Peacock Butterfly

Whenever we need inspiration for good colour combinations, we can do no better than to turn to Nature and there are few more beautiful sights than the colours of butterflies. As its name suggests, the peacock is the most multi-coloured of all butterflies and it was therefore a challenge to try to create it in mosaic. Even though my butterfly is many times bigger than an actual one, it was still very difficult to get the smalti intricate enough. If you try to paint a peacock butterfly from life, you will notice that colours seem to be different each time you look at them (it is remarkable to think that is powder that makes up this wonderful effect) - purples transform to blues and then to greens, and, of course the same is true when you try to mosaic one. Although I am still unhappy with the result, I believe that unless we strive to achieve perfection we will never even approch it.
 
                         Designer and maker: Martin Creek
                      Size: 47 * 37 cm (18 1/2 * 14 1/2 in)
                           Method: Direct
                  Medium: Vitreous glass, smalti and broken mirror

Indian Elephant

Sylvia was already a very accomplished mosaic artist before she came on one of my courses. I like to fire my own tiles and incorporate them into my mosaics. This idea appealed to Sylvia very much so she fired the intricate pattern of the elephant's blanket onto a pre-shaped tile. The colours in interior designer jane Churchill's fabric 'Indian summer' inspired  those of this piece.

                    Designer and maker: Martin Creek
                      Size: 50.5 cm (20 in)
                           Method: Direct
                  Medium: Ceramic Cinca with a Raku tile

Dancing Octopus
  'I marvel at thee, Octopus, if I were thou, I'd call me us' OGDEN NASH

This short poem by Ogden Nash was the inspiration for this early work. I think that this piece shows that prior to being a mosaic artist, I was a puppet animator and even now, character and movement play a very important part in my work. In this piece I wanted to try to capture the way that the octopus seems to dance elegantly through the water. The design is also tipping a knowing wink to the  Minoans and Mycaenaens, who loved to show similarly jolly octopuses on their ceramic pots.

                   Designer and maker: Martin Creek
                      Size: 46 * 58 cm (35 1/2 * 16 in)
                           Method: Direct
                  Medium: Vitreous glass

Masticating Goat

Sylvia's goat is inspired by a Roman mosaic which she saw in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. The long ringlets of hair were especially appealing to Sylvia's sense of mosaic design. The few fronds of grass serve to echo the hairy quality of the goat's fleece.

                  Designer and maker: Sylvia Bell
                      Size: 61 * 51 cm (24 * 20 in)
                           Method: Direct
                  Medium: Ceramic Cinca and Vitreous glass

TRIVET

   Liz Sims is a young mosaic artist with a strong sense for simple pattern and colour.
      Geometric designs such as this lend themselves very well to mosaic. The strong contrast between black and white set off by the mid-tone brown make this a very striking mosaic. Although simple, it is very important to be as neat as possible when making this sort of geometric mosaic. For this reason this trivet is an ideal practice piece.

Our trivet had a recessed top means to hold a tile 5 mm (1/4 in) thick. This means that the depth is 2 mm (1/16 in) deeper than the 3 mm (1/8 in) thick Cinca ceramic tiles. To overcome this we cut out a piece of 2 mm (1/16 in) thick skim ply the size of the top and glued it in position with fast setting two-part epoxy resin to make up the difference. The finished mosaic will now be flush with the edges of the trivet.

           Designer and maker: Liz Sims
                      Size: 15 cm (6 in) square

           YOU WILL NEED

          Metal trivet                 Craft Knife

     2 mm (1/6 in) thick skim          Safety spectacles
       ply measuring 15 cm (6
        in square)                       Face mask

     Two-part, fast-setting             Rubber gloves
      epoxy resin
                                        450 g(1 1b) of powdered grout
     Sheet of A4 carbon paper
       
       Template                         Bowl of water
      
       Sharp pencil                     Mixing board

       Tracing paper                     Trowel

     Cinca ceramic tiles as            Plastic grout spreader
      shown left
                                       Cleaning cloth
     Mosaic nippers

     125 ml (4 ft oz) wood             Liquid floor cleaner
    adhesive in dispenser              Abrasive cleaning pad

1 Transfer the design onto the skin ply. Cut a brown tile into quarters and glue one of the four tesserae in the centre of the design on the skim ply. Cut up some black tiles into square tesserae and mosaic the square border around the centre.
Try to keep the tesserae the same size, as this will make the finished mosaic look neater. Allow small gaps of about 1 mm (1/16 in) between the tesserae; these will be filled when the mosaic is grouted and make the whole mosaic stronger.

2 Fill in the area between the brown and black tesserae with white ones. Cotinue to work outwards by mosaicing the next brown border, filling in the triangular corner gaps with white tesserae nibbled diagonally in half to form small triangles. The nibbling process may take a number of attempts before you get neat triangles. Don't worry this is perfect normal.

3 Continue working outwards, revolving the trivet as you work. Mosaic each border in turn. Try to achieve straight lines as you work. Although this design is simple, the lines need to be neat and straight.

4 Finally, fill in the four remaining triangles with white tesserae. Wait for three hours for the glue to dry, then grout and clean in the normal way. Allow to dry for at least two days before cleaning off the surface scum with the liquid floor cleaner and abrasive pad.