Towards Maganificent Mosaics

Above: Elvira in her studio, with her first mosaic (right) and a sample mosaic for participants to work from.

This is a course for people starting out and those who have experimented but want to learn correct techniques to ensure they have every success.

I got interested in Mosaics and have been making Mosaics since 1996.

I was living at the time in Amsterdam and had two lovely young sons to take care of. Before kids I had finished my Bachelor of Arts degree at the ‘G. Rietveld Academie’ (Monumental Art) in Amsterdam and used to make and sell paintings, make stage décor and party /festival/ music bands props and decorations.

Toddler Breaks

As I decided to bring my kids up at home and not send them to a kindergarten or day care, I found I had no time or space to paint at home. I wanted to get out of the house one evening a week to have a ‘toddlers break’ and found a Mosaic course happening in Amsterdam. I had never seen a mosaic course being offered till then and got very curious about it.

When I had been in Italy previously, I had been intrigued by the incredible glass mosaics in the various churches over there, as well as the Roman marble mosaics on the floors and walls. It all had been a feast to my eyes.

So I decided to go for it and try this new medium I had never used before.

A Turning Point

It turned out to be a great course and I left it with my first Mosaic piece (a 250x250mm tile mosaic on a wood base with a spiralling snake pictured on it) and a lot of information an enthusiasm.

Well that was my beginning of love for Mosaics. After a few months I wanted to do some more and also realised how I enjoyed the teaching that course. I decided to try for a teaching position at this new Mosaic course

first mosaic

Above: Your course creator, Elvira Pontier's, first mosaic

Another Love

I approached the woman who had started the mosaic courses. She was very helpful and remembered me from the mosaic course I had done with her. I could start as an assistant at the Mosaics courses and workshops and it was conveniently, for me as mum, in the weekends and evenings.

There started my other love, for teaching!

Topics

In this course we will look at:

Typical tools
Mosaic Materials
Mosaic substrates (what you can build mosaics on)
Preparation and design
Grouting and finishing

You can use the Forum to ask questions and receive more support. Over the time of the course I hope you will complete at least one mosaic project and send in a photo that we can mount on our projects slideshow.

If you would like to join this course and want to know when it goes live, click the Register an Interest button below. We will send you an email as soon as it goes live.