Indirect, direct, I hate brown paper.......

A little tip...if using opaque tesserae, indirect mosaic method, I used to find it helpful to "colour or mark" the back of the tile before cutting it up, to I know what it is....ie blue, use a blue marker, pencil, paint wash, whatever works for the tile on hand. Have a sample of that coding tile up the right way so you know what the flip side looks like to your "coded" on the back, tesserae.

Last year I experimented with a method that gives one a clear indirect paper method. I found it yestereday in the experimental department (ie back room workshop) when we were resorting the studio and my experimental juices went wild again....Christine your post made me think about it again.

..............but again it's that old man TIME getting in the way at the moment. I need a room full of helpers, testers and slaves! LOL. But you never know what's coming! Once this chair is done!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made another mosaic table recently and grouted it....the tesserae was not dead flat and thank goodness for that as this new table is very nice and feels great to touch and not one drink, cup, glass etc has faltered. I think indirect often takes the soul out of my mosaics . I only do indirect if a client really needs it and then I will do anything not to, as I hate it. Even with transparent tesserae I reckon it never looks the same when worked indirect....that feeling of not knowing and having to fix stuff as you go is really "not me". Give me Gaudi any day LOL! Ok, now yell at me!

In fact, I was thinking about things deeply last week and decided I don't think I want to do any more mosaics that need to be flat LOL! I don't mind a mix, or rather flat, but everyone has their thing. Nature isn't flat, even the horizon. Light and shade, ups and downs, ins and outs, nooks and crannies and shadows that change in the mosaic. Yes! Finally, I know where I am going for my personal art anyway. I take a lot of photos, make stock samples of flat mosaics for those ooohs and aaaahs with clients and students and then decide if I want to be bothered........and then run to the stash room and thank the Mosaic Gods for texture. Mix it up for me. I never see a vitreous tile as flat...I see it as opportunities to go wild. lol!

One good thing, is that I never, or very, very rarely have to pull up a tile. I don't mind doing this, but it's the not seeing or being able to see the real work, the real side in progress with the brown paper or white paper reverse method that I hate! The experiment I have waiting in the wings removes this for me but it's still not my cup of tea.

How many of you out there prefer to work indirect? I know there are many and once you have the technique down "flat" or "pat" it is useful for indirect mixed media but then again, that's a royal pain in the Doulton if working in china. LOL. I know I have said over the last two years about a method I have also been experimenting with indirect 3-D for mixed media and china patterning...I have that in the wings too......Polly and Popette will be overworked perhaps in winter. My wonderful mosaic minions, what would I do without my mosaic mates?

This all has to do with my age and a movie.....more about this later.
Directly speaking, mixing my methods, head full of mixed media....shoving the shard...
Sandy
www.ozmosaics.com
mosaic artist, teacher and in need of chocolate!