My Blog

2 strand guilloche border pattern

05/13/2012 21:44:00

This is an article on how to set out the classic 2 strand guilloche pattern.

The method set out allows you to work out a pattern correctly regardless of the size of tesserae you use. I am using a measurement of 11mm for each tesserae, it's up to you what size you use.

It may seem complicated at first but this is the full set. After you've doen it a while you can get it down from 15 steps to 3.

Click on the link here to go to the page.

Roman tools?

05/13/2012 09:18:00

Here's another link to a website which has images of stone working tools, the set of hammers looking exactly the same as the hammers we use now. Unfortunately it's in Italian and the Google translation leaves something to be desired so I can't quite figure out whether they are from a Medievil workshop or from an ancient site.

http://www.romanoimpero.com/2012/05/devastazione-roma-marmorari-66.html

Mesh for mosaics

05/13/2012 08:38:00

This quote is taken from an article in an Australian tiling magazine ( http://www.infotile.com.au/pdfFile/advicetopic/48201031834.pdf) and concerns a court case from a few years back. This quote below is the Britsh Standard comcerning how much area on the back of a mosaic glued to mesh should be kept free to allow the adhesive to bond with the tesserae.

At the bottom of the page I have a suggestion on how to ensure your glue doesn't cover all the tiles.

"Code of practice for ceramic tiling and mosaics in specific conditions

These specific conditions include swimming pools and similar situations in which tiles are immersed in fresh and salt

To facilitate ease of handling, mosaics are assembled in sheets, the individual tessera being glued face down to paper

(paper-faced mosaics) or bed side down to synthetic mesh or small tabs.

It should be noted that paper-faced mosaics are preferable since they allow full contact to be achieved with the mortar or adhesive bed. When sheets are assembled by means of a backing mesh, it should be made of water-resistant synthetic fabric such as nylon, not cotton or paper.

For a mosaic which has been assembled with a backing fabric or tabs it is essential that:

a) The fabric or tabs and their adhesive should not occupy more than 25% of the area of each tessera; the critical factor is the contact of the adhesive with the backs of the tesserae;

b) The fabric or tabs and their adhesives should be water-resistant, should not weaken when exposed to moisture and should be compatible with the mortar or adhesive bed."

If you use mesh then a good way to ensure you don't have too much glue is to place the mesh on a sheet of plastic. Then brush the glue on the back of the mesh. Turn the mesh over and place on the back of the mosaic.

There will be a full article on this soon.

PS I don't advocate using PVA for anything but decorative mosaics, i.e. made onto MDF and will then just be displayed indoors in dry areas.

Thanks to Diamond Pool Finishers ( http://www.diamondpoolfinishers.co.uk ) for posting this on the Tilers Forum http://www.tilersforums.co.uk

Geometric patterns

05/12/2012 09:12:00

Patterns;
When you work out a pattern from a geometric mosaic I feel that there are 4 stages you need to go through.

1. Do your drawing in whatever way works. Work out the pattern from the outside, in or from the inside out it doesn't matter. Apply every conceivable line and shape to find out what was used, just use whatever method to understand the pattern. You work from the middle of a large sheet of blank paper starting with a dot in the centre. Don't set borders yet. See what size the mosaic fits to which is determined by the size of tesserae that you use.

2. Re do the drawing but this time work it in a more effective order. Understand the dimensions you're working with, i.e. width of bands etc and mark out your total size first. Set the lines from the inside out and draw the shapes starting with the largest first and working from the outside in.

3. Scale up this drawing on your baseboard and set the mosaic on it.

4. Then looking at how you did the finished mosaic understand the minimum number of lines/shapes that are needed when drawing out on your baseboard. Use marking points instead of full shapes. make a note of this for future reference alongside step 2.

By going through these 4 stages you end up using just the markings you need. What you don't want to do is to be repeating stage 2 every time. And if you just use stage 1 then you'll be there a long time!

Modern mosaic material

05/11/2012 08:52:00

This is another posting on Etsy for some material I have which is suitable for modern mosaic work. These are rods of slate, a shade of green/yellow. 200 - 300mm lengths and 10mm - 20mm width. 4mm - 6mm thick so they can be cut with tile nippers.

£6.00 per 500gm + postage. Contact me if you'd like a single rod sample.

http://etsy.me/lHwVsk

Geometric Mosaic Manual

05/05/2012 12:17:00

Volume II, Roman Geometric patterns is now totally finished!

It's the 4th rewrite and my apologies to everyone that's been waiting for this.
I pick up the bound copies on Tuesday and they go in the mail then. For those of you who've ordered the manuals then there will be a PDF copy of Volume II in your inbox for you to look at until the hard copy arrives.

Volume II now consists of a 30page A4 s...ize manual explaining the principles and methods I use to work out a pattern and also a A5 size booklet with a step by step guide to 12 patterns.

Going through these will reinforce the method I use. There are also 2 full size patterns on tracing paper included.

The full details are on this page here

Article - Setting out border patterns 1

04/13/2012 15:17:00

New article which takes one of the border patterns and shows you some basic workings out to determine length and width. Click here

Stone article

04/13/2012 14:12:00

The first of the Stone articles. This is a rough guide to classifying the types of stone we use for mosaics according to it's hardness/workability.

Click here

Advanced course mosaics

04/10/2012 20:59:00

2 geometric mosaics from the Advanced course in April 2012.

I don't expect the students to be able to finish the pieces on the course. They take the tesserae home to finish, the main thing is that they understand how the pattern is set. The other mosaics were a figural/portrait mosaics and an animal/bird one.

A copy (incomplete) of a mosaic from The house of Stone Carpets, Ravenna, Italy. Compare this pattern with the one below.

Copy (incomplete) from a 6th century AD mosaic found in Jordan. This pattern is essentially the same as the one above except it has the top and bottom of the loops turned over to form 2 loops and these loops aren't laced in with others.

This section was from a border panel.

Advanced Course notes

04/10/2012 07:27:00

Just finished the Advanced course so I'll be posting up some photos and notes from it later on today. It was a very interesting few days and marking out the geometric mosaics was fascinating, large patterns but both were seen to be variations on the same layout.