wanted to name this blog article “In Praise of White Grout.” I have been hoping more people would email me some photos of their white-grout mosaic artwork ever since I started posting about avoiding white grout in mosaic images, meaning figurative…

  • Pattern to Mosaic: Design Evolution

    Pattern to Mosaic: Design Evolution

    I thought I would share this particular studio photo because it shows the evolution of an improvised mosaic design, in this case a sailing ship. It also showed ad hoc changes to the pattern after it was already taped beneath clear contact paper. A mosaic is not a drawing, and we call rendering an existing…

  • Amazing Commission

    Amazing Commission

    I have survived the stress of managing the supply business during the pandemic/supply crisis so far only by allowing myself periods when I get very slack in responding to non-crisis emails. I tell myself I will get back to them eventually, but sometimes eventually is a long time. Most emails that can be ignored for…

  • Mosaic Art Exhibition

    Mosaic Art Exhibition

    Janet Crawford has owned and operated Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada since 1984. The gallery’s current exhibit is called “Piece Works” and has been in the making for several years. As the name implies, the exhibit features works of art that were created by assembling small pieces, and the exhibit itself is…

  • Mosaic Tables and Interior Design

    Mosaic Tables and Interior Design

    Artist RJ Spurr recently completed two mosaic tables for his home, and I wanted to share them because the level of craft work is excellent, and the designs are integrated with the color schemes of rooms where they were installed. The great thing about dry indoor mosaics is that you can use wood as a…

  • Mosaic Memorial Cross for Maddie

    Mosaic Memorial Cross for Maddie

    Georgia Art Teacher Connie Wells has been working with her students on a memorial cross project: Highland Christian Academy in Valdosta, GA  wanted to remember one of our 8th grade students, Maddie Pitts that recently passed away from cancer in a personal, honorable way. As we constructed a small garden area with a pink bench…

  • Mosaic Furniture Pique Assiette Alternative

    Mosaic Furniture Pique Assiette Alternative

    Mosaic furniture can be made from glass mosaic tile more easily and more affordably than it can be made from pieces cut from antique china and other patterned dinnerware. It’s also much more colorful! The choices available range from bright rainbow colors to soft pastels to different color families, earth tones, black and white. You…

  • Repeating Motifs and Abstract Mosaics

    Repeating Motifs and Abstract Mosaics

    Repeating simple designs or motifs is an effective way to make iconic compositions that catch the eye, and you can take this technique to its extreme to produce abstract art where the pattern itself becomes the subject of the art and not just a tool for rendering figures. Karla Conmy’s River Meanders mosaic is a…

  • Mosaic Saints, Angels, and Icons

    Mosaic Saints, Angels, and Icons

    Historically, mosaic icons were made with traditional materials like smalti, marble, and gold leaf glass. Those traditional mosaic materials might be preferred if you are trying to make a reproduction that looks historically accurate, but they are more expensive and more difficult to work with. Do You Need Smalti? If you have any latitude in…

  • Mosaic Letters and Numerals

    Mosaic Letters and Numerals

    You can make mosaic street numbers and signs using a grid, but mosaics made from irregular shapes of non-gridded tesserae are more interesting, especially if you use concentric andamento for the background surrounding the figures. Sara Sommers emailed us some pictures of her mosaic street number plaque, and it is made from cut pieces of…

  • Beginner Mosaic Artwork

    Beginner Mosaic Artwork

    Mosaic is a great medium for beginners because it is accessible for people who don’t have much confidence in their ability to draw. Images can be rendered merely by arranging tile by trial and error until you like what you see. Of course it helps to have a simple outline or pattern of the image…