Mosaic Gallery Page 1

This is my first attempt made during a taster class at The Mosaic Oasis in Arlington Mass. It was made in roughly two hours and was based on a pattern I found in an Islamic Mosaic book. It is made on 4 1/2 inch square piece of MDF using the direct method with Winklemans porcelain tesserae.

I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt making an Islamic design so I tried again. I had attempted to follow some of the Roman rules by avoiding triangles and offsetting the tesserae. My cutting skills were not very good which showed. I spent along time planning and trying to follow the Roman rules. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the best way to execute the design was to use all triangles. Eventually I came up with a composition using two sizes of squares, keystones and parallelograms. My cutting skills improved significantly but I still have a long way to go. I used a hybrid indirect method using clear contact paper over a cartoon I created in QCAD. The completed design made from Cinca porcelain tiles was then glued to a 7 1/2 square piece of 1/4 GoBoard which was attached to a custom frame I made from 1/4 Maple plywood and 3/4 inch Peruvian Walnut.

Islamic Pattern #1

Islamic Pattern #2

Steal Your Face Blotter

The first design in my blotter acid series. It seems I made no attempt to follow the Roman rules on this one. The tesserae size is inconsistent, no line splitting or outlines. This is based on a picture I found on the internet of an actual piece of blotter acid. My attempt at the perforations aren't very pleasing but I felt they are required to represent the original. I used the same hybrid indirect method which I use exclusively now because I don't enjoy the direct method. The Kismit glass and Cinca porcelain tesserae are glued to a 6 inch square GoBoard mounted in a sapele frame. I spent approximately 18 hour laying out the tesserae.

Musical Notes Blotter

The second design in my blotter acid series. Once again the Roman rules didn't seem to be appropriate because of the need for narrow lines and the round parts of the notes. The background is inconsistent and my cutting skills a suspect. I actually dropped a hit of this in 1984 before a Dead show at the SPAC in Saratoga Springs. All Cinca tesserae in a 6 inch square red oak frame. This was a 21 hour effort.

Sorcerers Apprentice Blotter

The third design in my blotter acid series. My cutting skills have vastly improved. In an effort to save time I cut rectangles instead of squares which break the Roman rules. This zoomed into a single dose so the the perforations are cleanly represented. I gave this away as a gift without getting a photo. Once again a 6 inch square in a red oak frame. It consists Cinca, Kismit and Virtue vitreous glass tesserae. I really don't like working the Virtue tiles. This mosaic only took 11 hours to layout.