in the clouds

Finished the first of four mosaic wall works and started next, with clouds in it. I'm fairly quick but sometimes I just stare at a piece for a long time and don't know where to put it. Then I know it's time for a break.

They need to dry a day or two before grouting,they are really just as half finished as they look. Very light grey will be the color.

Two great links from Masala Chai, she is full of them:
Ryan Lobo
and
Tushar Wagela

Jeoung Ah-Kim

At Sintra: Jeoung Ah-Kim, Korean ceramic artist living in Göteborg. She is a researcher at HDK and invented a new ceramic material! High fired paper composite porcelain, based on recycled paper (Ph.D thesis link here). I'm happy to see the artist's work that comes out of her research!

More photos here, click "galleriet"
Paper clay art

self esteem

Laurie Rosenwald, New York graphic designer and frequent guest at Konstepidemin, publishes her book All the wrong people have self esteem in December. She is clever, witty, ironic and fun, I have high expectations.
See more here
Pre order here.
I will buy three, one for myself and one each for the young ladies I know, appearing in the book (for Christmas).

Malgorzata Belkiewicz paper cuts and
Blublu blog, both via Kris's Color stripes

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

götheborg II

This is the replica ship of Götheborg, that sunk in 1745, just outside the city harbor. The original ship is where all my porcelain mosaic pieces come from. The new ship made it to China and back in one piece and toured the Baltic sea last summer. Now it's parked for winter, close to "my" buildings. Smells from linseed oil and tar, I love it.

This week was full of technical issues, but now mosaic work runs smoothly. You can learn from my mistakes.

We started a — NEW BLOG — at Konstepidemin, seemed a natural step after updating the website. There are so many things going on there and I've always felt a few steps behind even if I've posted a few.
Happy to invite you there, www.konstepidemin.se, click "blog".

Tomorrow show openings 12-16:
kinetic sculptures by Peter Kruse
jewellery by Peter Skubic at Hnoss
work by Petra Borén and
14.00 football/art talk by Per (short form of Peter) Agelii an Jan Stigland. I'll definitely go for the football event.

Karin Landahl has studio sale, knit wear, 11-16.
Carina Fihn's guest artist of the month

Wish you a lovely weekend!

first pieces put

Happened to start with the signature corner.

First mosaic pieces are glued in place, finally. Preparations took time; I want to find practical and efficient ways to make most of the mosaic ready already in the studio. I hope I can describe methods better later on. This will go on for some time now...

Levi van Veluw, human landscapes
Collective conversations in clay via Emily Murphy, who's in it. This is how it works.

real water lilies

Here's the real lotus thing. In Cambodia lotus fruits are sold at the market and eaten as snacks. The stems are chopped and made soup of. Tasty and beautiful at the same time.

And the water lilies are folded beautifully like this before put as offers in the temples.

A few Cambodian artists:
Sopheap Pich, rattan sculptures, added to my favorites

Anders Jirås, friend and phographer living in Phnom Penh, revamped his web site. Traditional Khmer dance and much more:
"Cambodian artists speak out" interviews with artists dealing with the Khmer Rouge and genocide era in their art (artist portraits by Anders), the publication can be downloaded (PDF)

Heng Sinith, photography
Linda Saphan, art of herself and others, cultural projects
Article about contemporary Cambodian art life

Mosaic preparations in progress, will show tomorrow. Hope you'll have a great work week!