The first video about the creation of my Afghan blue mosque mosaic.
Video transcript for deaf or hard of hearing:
Hi Mosaic Fans! Today I’m going to introduce to you my art book idea. I’ve started a few small steps in the last couple years. The concept behind this book is based on the Owen Jones book The Grammar of Ornament, first published in 1856. I’ll get into details about the book in a moment.
For the first step, I wanted to create a mosaic based on the cover of the book. It has been in constant publication for over 150 years, so there have been several covers and I went with this gorgeous gold leaf on leather version.
When I had some spare time between commissions I made this mosaic based on Grammar of Ornament’s amazing art deco book cover design. I used Van Gogh glass and the background is all super black tinted grout to give it a matte feel like the leather book cover and let the bronze and silver glass shine.
Now I want to discuss the interior of The Grammar of Ornament. Jones wanted to create a book that discussed architectural ideas and motifs from around the world. The result was a book that even modern day designers have on their bookshelves over a century later.
My original idea was to follow the same format and recreate all the designs from the book into mosaic. I eventually realized this wasn’t going to work. A lot of the designs just don’t translate well into the mosaic medium, and there is also the cultural shift, such as the problematic use of the phrase “savage tribes”.
Instead I’m choosing art forms around the world that I would love to translate into mosaic. I started by making a list of countries in the world organized by geographic area. I just pick a country, do some research, and find some traditional art, design, or architecture that I want to translate into the mosaic medium.
My first geographic find is located in Afghanistan, in the city now known as Mazari Sharif. It is the architectural marvel, the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, also known as the Blue Mosque. The blue mosque was completed in 1481. Fortunately the mosque has been able to survive all the turmoil of Afghanistan, even though the city of Mazari Sharif has been occupied at times by both Russia and the Taliban.
The mosque is considered an oasis of peace, not only because of its beautiful architecture and tile work, but because the mosque is surrounded by thousands of white doves.
Since I’m focusing on patterning, I’ve decided that my mosaic design will be inspired by one of the archways. Here is the loose idea of my design I created in Pixelmator Pro. I will follow the structure, but I just put enough tile design in to make sure I like the layout and will make more choices as I work.
Next I collected images of tile designs used at the Blue Mosque so that while I’m creating the mosaic, I’ll have ideas to choose which ones will look best. Another factor in choosing patterns is which ones will be able to translate well in the mosaic medium. Each of the tiles will be only about 3” in my mosaic, so some patterns like this one may be too intricate to really look good.
I will start by using the t-square to lay out a grid on my 4’ square plywood substrate. I will be using turquoise glass to create the frame, or solid structure of the mosaic, so I’m going to start by cutting those pieces.
I’m using the grid cutter to cut all the pieces precisely. Each turquoise rectangle is 1-1/2” x 1”. I will need over 300, so I’m turning myself into a rectangle making factory. I’m using the t-square again to line up the pieces as straight as possible. I’m coating the entire back of each piece to seal it so the grout doesn’t seep underneath.
I made a mistake here and placed the horizontal row on top of the vertical rows when it should go one grid space lower in between the vertical rows. I’m spraying the row with water to loosen up the glass and I’ll move them down into their correct spot. Here I just need to sketch the diagonal lines and create the top of the archway.
Now I have the structure complete for the mosaic. I can’t wait to show you more as the mosaic progresses! Thank you for watching!