I’ve been working on a new class that will cover two approaches to working with fiberglass mesh for mosaic. I’ll be teaching this in Detroit in September for the Society of American Mosaic Artists summit. The advantages of working on mesh are that you can fabricate a design over the top of a template, following lines and color fields that are visible from beneath the mesh. The mosaic can be cut into manageable sections, then reassembled on site. It allows the artist to work direct method (not reverse; you get to see the mosaic develop from a surface view), to easily make changes if necessary, and to work on a horizontal surface indoors even if the mosaic is destined for a vertical and/or exterior location.
In the above example, I fabricated this 10′ x 6′ marble floor inlay in my Washington State studio, crated it in sections, and shipped it to the Prudential Center in Boston, on the opposite U.S. coast, and it was easily installed by a contractor there.
The second method is one that I use for community projects and is designed to make it possible for participants with zero mosaic skills to participate in a mosaic project with no glue needed, and almost no waste. The work of prepping and finishing the mosaic is done by the facilitator, but participants get to have their hands in the process. I’ll be addressing a few other aspects of mosaic installation, including pre-grouting and using moisture-barrier cloth.
Here’s a link to more information about the workshop and details about the conference in Detroit: https://americanmosaics.org/conference/education/jennifer-kuhns/
