My Byzantine Mosaic Piece - Presentation
This individual piece was the worst moment of the London School of Mosaic for me. I had been looking forward for months to start on the smalti, and the peacock was really the best of all the samples in my opinion. I was happy with the colour choice, although this went awry later on. This does not seem at first sight like a worst moment. However, as soon as I started cutting the smalti, they were smashing into smithereens, and if I compared with the other students around me, my production of square and regular smalti with the hammer and hardie equalled their production of waste, in a negative sense. In other words, I couldn’t cut and I was extremely frustrated. I did the entire peacock in an angry frame of mind. I am not sure that it shows, but look at it again and see the tell-tale signs: the peacock has spikes on his back. The colours are fiery, black spears rising up, but the head is down and the eyes are sad, as if in total defeat. A sad, angry animal. In fact, it makes me think of a North Korean prisoner waving those little glorious national flags in a crowd of thousands of docile-under-duress political prisoners doing their morning exercise in a camp. Next time, I shall change the drawing and raise that head of his.
Towards the end of the personal project, someone pointed out that my hammer was useless. This was a relief, it meant I may not be. I got it sharpened, but still the small smalti smashed. Only after the personal project was done and finished did I receive a proper serious hammer from Spilimbergo, and my life was changed for ever, for the better. Now I am a square smalti cutter. Rephrase: a square-smalti cutter.
Back to the self -assessment. The picture is actually better than the reality, because the bird is in fact dirty and dusty. I need to clean the cement, there are smudges here and there, it does not befit a proud volatile. The edges have also been neglected, the cement is not applied with the love and dedication a true edge deserves.
The andamento is ok, I am happy with it, something had to be positive somewhere.
The smalti tesserae are all inclined in different directions, as per instructions, and they do reflect the light beautifully, that’s a nice point, take it.
The colour scheme is good, quite 70s style, but I did have an issue with the green and yellow becoming mixed up. I wanted the bad bird’s beak to be the focus of attention (as well as his unusual eye), but had I stuck to the colour scheme, the surround of the beak would also have been yellow, and we would have lost that byzantine beak for ever in the lily-livered morass. So I put some light green in there. But with light green there, it would then have had to be everywhere in place of the yellow, and then the entire prehistoric feathered creature would have been green in a green background. No-no. So we had to compromise, Pavo Cristatus and I. We scattered a few green tesserae here and there and around the beaming beak, and left the yolk in place everywhere else. But I am getting carried away.
What else do we need to talk about. Sinking and bouncing. The piece is fine in this respect and although the tesserae did their best to escape, hide, contradict, rebel and act in total defiance, I put them back in their place, each with a different orientation, but at the same level, like a proper pleasing little sea of rigid waves.
The tile size and proportions are delightful, and so the pixellation, I don’t think there is much of that. In any case I was in such a bad mood throughout this project that no tesserae in this image was allowed much leeway nor dared even considering pixellation.
The result is very beautiful to a non-mosaicist. My friends think it’s great. Ha. Little do they know. If I could do it again, I would be trying to have much better cut pieces, much more regular, neat lines, no scratches and smudges, and I would spend a little more time with the colour palette. And I would take longer to do it, this was a rushed job, caused by impatience, frustration and hammer envy. A good lesson though, watch me now being all so careful and precise and delicate in my approach.
https://youtu.be/y7dUmfTsDOs