Work in Process – The Making of a Mosaic

By definition, Mosaic is “the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral” (Wikipedia).

These small colored pieces are named Tesserae.

Although lots of mosaics are made today from broken glass and china, traditional mosaic was made out of stone or glass.

So the first thing is to make these tesserae from stones, glass or ceramic. These materials are cut in long strips with a wet saw for stones or ceramic, and with a diamond cutter for glass.

These strips are then cut into smaller pieces between a sharp anvil – the Hardie - and a specially shaped hammer – the Martelline. These tools are the same that Roman mosaicists were using 20 centuries ago !

Once the tesserae have been cut, comes the time to put them together to create the mosaic. I usually use the “inverted method”.

The Inverted method :

In this method, tesserae are fastened face down using water-soluble glue onto a support bearing the mirror image of the final design.

When all tesserae have been laid down, I grout them together from behind. Then I glue them onto a sheet of backing board, then flip the whole piece. It then is finally grouted again from its top, and finished according to several other operations to improve its beauty.

This indirect method is more complicated than the direct one : The tesserae usually do not have the same color on one side and the other, the contrast is usually much lower than with the polished stones. And of course, one needs to work on a mirror image. It has however, the great advantage of allowing the use of stones of different thickness. So the execution of a mosaic according to this inverted method requires much more planning and organization than the execution according to the direct method. This is where engineering comes handy… Design, planning, methodology…

There is however a wonderful and very exciting aspect to the Indirect method. One actually does not see the real mosaic until it is flipped ! But when it is flipped… This moment is so loaded with emotion ! It is like when seeing a beautiful woman undress in front of you for the first time ! What are you going to see ? All of a sudden beauty is unveiled ! Hopefully…