Book Review – Mosaic Art and Style

As a crafter and artist, I love looking at books with collections of other people’s work – and this book is outstanding. There isn’t even a hint of how to do mosaics here, so don’t expect to find project instructions, but if you’re like me, you’ll love the massive outpouring of creativity. The photos are (mostly) high quality and they’re grouped well, so thumbing through the books has a smooth feel. 

There were absolutely too many favorites for me to add all the photos to my blogpost, but I’ve selected a few (provided courtesy of Quarry Books, who published this book). Mosaic Art and Style is packed with some absolutely stunning ideas for your home, some really crazy ideas that must have taken years to complete, and a few whimsical ideas that made me smile and that I would never undertake myself (like a mosaicked bicycle). Some artists have been profiled, and their profiles are like gems, little peeks into what makes them tick. Personally, I love that kind of stuff. (I read all the artist profiles on Etsy, too… maybe it’s just me.)

This book is truly inspirational: My overall gut response to this book is, “why aren’t I doing this??? A mosaicked (fill in the blank) would look great in my house/yard/studio, too!” As I noted, this isn’t a project book, but once you know the basics of mosaic technique, you’ll be able to suck in inspiration and motivation in equal parts.

The full name of this book is mosaic art and style DESIGNS FOR LIVING ENVIRONMENTS by JoAnn Locktov. If you go to Amazon.com and copy-paste in the entire name as I’ve typed it here, Amazon’s search will take you right to it.

The Guitar Man

My son Nadav (aka son #3) came for a short visit and suggested that we do some stained glass together.  This is only his second stained glass project, so it's a good example of what a dedicated beginner can do (with some help). 

Step 1: Nadav found a photo snapped of him playing guitar in a concert from several years ago and I created a simple stained glass pattern from it.  I photocopied the pattern so that we'd have a master to work with after we cut up the original. Here you see the original photo and the new pattern.

Steps 2 and 3:

(Step 2 -Left) Nadav selected the glass. To save time, I cut out the pieces.  Nadav ground the edges, washed, and foiled everything.
(Step 3 - Right)  Once we had all the pieces ready, we point-soldered the pieces together to hold them in place before full-soldering front and back.

Step 4: One of the challenges was making guitar man stand up.  Nadav designed some big amps.  We originally thought to add one to each side at an angle.  As we worked, we moved the pieces and created one double-sided amp, which we soldered very firmly at several points to his leg.  The hearts are solid brass pieces that we coated with a layer of solder.

Step 5: After all the pieces were soldered together, Nadav used acid to blacken the guitar and strap, plus his hairline.  All other seams were left silver.  After the acid patina was applied, the Nadav scrubbed everything down yet again with dishwashing liquid and and old toothbrush. 

The finished piece next to the original photograph:

And the finished piece held by the original guy!