Brisbane City Council
Tip Shop 2013 Art Competition:
Entry by Sandra Robertson:
"Here comes the Bride(zilla)"
How, when, where, voting, who, why?
Visit the art exhibition during May - June 2013 and vote for your favourite artwork in the exhibition.For Town Square Library opening times, exhibition information and exhibiting artists please visit this link:
Brisbane City Council - Tip Shop Competition 2013
The Mosaic Collection on display in the exhibition includes:
Bridal Dressing Table
Bridal Chair
Bridal flowers
Wine Bucket
Wishing Well & Wedding Chapel
Cake stand & cupcakes
Mother in Law and Father in Law
Bridezilla mirror
Going away outfitBridal trolley etc.
I created a whimsical mosaic collection based on “Here comes the Bride” drawing inspiration from my wedding/reception during the 1974 Brisbane Floods, the famous mosaic images of the Empress Theodora - (depicted on the dressing table mirror as a modern day mosaic Bridezilla) and crazy Weddings and Wedding Vow Renewals in Las Vegas!
Pre-loved household goods and furniture or items once destined for landfill, with imagination can be decorated in mosaic using tesserae such as china, mirror, glass, tiles, ceramic, recycled glass, wine bottles, shells, jewellery and more!
Mixing reused and recycled tesserae with smalti, glass mosaic tiles, stone and ceramic tiles makes for very interesting texture and special effects in mosaic art.
Many people renew their vows in Las Vegas or BrisVegas! and I turned an old dunny base into a miniature Las Vegas/Bris Vegas wedding chapel and wishing well.
Check back here in September 2013 and find out if The Diva and Dave renew their vows in Vegas!
As soon as I saw the old timber veneer dressing table at the Acacia Ridge BCC Tip Shop, ($75.00 and in great condition!), memories "flooded back" of my 1974 wedding day preparations/photo sessions in front of the dressing table mirror.
My imagination was running riot!
I raced to ensure the SOLD STICKER was put on the dressing table – the staff were so friendly and helpful.
Not all mosaic art is "flat". I used this opportunity to showcase mosaics as whimsical, 3-D and fun - showcasing many of my mosaic techniques, tips and tricks!
I hope visitors to my mosaic setting in this competition will be inspired to create mosaics and help keep many items out of landfill. The opportunity to shop at the Tip Shops also assists the Endeavour Foundation.
Brisbane will benefit from beautiful mosaics in the home, garden, parks and cityscape!
My dressing table "wedding setting" is Over The Top but also a useful piece of furniture. Remove the veil and the dressing table provides a delightful piece of furniture for the home, shop display or wedding boutique feature. It would look fabulous in a booth at Cloudland in Fortitude Valley for Hens night out! A great photograph opportunity for visitors to the BCC Library - sit in the chair and gaze at Bridezilla!
The Wedding Chapel is suspended over the mosaic wishing well, very ornate, VegasStyle.
An old Avon Perfume bottle becomes "The Bride Diva" and "Dave" is in the shape of an egg cup! Cupid is suspended nearby, trying to shoot a few love arrows into Dave's heART but they seem to go straight through him!
The celebrant has to lean back to get a full view of the Divine Diva!
Dave was so disinterested in renewing his MOSAIC vows he didn't even bother to wear a shirt! More on this part of the story to follow....(fact or fiction?).
Dave and Sandy are visiting Las Vegas in 2013 after a family wedding in Canada. Staying at the Venetian Hotel, with gondalas and ornate setting, it could be the perfect "renewal of the mosaic vows"....
"In lieu of gifts, the happy couple invite you to toss a coin in the mosaic wishing well, which will be donated to Endeavour Foundation"
The mosaic dunny will be on display with "here comes the Bride"!
Did you donate the dressing table, chair or dress to the Acacia Ridge Tip Shop?
Please contact me and tell me more about the items and their history.
I decided it would be fun to dig out my wedding veil and wedding mementos to include in the mosaic display. Something borrowed, something new, something old and something new…
I grabbed two of the convenient shopping trolleys at the Tip Shop and went crazy finding fabulous treasures to reshape into mosaic tesserae.
I like the idea of a label called “TIPSY designs” using the fabrics and weaving them into mosaics.
I found a bunch of discarded cream silk flowers, a box of old doilies to reconstruct for the bridal bouquet or table setting and selected china with gold edges to cut out flower blooms. Old buttons would become flower centres too. The Tip Shop had some great items to display in the wedding dressing table drawers (the trousseau).
Library visitors may enjoy sitting on the Bridal Chair gazing into the eyes of Bridezilla perhaps with their own wedding day memories or dreaming of being a bride to be!
I jumped for joy when I found the perfect “bridal seat” ($5.00!) and my creative juices started to boil over, when I started filling boxes and boxes with fantastic pink, white, gold edged, black and white china cups, plates, bowls, mugs, dishes, ornaments, glass plates, wine glasses, odds and ends etc!
Why I turned into a stressed Bridezilla 2 days before my wedding!A few things happened:
All was ok until the radio announced “Wanganui Gardens has been washed down the river!”.
We had 2 days to find a new wedding reception venue! - (as did many other brides!). Dad managed to contact the manager of Cloudland Panorama Room (he happened to be at Cloudland checking for rain damage etc).
The Cloudland Manager was amazing – he personally raced all around Brisbane sourcing food and drinks – engaged staff and chefs for the reception and nothing was too much trouble! We had a fantastic reception.
He turned impossible into possible! The lights of Brisbane went on and off all through the evening, many had their first hot meal in a week. We were all grateful for some happy moments in such a hard time for so many.
Power shedding:
-The wedding cake was baked in between the power cuts.
-The bridesmaids final fittings were hand sewn.
-Photographer – the city studio flooded, crazy search for dry film! No digital cameras in 1974!
-Many guests lost all their belongings so we had to help source clothes and shoes!
-Our house flooded due to a burst storm water drain and mum almost climbed on to the roof with my wedding dress!
-Our cat Bazza McKenzie, floated by on a table, but I swam out and rescued him.
-While Dave was at his Buck’s party, cars were flooded outside our home! He arrived home and swam over the fence!
-The wedding cars sank at Yeronga – but we managed to get some Gold Cadillac’s!
-Finally found the fresh frangipani blooms for the bouquets
-The Park Royal Hotel in the city flooded (our honeymoon suite) – found a room at the Zebra Hotel.
This wedding story is told simply for the fun of the mosaic artworks, but the 1974 floods will never be forgotten and we were so lucky to have our wedding amidst so much hardship. We have always appreciated the help of so many and the wonderful memories put together at a moment’s notice.
CREATING THE WEDDING MOSAICS!
MY TO DO LIST!
-Bring my wedding veil out of storage
-Prepare dressing table and seat for mosaic surface covering. Pre-sealers, sanding and keying!
-Use old black and white glass mosaic tiles on the drawers
-Make pique assiette floral inserts for the black and white tiles on sides of dressing table
-Fill more than 20 mosaic grids with tiles
-Cut hundreds of mosaic circles to resemble "mosaic confetti"
-Break mugs and cups to use cup handles for mosaic "love" notes and words
-Design mosaic Bridezilla/modern Theodora out of mirror, old jewellery and cups
-Remove original drawer hands and reuse in Bridezilla headdress.
-Reshape china cups, bowls, plates, mugs, saucers etc into white wedding flowers
-Try on the pink tunic dress!
-Pull apart a bunch of old cream silk flowers for bridal bouquet
-Reuse old crochet doilies, old jewellery, buttons etc and work into the flower blooms
-Cut mosaic china petals to include in the bridal bouquet blooms
-Drag old dunny base (mosaic toilet base) from garden, clean, prep for the Wedding Wishing Well and Wedding Vegas Chapel
-Cut flowers out of white china, mirror, stars, circles to feature as confetti
-Make mosaic cement cupcakes (low calorie!) and decorate with cement icing and mosaic flowers
-mosaic flowers formed from white saucers and cups
-Construct a tiered wedding cake (or jewellery stand) tower out of old glass plates and teapots, a wedding ring holder
-Make a bridal headpiece for the top of the mirror, using old silk flowers, a piece of wrought iron fencing and fashion a centre Bridal flower out of an old china cup.
-wire the veil to the dressing table
-Using old terracotta pot, create a mosaic “ice bucket” for the bride and groom’s champagne.
-Display second hand garments in the drawer for the Bride's trousseau
-love the cream wedding shoes!
-Create Bridezilla’s to do lists!
-Make huge mosaic flowers from old cups and bowls for jewellery hangers on the mirror
-Glue a gigantic old glass bowl on mirror to represent a bridal flower and to later on hold silk scarves or jewellery
-Mosaic the top of the wedding cake trolley
-Ice the Wedding Wishing well with white cement with "words of love and wedding Cementiments"
-dress the old ceramic black cats as FILI and MILI (Father in Law int and (Mother in Law int)
-Cover the top of the dressing table in a huge mosaic rosebud, white daisies, mirror stars and small flowers - using china and old mirror scrap from the Tip Shop etc.
-Assemble, cut, glue, grout, polish, apply sealer, take photos,
-Hire truck to transport artworks Tip Shop at Acacia Ridge
-Assist Dave to get the artworks in the truck!
Thanks to the Brisbane City Council for giving me the opportunity to participate in this wonderful Tip Shop Competition.
My entry is quirky, fun and I hope it will inspire many to try the art of mosaics and turn their everyday items into mosaic masterpieces!
Join me in an OzMosaics workshop to learn my many mosaic tips and tricks! Decorative mosaic surfaces are found on tables, chairs, seats, swimming pools, wall murals, playground furniture, paths, bathrooms, kitchens, fine art, sculptures, wheel barrows, furniture, cars, doors, bedheads, shovels, frypans, fridges, fences, footpaths, birdbaths, photo frames, mirrors, windows, ceilings, floors, shoes, benchtops, jewellery, cake stands, candleholders, trays, pot plants, garden borders, cement sculptures, dragons, buildings, freeway walls, masks and much more!
You are only limited by your imagination.
Use the correct products (OzMosaics recommends Laticrete Australia) and your mosaics will last the distance. Whether you enjoy traditional mosaics or contemporary mosaic design, mosaic tools enable the artist to shape tesserae from a wide range of materials including stone, ceramic, china, mirror, wood, mirror, found objects, smalti, glass tile, art glass, stained glass, jewellery. Learn the art of mosaics at OzMosaics Studio.
Sandy turns soup bowls, cups, mugs and plates into mosaic flowers!
Left over grout and cement goes into silicon moulds and plastic forms to create fabulous mosaic cup cakes, mosaic torsos and unusual substrates for mosaic artworks and more!
Old mirror takes on a new life in mosaic art and reflects the surroundings in fun, beautiful and creative use of old materials.
Old jewellery, found objects, family treasures and forget me nots, can be applied to mosaics as "keepsake mosaic artworks) on pots, pedestals and wall art.
More info:
Brisbane City Council's Tip Shop Art Competition is underway for 2013, with twenty artists selected from Brisbane's creative community.
The artists will develop artworks from recycled furniture, home wares and textiles found at Brisbane's Tip Shops.
The competition has been developed to raise awareness of Brisbane Tip Shops and encourage visitors to explore options for reuse and recycling of second hand items, in an effort to keep unwanted furniture and household items out of landfill.
Council believes artists are integral to helping the public rethink their rubbish and views the competition as a way to inspire artists to see creative possibilities in items that previously would have been thrown away.
Artists may modify, add to, remove or redesign elements from their chosen pieces in the process of creating their competition entry. Artists may work in their chosen medium or use a variety of mediums and styles.
The finished artworks will be displayed at Brisbane Square Library, 266 George Street, Brisbane, where residents have the opportunity to vote for their favourite artwork between 1 May until 30 June 2013. The winner will be determined by popular vote and one prize of $1000 will be awarded to the artist who creates the winning artwork.
Ten lucky residents also have the chance to win $50 each by voting for their favourite artwork.
Selected artists
- Bec Peart and Martin Pedder.
- Centre of Creative Arts, Eight Mile Plains.
- Deb Magee.
- Fatima Schelfisch.
- Hiroshi Uchida.
- June Haewon.
- Karl de Waal.
- KT Doyle.
- Marge Coogan and Laurel Glegg.
- Matthew Powell.
- Michael Swifte.
- Narelle Carter (collaborating with Kate Markey).
- Paul Liddy.
- Peter Fegan.
- Sally McRae.
- Sandra Robertson.
- Sharon Lee.
- Skubi Testa.
- Stephanie Morris.
- Tiana Pebre.
Key dates
| Time and date | Details |
|---|
| Wednesday, 1 May to Sunday, 30 June 2013 | Artwork will be displayed at Brisbane Square Library
and residents will be encouraged to vote for their favourite piece |
| 5pm - 6.30pm Friday, 10 May 2013 | Launch of both the Tip Shop Art Competition Exhibition and The
Fusion Exhibition at Brisbane Square Library, 266 George Street,
Brisbane. Public event, everyone welcome. This is a great chance
to follow the artist trail and catch up with the other artists |
| Thursday, 4 July 2013 | Announcement of the winner of the 2013 Tip Shop Art Competition |
Read more: Brisbane City Council Tip Shop Comp 2013 Bride(zilla) Mosaic Wedding Setting - Sandy Robertson - OzMosaics Mosaic Art & Craft Specialists Australia http://www.ozmosaics.com.au/mosaic/en/blog/227-bride-zilla-mosaic-wedding-setting.html#ixzz2STCsr86N
.jpg)
