Ship Mosaic Process

The ship mosaic is going well. Abelisto & I were out of town for a few days so I did not get much done on it since my last post. And now the mosaic workshop will be taking up two evenings each week for the next three weeks (that's okay since teaching workshops gives me money for mosaic supplies...).

We were in the Twin Cities for three days over the weekend. Abelisto was taking a beekeeper's class at the UofM. I explored Saint Paul, mostly the art supply establishments (bought lots of glass, some beads, and some great paper for making books - attended a workshop last week on making hand-bound books, more later).

Here's the most recent images of the mosaic:

The color is a bit off in these photos, but the design and andamento (the flow of the tessarae - tiles - in the mosaic) shows up fairly well. I particularly like the way the ship's wake is working out. The rest of the sea will be rolling, undulating waves, but I wanted an exaggerated image of the ship cutting through the waves - therefore, the  spirals of water.

You can see the pastry bag I'm using to apply the thinset. So far it's been an excellent method to use thinset. By using the pastry bag I'm not trying to dab a tiny bit of thinset to each tile with a stick, I don't have to keep opening and closing a bucket of pre-mixed thinset, or to keep mixing small amounts of it, trying to use it up before it dries out. The pastry bag makes controlling the amount of thinset used a simple matter, and the same thinset has been in the bag since the beginning of this project last week - without drying out. All I do when I am done for the day is squeeze out the last 1/4 to 1/2 inch of thinset from the tip of the bag, pressing the plastic tip very flat. It seals out the air enough to keep the thinset fresh and ready to go.