Sunday 26 October 2008

how to and how not to mosaic









Major Mistake from last week: Being stuck in previous ideas and not taking time to look at new task with fresh eyes.

Photos above:
My latest mosaic commission was three dimensional, benches for a sports hall entrance. The method used then, successfully, was to shape inner forms of frigolite, cover them with a thin layer of glass fibre reinforced concrete and put the mosaic pieces on top. Light enough to handle and transport in place, strong enough to sit and kick on. More photos of the finished result here

This time I was totally stuck with the idea of concrete. Wish to make slab sections of mosaic ready to put up on the walls all at once (don't want to spend weeks and weeks in a cold and busy construction site but rather work peacefully in cosy studio).

I usually tape the pieces together on the front side, and get larger sections to handle. This doesn't work with the China pieces as they are not flat enough. That's why the need of slabs.

So, last week I spent a lot of time and energy making molds for very thin concrete slabs to glue them onto. Absolutely useless work, the thin concrete was forever stuck on the stone slab I used for mold, couldn't get it off even with litres of oil on the stone surface. Used kitchen foil with bad result too, hard to handle with lots of wrinkles.

After giving up this bad DIY project and thus giving room for a better idea, I went to buy 6mm plasterboards. Easy to cut for sections and easy to handle. A little thicker than I wanted but now the work runs smoothly again.

Photo mosaic sculptures, found via Sandra
In case you missed it: Konstepidemin new blog
Paula Lindblom was part of the Taking parts workshop, here and here

4 comments:

ang design said...

this job looks great thanks for sharing the dilema it's always a challenge meeting your ideas with the 'real space'...thanks again great pics

Bibbi said...

Thank you! Reality wins :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your troubles. Now if someone does their online research for a mosaic bench, they'll know what not to do.

:)

Ooh the benches look superb, by the way!

Lylou said...

holy cow! it has been a very long time since i have been able to check in with you, but just as before, you always amaze me. this piece is such a great mix of structure and organic. KEEP IT UP, FIRE CRACKER!