View Mosaics from the Collaborative Project

by | Feb 5, 2021 | events | 0 comments

Mosaic Collaborative Project: A Team Approach to Creating a Diptych

NEMS members teamed up with other mosaic artist to create two original mosaics. Each person started work on a piece and completed one half of the mosaic. Then they swapped mosaics with the other person on their team. Your teammate then finished the mosaic you started. The challenge for the second person is to decide whether to continue and compliment the style of the first mosaicist, or contrast. This is an interesting way to work as it disrupts your usual flow and you have to respond to what is there. You get to keep the mosaic you started.  Many thanks to BAMM (British Association for Modern Mosaic) and to Marian Shapiro for coming up with this idea!

Details:

Size of Substrate: We recommend smaller substrates i.e. 8×8 or 8×10 or 10X10. However, each person on the team can determine the substrate size he/she uses.

  • Creative Concept/Inspiration: Teammates may talk about the creative design, theme and style to determine if they should be similar or different.
  • Substrate & Materials: Artists can use whatever substrate and materials they wish. Substrate materials could include: Wedi, Hydroban, MDF and more.
  • Method – The Artist can choose which ever method he/she wants to use. For example, you can use the direct method with thinset, or an indirect method with Weldbond. You can use multiple methods in each mosaic.
  • Only 2D mosaics will be accepted.
  • Items can be for sale or NFS.

Below are the entries from the project and the names of the participants

Angel Cacciola & Jane Snedeker

   

Jane Snedeker & Angel Cacciola

       

Roberta Tobey Gertz & Linda Biggers

       

Linda Biggers & Roberta Tobey Gertz

       

Richard Youngstrom & Audrey Markoff

       

Audrey Markoff & Richard Youngstrom

     

Beth Klingher & Laurie Frazer

       

Beth Klingher & Jane Chaskey

       

Laurie Frazer, Beth Klingher & Jane Chaskey

       

Linda Cundiff & Betsy Rodman

       

Betsy Rodman & Linda Cundiff

       

Nikki Sullivan & Deb Aldo

  

Deb Aldo & Nikki Sullivan

     

Ann Collins & Susan Altman

       

Elizabeth Martinez & Cynthia Fisher

     

Cynthia Fisher & Elizabeth Martinez

       

Amy Lou Marks & Suzanne Owayda

       

Suzanne Owayda & Amy Lou Marks

       

Su Bailey & Lauren Mehrberg

       

Lauren Mehrberg & Su Bailey

       

Candace Jackman & Suska Matsik

       

 

Suska Matsik &  Candace Jackman

       

 

Crystal D’Abbraccio &  Cecilia Kremer

       

 

Cecilia Kremer & Crystal D’Abbraccio

         

 

Maggie Neilly, Jeanne Bragdon &  Carrie Fradkin

             

 

Jeanne Bragdon, Maggie Neilly &  Carrie Fradkin

       

 

Carrie Fradkin, Maggie Neilly & Jeanne Bragdon

               

 

Cathleen Newsham & Michael Ferreira

   

 

 

Heart Sculpture Workshop

by | Jul 20, 2019 | Uncategorized

By Cassie Doyon
On June 15, I taught an informal workshop on mosaic sculpture to NEMS members participating in the upcoming Field of Hearts-Art in the Orchard Exhibit, organized by Laurie Frazer and taking place in Northampton MA.  The workshop took place in a classroom space near my studio in Lawrence MA.  With my instruction, members worked on individual forms of heart shapes using a hot foam knife, foam adhesive and nails on styrofoam.
Each member created a hole in the bottom of their heart forms to insert and adhere a pvc pipe in order to properly mount their finished hearts to its metal base.  Members fine tuned their styrofoam substrates with rasps, then wrapped them in fiberglass mesh.  After the styrofoam was wrapped and secured, members applied a slurry of concrete to their forms, allowed the slurry to dry, then applied a thicker layer of concrete on top of the slurry.  Another layer of fiberglass mesh was placed over the concrete and the process was repeated with another layer of slurry and thicker concrete.  The workshop ran from 10 am till 5 pm.  Some members were able to experience a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant for lunch nearby.  I shared my successful and not so successful experiences with mosaic sculpture and a fun time was had by all.

NEMS Online Webinar Series:  All About Substrates and Adhesive

by | Mar 6, 2019 | events | 0 comments

This Webinar occurred on Tuesday, February 26.  If you missed it, click on the link below to view the webinar in it’s entirety:

To VIEW WEBINAR, Click Here and you will be brought to YOUTUBE to view the webinar

Featured Speaker: Lou Ann Weeks, mosaic artists and cofounder of Skeew.biz, a mosaic supply company that specializes in mosaic backers, co-producer of Mosaic Technique Videos, and editor of I-CMosaics.com.  How do you know which substrate (backer) is the right one for your project, and what is the right adhesive?  There are so many to choose from, and in this webinar, Lou Ann will help you make the right decisions. You’ll learn what criteria to consider before you start mosaicking. She’ll bring it all together and answer your questions during a Q & A period at the end of the webinar.

 

New York Subway Mosaic Tour

by | Dec 1, 2018 | events

On December 1, 2018, Cathleen Newsham, (a founding member of the New England Mosaic Society), led a private tour for 16 of our members and thier guests of the New York City subway mosaics.  There are over 400 mosaics installed on subway platforms in the five boroughs of New York City, and this tour featured 10 of Cathleen’s favorite sites in the borough of Manhattan.

Newsham began her discovery of this immense underground museum eight years ago when a Manhattan family had a dream to create a fantasy Coney Island subway mosaic platform in thier bathroom. The family commissioned Cathleen to design, fabricate and install it, (complete with the family members in the seats of a roller coaster), which is when she began her research into the NYC subway mosaics.  Click here to see the completed mosaic and learn her process.

During the design phase of the project, Cathleen began photographing and cataloging these amazing works, which are part of the largest collection of mosaics in North America.  Since then, she has lead many artists, students and enthusiasts through the vast NYC transportation network to view these underappreciated works of art.  As a professional mosaic artists, she explained to our group the process of how the mosaics are designed, fabricated and installed, and gave participants insight into the complex process of creating a smalti mosaic.

Newsham is offering this same tour again on

April 6th, 2019, called,  Part I – Manhattan Subway Mosaics

To sign up for Part I, CLICK HERE

She has also added a Part II, Outer Boroughs and Off the Beaten Track on April 7th, 2019

To sign up for Part II, CLICK HERE

The Museum of Natural History subway stop features this aquarium mosaic as well as a variety of other animals and dinosaurs

Vik Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers” stunningly captures New Yorkers of all stripes awaiting the subway on the new Q line

Newsham joins Muniz’s cast of characters

“Shad Crossing”, Ming Fay’s nod to the immigrants of the lower East side’s main food source at the turn of the century