Mosaics - my main hobby

[Wyvern]

I never thought I was very creative, until a friend dragged me to a class on how to mosaic. And I fell in love with it.

Some of the work I have done so far:


I linked the imgur album instead of uploading so many images. Hoping to start selling some of the pieces soon as well. I am planning on joining craft markets next year.

 

[Andre]

Beautiful.

Here are two of HRH's creations:

 

[skola]

wow!! some stunning pieces..

 

[Wyvern]

Oh those are nice, I like the second one, i havent tried textures yet, I like to use broken up wine bottles tho - that is the green I use (besides its another reason to drink that extra bottle of wine every now and then )
My current project is a test, I am busy covering a balloon in grout - but the grout keeps cracking so I will have to get some cement and cover it in that, for a something different to mosaic.

 

[huffnpuff]

When she gets the time, my my wife loves doing mosiacs. Here' some of my favorite works of hers:
Audrey Hepburn:


Self Portrait of us (One of her earliest endeavors into portraits, but still my favorite. Was amazing to see transform from a board and a pile of porcelain tiles into this):

 

[Wyvern]

I have to say I am impressed with that! I am terrible at that kind of mosaics. I wish I could do faces!

 

[Andre]

When she gets the time, my my wife loves doing mosiacs. Here' some of my favorite works of hers:
Audrey Hepburn:
View attachment 37618

Self Portrait of us (One of her earliest endeavors into portraits, but still my favorite. Was amazing to see transform from a board and a pile of porcelain tiles into this):
View attachment 37619

Wow, that is beyond stunning. She's got talent.

 

[Alex]

Wow, so many talented people, awesome stuff.

 

[hands]

lovely works of art,thanks for sharing your work

 

[BumbleBee]

Wow, we have so much talent here, awesome stuff @Wyvern @Andre and @huffnpuff

 

[shabbar]

@huffnpuff thats amazing

 

[blujeenz]

Wow, folks got skillz here.

When she gets the time, my my wife loves doing mosiacs

I was wondering how she went about doing that awesome selfie, is it like a 5 level greyscale bitmapped actual photo or more of a Chinese squint to remove details on the fly kind of thing?

 

[Wyvern]

Wow, folks got skillz here.



I was wondering how she went about doing that awesome selfie, is it like a 5 level greyscale bitmapped actual photo or more of a Chinese squint to remove details on the fly kind of thing?

Hehe, I would think its either a photo converted to greyscale and then printed - She is a lot better at shading than I am - but my shading skills are just low since the tiles are expensive! At least I found an awesome shop that sells them at a better price wholesale (and they dont mind that I just buy a few sheets per colour)

 

[Andre]

Hehe, I would think its either a photo converted to greyscale and then printed - She is a lot better at shading than I am - but my shading skills are just low since the tiles are expensive! At least I found an awesome shop that sells them at a better price wholesale (and they dont mind that I just buy a few sheets per colour)

HRH would like to know the details of that awesome shop please.

 

[Wyvern]

HRH would like to know the details of that awesome shop please.

Lemme get it for you and send it via pm

 

[huffnpuff]

I am terrible at that kind of mosaics. I wish I could do faces!

Don't put yourself down (...that's what friends are for ). You've got the skill. It's just a matter of believing in yourself and taking that first step. My wife was mostly doing decorative mosiac's before she stumbled onto Ed Chapman's works. This totally inspired her to try something like portraits. The selfie was my wife's first attempt. It took a lot of courage to convince herself to try it and technology helped level the playing field in this regard...

I was wondering how she went about doing that awesome selfie, is it like a 5 level greyscale bitmapped actual photo?

For the selfie, first we cleaned up the image and played with brightness/contrast, applied a posterization filter which got the right effect, then greyscale. The original image is still used to help with flowlines. Tiles used were unglazed Winkelmann porcelain, which are the same colour throughout, making it nice for detail work, and they don't shatter or crumble as easy as riversand or glass tiles. The normal size of the tile is what the border is, everything else was handcut with nippers. The detail was patiently done first in stages, then expanded outwards.

As you mentioned, in SA, tiles are not cheap or in abundance. Luckily, we live quite close to a mosaic manufacturer that sells to the public, http://www.mosaicarts.co.za/ . Being mainly a factory, their website isn't an online shop and just scratches the surface to what they have, but they have the biggest variety I've seen in one place and one can get tiles in larger sheets, which helps a bit. Sadly, the falling Rand is making things easier for mosaic hobbyists.

Regarding Ed Chapman, here's some of his amazing works from his site (http://www.edchapman-mosaics.co.uk/bespoke-art-gallery.html):

Jimi Hendrix done in guitar picks:

John Lennon and Jim Morrison in stone tile:

 

[blujeenz]

@huffnpuff thanks for the feedback, posterization filter, wincklemans etc bookmarked.

 

[huffnpuff]

I think the most cost effective way to get unglazed, non-porous porcelain tiles in various shades, especially if you're not going to used them as perfect squares, is to simply make them yourself. The clay and additives ( silica, oxides for colour, etc ), are more readily available and one can have them fired at a local potters. Just a thought.

 

[huffnpuff]

One thing I'm always on the lookout for is quality nippers. It seems the quality is dropping yearly and with the latest chinese crap, they don't even bother sharpening or aligning the tungsten carbide tips anymore. One can only maintain and sharpen a good set for so long before they need to be replaced. Anything better in the Cape?

I'd love to get some compound tile nippers, but they're hen's teeth in SA