Spring!!19" x 16"
Mexican Smalti, Vitreous Tile and Stained Glass
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Last spring, a lot of happenings came together to result in my newest mosaic wall art piece.
First I started researching smalti. Smalti is a glass material with strong traditional roots in mosaic, and is also traditionally laid in such a way as to eliminate the need for grout. Grout can be a wonderful design element (see my self portrait- upper right corner or here) but sometimes I've not wanted to add to or change the pieced look.
Soooo... I bought a hammer & hardie plus a (large :) variety of smalti and stone.
I initially purchased this cool slab of smalti ==> , a 'B-cut', with the thought of using it as water. But a bit of serendipity happened when I realized it was perfect for the shirt on a boy my daughter photographed in February.
I was loving the boy's personal celebration of a beautiful spring day (after a very cold winter). I was thinking, as adults, we sometimes loose the appreciation of the day like he had.
Plan in hand, what ensued was a lot of fun with the hammer and hardie as I sheered that glass slab into shirt pieces.
Mexican smalti was used to piece the shirt sleeves as well as the rest of the boy.
To emphasize the boy and the shadows, I chose to have a large surround of grassy lawn. And to further add emphasis, I chose nipped up vitreous tile for the grass and I laid the tile very flat. Graduated piece sizes, and shades, helped to add depth to the lawn.
While I was in the midst of piecing, a call for artists arrived for the Member's Show at the Morean Arts Center in St Petersburg, FL. The theme is "The Way Forward: Roads Less Traveled". I felt this piece fit the theme well, so submitted it for the show. And I guess the curators also felt the piece fit the theme as they have used it in promotional literature for the show!
First I started researching smalti. Smalti is a glass material with strong traditional roots in mosaic, and is also traditionally laid in such a way as to eliminate the need for grout. Grout can be a wonderful design element (see my self portrait- upper right corner or here) but sometimes I've not wanted to add to or change the pieced look.
Soooo... I bought a hammer & hardie plus a (large :) variety of smalti and stone.
I initially purchased this cool slab of smalti ==> , a 'B-cut', with the thought of using it as water. But a bit of serendipity happened when I realized it was perfect for the shirt on a boy my daughter photographed in February.
I was loving the boy's personal celebration of a beautiful spring day (after a very cold winter). I was thinking, as adults, we sometimes loose the appreciation of the day like he had.
Plan in hand, what ensued was a lot of fun with the hammer and hardie as I sheered that glass slab into shirt pieces.
Mexican smalti was used to piece the shirt sleeves as well as the rest of the boy.
To emphasize the boy and the shadows, I chose to have a large surround of grassy lawn. And to further add emphasis, I chose nipped up vitreous tile for the grass and I laid the tile very flat. Graduated piece sizes, and shades, helped to add depth to the lawn.
While I was in the midst of piecing, a call for artists arrived for the Member's Show at the Morean Arts Center in St Petersburg, FL. The theme is "The Way Forward: Roads Less Traveled". I felt this piece fit the theme well, so submitted it for the show. And I guess the curators also felt the piece fit the theme as they have used it in promotional literature for the show!
The show runs through September 26, 2010 at 719 Central Avenue, St Petersburg, FL
This mosaic is not available.
I create original design silver jewelry too!!
https://www.mosaicsmith.com/collections/all or
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MosaicSmith
3 comments:
Fabulous piece!
Thank you Kim!
Double thank you actually- without the tile and smalti from your wonderful shops, he would not have been possible.
It's lovely to read the story behind this emotive and endearing mosaic. What an honour to be featured on the brochure! Good luck.
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