30 Minute Mosaics

The past Saturday was the last day of the exhibition. We had over 150 people come to see the show and attend the artist demonstration. Michael & I did the demonstration. The topic was "various mosaic materials." Previous demonstrations were in a lecture format, so we decided to do something more interactive and get people involved.

We talked about different materials - glass, ceramic, vitreous tiles, smalti, gold, marble, stone - and then gave people 30 minutes to create a mosaic using these materials. We created a design (a leaf) on a large substrate and cut it into smaller 6" x 6" pieces. Each piece has part of the design with an L to indicate that light colored tesserae should be used in the space and a D for dark colored tesserae.

Most folks had never created a mosaic before. A few were mosaic artists. But all were engaged for 30 minutes gluing all sorts of items on the squares. It may not have been the more "professional" way to introduce people to mosaic making - but everyone had a lot of fun.

Here are the results: