Smalti in Brisbane Queensland Australia



Smalti available in Australia at OzMosaics!

 Get your Leponitt Mosaic tile cutters ready or your hammer and hardie or tile nippers!

Use Smalti in your mosaic art and watch it come alive!  You will nibble, cut and shape it to form incredible mosaic texture in your mosaic art.

From these delicious chunks you can decorate your mosaics with geometric designs, flambouyant whirls or extremely, delicate, winding detail!

Make mosaic flowers, underwater sea scenes, mosaic portraits of people, or your pets!

When you are in the mosaic mood for more than glass vitreous tile, ceramic, stained glass or rocks and pebbles, mix it up with smalti from OzMosaics!  Shop online at OzMosaics web shop or visit our studio shop by appointment and make up your own bags of smalti mix of colour!

Want to learn how to use smalti in your mosaic art?  Join up for our newsletter which will advise when the new mosaic workshops will be available!  Sandy is preparing the workshops and making samples of the smalti projects.  The info will make your mosaic life much easier and wait till you try all the adhesive options Sandy has been working with in this new smalti range. 

Smalti glass is sublime!  Get yours as soon as you can as it's running out the studio shop door and it's not even uploaded on the web yet!  Well, some colours are and today we are naming the huge range of smalti - it's fun naming them.  Check back tomorrow on the website for the full range in the mosaic web shop.

Tantalizing colours, beautiful quality smalti at incredible prices - we want everyone to experience smalti in their mosaic art.

Be back soon!
Cheers
Sandy & Dave Robertson
Mosaic Art Specialists
materials, supplies, workshops
Everything for mosaics!
mosaic mesh, thinset, mosaic grids - check our diverse range at our website, click on mosaic shop in the pink tab menu on the ozmosaics home page.

Need help?  Contact Dave, who is always on hand to give you professional mosaic advice or Sandy will be happy to assist in mosaic tips and tricks in the mosaic arena or the OzMosaics workshops and classes.

MAANZ Brisbane Exhibition 2010

Check out this link to the Mosaic MAANZ Exhibition Photos of MAANZ exhibition 2010 

Sandy received 2nd prize.

 Yesterday, Dave, Mum, Aunty Lee, Aunty Alison and I ventured out in the pouring rain to visit the MAANZ 2010 InAugural Exhibition, currently showing at Percolator Gallery at Paddington, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.  Afterwards, naturally, we dropped into the OpShop for a few plates, mum is about to make some fabulous sunflowers for my huge studio wall surrounding the garden.  Dave stood patiently on, ready to stash the goodies in the 4WD.


We tried to make the MAANZ Official Opening on Friday night, but unexpected family circumstances prevented us attending. It was good to finally get there and one benefit was room to move around with  less gallery visitors than on the opening night.  It would have been fun though to catch up with many students and friends though on Friday night.

I was thrilled to learn during a mosaic workshop here at OzMosaics Studio on Saturday, that I had been awarded 2nd Prize by the judges in this exhibition.  I was over the mosaic moon!

The mosaic standard was very high and we all enjoyed viewing the beautiful mosaics, interestingly, many were of stained glass mosaic style.  Is this where mosaics are heading?  Fusing, stained glass etc.  I like the many facets of mosaics, so I studied the artworks with interest.  I was pleased to see smalti and mixed media on show.   All in all, the exhibition provides all viewers a good taste of mosaics across the board.

The gallery was a great choice for the exhibition and the organisers did a wonderful job pulling it together.  As you wander through the small rooms in the gallery the mosaics take centre stage and if you visit, allow time to absorb the craftmanship and explore the different mosaic styles.  Not many opportunties come up for an art exhibition soley concentrating on mosaics.

Listed below are some photographs of the exhibition.  I am sure formal photos will be uploaded to the MAANZ site in due course. 

I was also happy to see work in the Exhibition, by many of my students.  It's so satisfying to watch past students grow in their mosaics and explore so many mosaic opportunities.  To have kick-started so many mosaic artists is such pleasure.  I look forward to seeing all their future work.

As most of you know, I am very passionate about texture and exploring the seemingly limitless tesserae options, so if you wish to add more spice to your mosaics, perhaps enrol in our upcoming smalti and 3-D classes soon to be listed.  The mosaic combo - where anything can happen, expect the unexpected....don't be surprised if you mosaic takes on a mind of it's own, leaving you astounded as you watch your fingers connect to your mosaic 'art strings.  In the upcoming workshops, you will be exposed an adhesive I am very passionate about these days;  one that allows more flexibility in your 3-D mosaics and well I am in love with it.  I could not have made my MAANZ "home is where the 'art is" without a mix of adhesives, but the new one was paramount for the amazing properties and extended mosaics.

Mosaic art can be a lifetime adventure - stretch your limits and go beyond the boundaries.  You may end up back where you stARTed but what you gathered on the journey will be evident.

Cheers and happy mosaic days (and nights if you are addicted to mosaics!).  See you on FaceBook and in the Mosaic ARENA.  Photos of the exhibit coming shortly.  Look out for the link soon.

Sandy Robertson
Mosaic Artist/Mosaic Teacher.
Studio OzMosaics
Brisbane Queensland Australia
Everything you need for mosaics under the one Queenslander Roof!
smalti, adhesive, grout, glass tiles, mesh, tools - the list goes on!
http://www.ozmosaics.com/
http://www.ozmosaics.com/arist/shop

Ipswich Awards of Excellence 2010

Sandy Robertson and members of PANI worked with students, teachers, community and the Ipswich City Council to provide the community of Ipswich with a contemporary mosaic public artwork, installed at Queen's Park Botanical Gardens, Nature Reserve, Ipswich.  The new Bilby enclosure forms a magnificent backdrop to the Arena.

The Numbellie Seat. Two huge curved concrete seats decorated with mosaic application. The panels were created by participating school students across 6 State Schools at Ipswich and selected students from Ipswich State High School. The 7schools worked very hard to learn the art of mosaics and achieve such excellence in mosaics. Sandy worked with teachers and volunteers at her OzMosaics Studio to piece the mosaic on mesh artworks together on cement sheet panels, which were inserted into recesses created in the construction of the seat, to Sandy's instructions.

http://www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/about_ipswich/public_art/karalee/   The Everybody Seat won 2009 Award of Excellence and Gold Award.

The Numbellie Seat installed at Queen's Park Ipswich won the Award of Excellence and Gold Award 2010!!!!! (update to come with photos of the Numbellie Seat).

Congrats to all involved - a great achievement and I was proud to be involved in the making of these magnificent mosaic public artworks.

A huge mosaic ball was donated by Sandy to Queen's Park.  Sandy says "we had mosaic mesh artworks which would not fit on the mosaic seat inserts, so we wove them onto a huge mosaic ball.  A table top covered in mosaics was attached at my studio and it formed the taBall!  It's gorgeous and a lovely installation to offset the incredible huge mosaic seats.

A look back at the 2009 Winner of the Award of Excellence, Ipswich.

Below are a few photos of the 2009 Award of Excellence at the "Everybody Seat" installed at Karalee State School, Karalee, Queensland Australia.  Sandy Robertson worked with students at Karalee State School as Artist in Residence Program.

Together with teachers, students, parents, Indigenous Artist and incredible enthusiasm and support of Cheryl Charlton, Vice Principal Karalee State School, this incredible mosaic sculpture grew.  The students are so talented and worked very hard with their mesh mosaics to help building this beautiful seating arena outside the Community Hall  on the school grounds.  

Proudie, the concretor built this mosaic chair to last!  The chair is decorated with mosaic art inside and out.  The inner circle with a huge contemporary mosaic snake, the river, gum leaves work well with local history, fauna and flora and indigenous art.

The outer side of the winding seating arena was inspired by Gaudi - a mosaic fantasy as the outer snake winds and shows the student mosaic interpretations of colourful, happy flowers, kangaroos, tracks and more. 

Visit and be captivated!  The curves are made from china plates to give the lustrous mosaic finish.

A mix of china, porcelain tiles and circles, ceramic floor and wall tile, vitreous glass mosaic, glass beads, polystyrene balls, mosaic fibreglass mesh, concrete, grout and thinset made the base for the  beautiful mosaic art.  Mosaic seats are popular as a useful community artwork.

 You won't be able to sit for long as you want to keep touching the textures and exploring the student artworks.  A beautiful place for the students and community to relax, imagine and enjoy.

So many have asked me "Sandy, what is Zone 4?"

"What is Zone 4?"

Mosaic Zone 4 originated many, many years ago during one of Sandy's mosaic Workshops at Studio OzMosaics.

We were discussing the amazing buzz mosaics can bring;  the wonderful therapy of closing off your thoughts to all but mosaics;  the feeling of mosaic euphoria when your pieces not only connect with the substrate, but connect to your creative being....

The feeling of timlessness.  One tends to float over the work in progress and not hear the demands of everyday life around....

If you remember "Get Smart" and the Cone of Silence, you are on the right track.  We imagine a huge plastic cone (think of a coke bottle cut in half) encasing us, allowing us to see into the NeverNever but only hear our  mosaic thoughts.  We are as one with the tiles, the glue, the Leps.  We are happy, contented and in the creative zone, our own Zone.

Research at OzMosaics shows that it can be a one on one mosaic love affair in the Zone 4 shield, or a group can connect around a mosaic and feel the Zone 4 bond.

It's all about being creative, being happy and being shielded by Zone 4. Come to Studio OzMosaics and feel the effects of Zone 4.  Whether you are fond of mosaic mutterings, need piped music or the tinkle of tiles is enough, you will know when you are in Zone 4.

My latest whimsical mosaic, Home is Where the 'art is (ie Mosaic Retreat) was made in Zone 4.  It emerged as  my hands flew and each piece just seemed to know what it was going to connect with as I felt that mosaic Zone 4 surge of silliness, sublimity (my new word! Zone 4 priveleges) and more.

The Red London Bus is taking us to Zone 4, where the Land of mOz floats above the Mosaic Studio.  The Cherub on Cloud 9 knows that you may need to rest and where better than to float in the mosaic atmosphere.

The Glasshouse mountains and the Yellow mosaic Brick Road, are mosaic milestones and tourist destinations and the way to mosaic Euphoria.  Serendipity, the mosaic nymph is waiting to show you around and as you arrive fireworks welcome you from Brisbane Story Bridge below.

The Bridge tells it's own story as it reflects in the flowing Brisbane River below.  The pink vat is catching mosaic recycled water droplets to irrigate the mosaic pastures and gardens at Zone 4.



If you get a glass puncture, glue is on hand LOL!



So, get onboard the mosaic bus and take the trip of your mosaic life to wherever your 'art leads you. Drop by Zone 4, at OzMosaics and share your mosaic journey!