Estimated time to read - around 3 minutes

This year I started a new mosaic membership, where the main premise is that each month I provide a prompt to help people get creative with their mosaic making.

The idea of providing prompts is not a new concept. A quick google search will bring up lots of sites with art prompts - ideas to motivate and inspire.

So why exactly are they helpful? As someone who has both used prompts in my own practice as well as created prompts for students, here are a few of my thoughts.

It has been full systems go on mosaic kit production recently. It’s almost like I have my own little Santa’s workshop, complete with elves to assist me, although I’m not sure my teenagers, who are helping me, would be willing to dress the part!

But I guess, when you think about it, it is not surprising that the kits are popular. Here’s what I’ve come to learn about kits over the past year or two, as I’ve been designing and assembling them.

This week, November 14-18th is Anti-Bullying week so it seems an appropriate time to share some details on a mosaic I made last year which centers on the impact of being bullied. I called it ‘The Weight of Words’.

I started thinking about creating this mosaic during a period of time when my daughter was being bullied in high school. It was a difficult time for her, being on the receiving end of constant snide remarks and put-downs from her peers. I felt angry and frustrated with these children who could not see the impact of their words.

I’ve noticed a chill in the air recently and it is most definitely starting to look a bit more autumnal round here. The cooling temperature brings with it a reminder that I need to start being careful where I leave my mosaics to dry if I want to avoid a common problem - efflorescence.

So what is that exactly? Well, it’s a very annoying white ‘bloom’ that appears over the surface of the adhesive as it dries.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. There are things that happen when making a mosaic that we often don’t talk about. Times where parts don’t look right and need to be changed, often resulting in a pile of mess like in the photo below.

These are the bits of my artwork that don’t usually see the light of day. But I wanted to share them, not only because I actually quite like the photograph of all the mess, but also because they are part of the process.

I’ve started doing something in my online classes that can sometimes be a bit stressful. And while the temptation to abandon this part of the teaching can be strong at times, I persist with it.

So what’s causing the stress? Well, I’ve been making a mosaic in class. Ok, I know that sounds kind of obvious for a mosaic class, but I’m not just doing small demonstrations, I am making a mosaic from start to finish. I am letting people see the full, unedited process, from creating the design to putting the mosaic together.

Have you ever created a mosaic that didn't turn out quite as you imagined it would? A couple of years ago, at the start of the pandemic, I created a mosaic inspired by images I had seen of star trails.

The simplicity of the concentric circles was appealing, but the first mosaic I made inspired by the star trails ended up being more of a swirling spiral!