Here are some of mine and Nathalie’s (fellow course member) top tips from the West Dean course (there are many more!): 1. Put PVA glue in fridge to make it gloopy enough for sticking on 3d surfaces 2. Tumble gin bottles (or other waste glass!) to make beautiful tumbled glass for mosaicing 3. Use a […] Read more...
Slow progress
Back home and so happy to see the kids and Neil. Lots of hugging especially from Toby who jumped all over me! Very very wonderful. On the mosaic front, frustrating but fruitful. As I lay in bed last night I had the idea of repeating a similar swirly shape in the top right of the […] Read more...
Mosaic School Day Three
End of day three Can you see what I did today? I added a whole line of vermiculatum round two elements of my image. I am following the new rules of thumb – which includes doing one outline at a time (so tomorrow will start the third floaty leg you see!) and if I carry […] Read more...
Making mosaics with children – mosaic in a frame!
Activity Four A technique discovered by Isabella last week as she made a mosaic for her Godmother, Charlotte, to take with her back to Sri Lanka! Start with a blank picture frame. Remove the back so that you can see through the glass. Pour a thick-ish layer of PVA (white craft) glue into the frame […] Read more...
Mosaic making with children – shapes
One of the things about making mosaics is that you need definition to the pattern or edge of a picture you are making. This is normally done using the edge of different colour / texture tiles and the line created by grouting which gives mosaic its distinctive flow or ‘andamento‘ (the technical term!). It is […] Read more...
Materials for making mosaics with children
In this series of posts, I am hoping to show a progression of activities that can help young children have fun and get a grasp of the basics of mosaic making. Before I talk about Activity Two, here is a list of things you can use as ‘tesserae‘ (this is the mosaic term for the […] Read more...
Making mosaics with little children
I am exploring with Isabella (3 1/2) and Toby (2) ways of making mosaics with little children – slightly different to school age and older children as their fine motor skills are still developing and there are materials and tools that they can’t yet have too much access to for obvious reasons! Activity One – […] Read more...
In praise of slow…
Life has really slowed down for me in the last couple of weeks. I’m days off being 40 weeks pregnant (waiting, waiting…..). I have been on maternity leave for just over a month now and it feels fantastic to have used the first 3 weeks of my maternity leave to put to bed household projects […] Read more...
A different way of doing Christmas gifts
Since last posting, the Christmas presents have been bought, wrapped and unwrapped. The decorations have been taken out, hung and put back into the attic. Much food has been eaten and drink drunk. Even the post Christmas 28 day detox (vegan) has been successfully completed (about a stone lost between the two of us). The […] Read more...
Deep thoughts about…carrier bags
I was in a large DIY store last night, shopping for paint samples and varnish etc… We are in the middle of DIY ‘heaven’ at the moment – four rooms plus our hallway being done hence me writing this blog from a room piled high with all the contents of the other rooms! As I […] Read more...