Have you ever been tempted to give a try at mosaic art but felt overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of the task ?
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| Martelina and tagliolo, traditional tools of mosaic artists for 2500 years. |
I created in 2015 a new and easy to implement mosaic technique. I named it “Opus Pixellatum”.
Opus
Pixellatum is the perfect introductory technique to mosaic art. Because at
the beginning this technique only uses square tiles of the same dimensions,
disposed in horizontal and vertical lines, no cuts are needed. You
simply have to glue your tiles on a model, fill the gap between them,
and voila, your mosaic is complete.
How does this work ?
You send me a picture of what you would like to represent in mosaic.
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| Cheetah cub from Serengeti Desert. |
From your picture, I create a model. This model looks like a spreadsheet.
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| The laminated model on the bench |
It is composed of many little squares with numbers in it.
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| The lower left corner of the model of Cheetah cub mosaic . |
Each number corresponds to a specific tile color. I also provide the quantities you’ll need of each tile.
| Cheetah Cub Mosaic tiles | |
| Tile reference | Number of tiles |
| 1 | 100 |
| 26 | 250 |
| 27 | 300 |
| 29 | 100 |
| 32 | 100 |
| 42 | 1400 |
| 43 | 200 |
| 44 | 860 |
| 46 | 454 |
| 47 | 200 |
| 49 | 300 |
| 62 | 1206 |
| 65 | 100 |
| 66 | 1089 |
| 69 | 450 |
| 95 | 100 |
| 96 | 150 |
| 104 | 250 |
| 108 | 100 |
| 109 | 286 |
The references are those of the 8 mm glass tiles from Mosaicartsupply in Atlanta, GA.
You can order the tiles from Mosaic Art Supply or I can order them for you.
If you wish to use different tiles, I can design a model based on your own colors.
Once you have your model and tiles, you can go to work.
Lay your model on your working bench and start gluing your tiles on it. You can use any water soluble glue such as Elmer’s glue.
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| Cheetah cub mosaic on its first day. |
On this particular Cheetah mosaic, I was working in reverse method, gluing my tiles upside down on top of my laminated model.
To work in direct method, you will set a piece of fiberglass mesh on top of your laminated model and glue your tiles on this mesh.
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| Amy's eyes mosaic portrait. half the tiles laid on mesh. |
After a while, your mosaic is ready to mount on a rigid frame.
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| Cheetah cub mosaic, all tiles laid. |
If you worked reverse method as I did this Cheetah mosaic, you will glue the support on top of it.
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| Cheetah cub mosaic with its support glued on its top. |
If you worked direct method, you will simply lift the mesh from the laminated model and glue it on top of its support.
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| Daniel's eyes mosaic has just been glued onto its support. |
Once your mosaic is set on its support – a few hours in direct method, 48 hours in reverse method – you can grout and finish it.
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| The Author beside the completed Cheetah cub mosaic portrait. |
Cheetah Cub above was realized in colors, whereas Amy's eyes below were built in Grayscale.
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| The model and the mosaic ! |
From a same model, many, many variations are possible. You can change the palette of colors from Gray scale to Sepia, Blue scale, or inverted Gray scale. You can also chose to realize parts of the mosaic in regular Opus Tessellatum – the classical Roman or Greek Technique.
Opus Pixellatum is an amazingly versatile technique. It starts as “mosaic by number” and later allows you an infinity of variations. The great beauty of this technique is that it allows a total beginner to realize a very beautiful first piece !
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| Students of the April 2017 Mosaic Fiesta Seminar in Atlanta, GA. |
In a next article I’ll share with you some amazing mosaics made by some of my students and clients.
If you would like to create your own mosaic based on your own picture or design, please contact me at (334) 798 1639 or frederic.lecut@mosaicblues.com
I am a French Mosaic Artist.
in 1992, Alabama became my home
My Art is about inspiring people.
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