{"id":5234,"date":"2016-09-13T17:41:49","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T00:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/?p=5234"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T21:43:08","slug":"two-students-create-two-very-different-mosaics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/two-students-create-two-very-different-mosaics","title":{"rendered":"Two Students Create Two Very Different Mosaics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I teach Pique Assiette mosaics, a type of mosaic made with broken dishes,\u00a0 in my tiny, little studio, a sunny former bedroom in a 1922 house. This little room has a big work table and is full of dishes and supplies for all the art forms I indulge in. It’s just the right size for mosaic classes<\/a> for one or two students, no more. And that’s the way I like it, because it allows me to really teach to the needs of each person<\/span><\/span> and<\/span><\/span> it<\/span><\/span> also <\/span><\/span>allow<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span> each student to do exactly what they want, or at least have a chance to discover what they want. And such was the case with Irina and her work mate, Jessica. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica knew exactly what she wanted to do from the first class. She had been inspired by an image of a horse, one from a logo of a computer game her husband liked. So we loosely followed that and created a plywood backing shaped as a shield. The shopping class was easy since she’d already decided to look for white and blue dishes. <\/span><\/span>The trick with a piece like this is to create lots of texture and color interest by intuitively and loosely mixing up the shades of white and blue<\/span><\/span> dish shards<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span>It did become rather a big project <\/span><\/span>and s<\/span><\/span>he even had to run out to buy more dishes to finish but she did get a sense of how to create a lovely surface. <\/span><\/span> The mosaic took more time to do and<\/span><\/span> required a bit of delay before grouting. But I’d rather students had the extra time to work and finish what they envisioned in an enjoyable manner. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here she is, <\/span><\/span>looking pretty happy, <\/span><\/span>after the grouting was finally done, with the mosaic on my easel. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

The finished piece has this lovely ancient look<\/span><\/span> and feel<\/span><\/span>, a beautiful roughness that the original logo never had. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

Irina, was<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> much like most of my students, not quite sure <\/span><\/span>of <\/span><\/span>what she wanted to do. This is where the shopping class often shows the way, when you find some dishes or colors you like. Making a mosaic with broken dishes is much looser and intuitive than the traditional mosaics<\/span><\/span>. Mosaics<\/span><\/span> done with glass tesserae, <\/span><\/span>can be quite <\/span><\/span>tight and often <\/span><\/span>lend themselves to <\/span><\/span>very symmetrical designs. I encouraged Irina to <\/span><\/span>tap into the intuitive<\/span><\/span> flow of the patterns and <\/span><\/span>arrange the pieces until they<\/span><\/span> “felt” right. <\/span><\/span>She was really terrific about trying all sorts of arrangements. But I think, as the crunch came to finish in time to grout, she just finally stopped trying to get it perfect and just let the “flow” happen. And I’m so glad she did! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here she is working hard cleaning off the grout in the last class, still wondering, would <\/span><\/span>it all work and would <\/span><\/span>she like it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

Well, I think she’s looking happy with the result, don’t you?<\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

And here it is, a closer look at finished mosaic.\u00a0 I think she did the most wonderful job, creating a lovely, colorful flow of flowers and colors. It’s just a small piece, but it’s got a real song to it.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Student<\/p>\n

Two students, two very different results, but both learning <\/span><\/span>how <\/span><\/span>to use their intuition and <\/span><\/span>how to be<\/span><\/span> loose with the <\/span><\/span>shards of broken dishes<\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>by doing so, <\/span><\/span>finding the flow <\/span><\/span>in<\/span><\/span> creating. <\/span><\/span>Turned out perfectly<\/span><\/span> I’d say<\/span><\/span>! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(BTW if you\u2019d like to comment, and we do appreciate\u00a0comments, please just click on the title to bring up the post with a spot for comments at the bottom.)<\/p>\n

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I teach Pique Assiette mosaics, a type of mosaic made with broken dishes,\u00a0 in my tiny, little studio, a sunny former bedroom in a 1922 house. This little room has a big work table and is full of dishes and supplies for all the art forms I indulge in. It’s just the right size for Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[898],"tags":[1087,1000,370],"class_list":["post-5234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mosaic-students","tag-making-mosaics-with-broken-dishes","tag-mosaic-classes","tag-pique-assiette-mosaics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5234"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6998,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234\/revisions\/6998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}