Mosaics

Sometimes one word is enough to trigger a whole new design source to explore.  In 2016 while we were processing the teacher applications to teach at the 2017 Siyadala National Quilt Festival, I was bowled over by a workshop submitted by well known South African quilt artist, Paul Schutte.  The concept of the workshop was inspired by the mosaics of Gaudi.  It immediately took me back to the time my son Jopie studied architecture when the two of us loved visiting book stores to find interesting books on the old masters of architecture.   He particularly wanted to show me images of some of the iconic buildings of Antonio Gaudi such as Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Casa Batlo to name a few.  I loved paging through these books filled with images of the legacy of this very imaginative and creative soul.  My daughter Elizabeth was fortunate enough to visit Barcelona and she brought me a beautiful mosaic thimble as gift, the detail is very small (and my eyesight bad) but it looks like a mosaic lizard, I presume it was inspired by the mosaic lizard from Park Guell!

Thimble inspired by Gaudi  from Barcelona

Every year, our Transitions group focus on the work on one of the masters of yesteryear to broaden our horizons.  As Gaudi presented himself to me in three different guises already, I decided that this was the year of Antonio Gaudi, an architect by profession, but well remembered for the mosaic work he used to decorate buildings and public spaces.  Mosaics can be so easily interpreted in fibre art and has the potential to open up a whole new design spectrum.

I also came to the realization that lately, my work has become smaller in scale - often with minute pieces of fabric.  Trying my hand at textile mosaics would be a wonderful new challenge to explore.  I also realized that I started using mosaics in my work since 2013, albeit in a more rigid shape (geometric squares and triangles) such as the backdrops for the Glow and Willa quilts as explained in previous posts.

As with this kind of work, I find it easier to start off with designing on paper.  It gives one an idea of scale and proportion and how intricate a design will/can be and as bonus, it creates a pattern to work from.  The primary focus of my first effort would be to create organic spaces within a specific design which could be filled with small fragments of fabric to create a mosaic and secondary to fill the surrounding areas (background) with a pleasing fractured layout in a contrasting monotone colour palette.  The design possibilities are endless, from abstract to pictorial whatever takes your fancy.

I started with drawing a few curved lines from a random point on the paper, often using the eraser.  The first tentative lines were all erased and I restarted various times - one needs patience to create original work!  Finally I got into the rhythm and the design took me where it needed to go...!  I wanted to incorporate circles in the design somewhere and used my round quilters perspex templates...  But somehow, I lost my mojo!  I stopped using the perspex circles and reverted back to drawing free hand and from thereon it flowed as I stopped thinking about the process with the pencil in hand finding its own path.  I found that the perfect rounds of the perspex templates inhibited my creative process, all I could focus on were the red perspex circles on my paper - it was most interesting to observe that!   After I was satisfied with the main elements of the design, I started filling in the background which was almost more exciting than drawing the abstract lines.... I extended the spaces around the circles of the main design in a circular motion.  The colour palette in the extended circles would be the same as the rest of the background - this would create interest and balance with the bigger size of the curved motifs, but would not detract from the focal design. I was so taken with my design, I immediately started working on a second while I was sitting outside on the stoep, sipping a glass of red wine while Willem lit a fire for our Friday evening "braai"!   For me this was a big breakthrough as it was my first new work since the 2017 Siyadala Festival!  I felt the excitement of being creative building and could not wait to start the project.  I just knew it would work and I could not wait to get into the studio....

These two pictures were designed in two layers and had to be cut in the same way.  The fabric used for the background of the main elements, would form the grout with the fractured bits fused on top forming the mosaic pattern.    Cutting these two pieces took more than a week as some of the pieces were really just fragments and I had to use tweezers to position every little bit.  Every piece was fused onto the backgrounds and raw edge applique doubled up as construction and quilting technique.  The edges of certain sections were sealed with couched cords to add definition and texture.  I used the same fabrics for both pictures and both were blocked on stretched artist canvas to finish it off.

Mosaic #1 - 2018

Mosaic #2 - 2018

I loved creating these two pictures and cannot wait to explore further.  I used a variety of cotton, linen and silk fabrics.   Both pictures are 30.5cm x 40.5cm.  For me, blocking small pieces of textile art on artist canvas adds an interesting and perfect finish as it hangs well, it can also be displayed on an easel.