I first went to teach at The Chicago Mosaic School at the beginning of 2006 as part of my workshops offered at the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) annual conference programme.
The school had not been running so long but it already had a fantastic buzz about it. Set up by mosaic artist Karen Ami in 2005, the school has always been dedicated to growing the knowledge and skills of mosaic artists and in particular promoting excellence and appreciation of artistic expression through mosaic.
Every time I teach at The Chicago Mosaic School, I think to myself “I must come here more often”.
The school has a great reputation internationally thanks in no small part to Karen’s guidance and the dedicated directorship of Matteo Randi. Consequently the school attracts true Mosaic Masters including Verdiano Marzi, Toyoharu Kii and Dugald Macinnes to name a few, and it is always a great inspiration to go there.
Chicago in the snow
My latest visit to teach at the school was the first time I have been to Chicago in the winter. Luckily I didn’t have to face the sometimes -10 degrees centigrade and in fact it was rather beautiful to see Chicago in the snow.
A new building and a pleasant surprise
Since I first taught there the school has moved premises three times as it has grown, each move bringing brighter and more spacious accommodation (which, like all mosaic studios will soon fill). I was at the school to teach an advanced, intensive, week long class in working on larger scale mosaics using the paper face technique, which has become my speciality. So here I must confess that my previous visits to Chicago have… enhanced, my appreciation of American beer. So what a lovely surprise to find that not only is the new school right next to a great little craft brewery, but that my ‘class’ project was to make a mosaic sign for them.
Essential research undertaken for inspiration…
The Begyle Brewing Company where most helpful in providing samples of their crafted beers so that all the students could really appreciate what we were making the sign for.So armed with that essential research we embarked on making a sign that would show equal dedication to our craft.
The class of students, all mosaic makers already, had to work hard to both create the mosaic sign and complete their own mosaic piece in the time but it all turned out great in the end and the brewery now have a beautifully crafted sign for their front entrance…
hmmm… I wonder if they need a sign for the back door too 🙂
I would like to take your workshop at Chicago but unfortunately can’t make your class in June 2016. Are you teaching elsewhere this year?
Love your work!
Hello Elena,
Thank you for your message.
Of course choosing the right method for creating your mosaic is the most important first step and different situations will demand different methods of production.
This course will focus just on one of those methods, the indirect paper-faced reverse method.
Generally speaking this method is the most versatile and simple of the various different indirect techniques. You can certainly see the progress of the mosaics construction at every stage and the technique can be used for working with vitreous glass, enamel glass Smalti, unglazed ceramic/porcelain and marble tesserae. It is not suitable for materials of widely different thicknesses such as mixed stone and pebbles nor for materials which are coloured just on the front such as glazed ceramics. The technique also results in a flat finished mosaic face.
Of course in order to determine which process is the best choice for your particular mosaic it is necessary to know each technique. Following this course will equip you with all the knowledge necessary to undertake a larger mosaic in the paper-faced reverse method, it’s advantages and limitations and the the full application of the method, which is still the most common method used to create large scale mosaics for floors and walls and the technique preferred by many of the largest professional mosaic studios in the world.