Artist in Residency - 12'x5' Glass Mosaic Mural on the elements of glass - Sand, Teamwork, Fire and The Goblet!
"Ahoy! Blow the Glass" was designed and fabricated by Staff and 1000 + visitors to the Museum of Glass and Betty Rosen Ziff, Tacoma, Washington July 2006
Special thanks to MOG's Educational Studio Department Staff - Susan Warner, Meredith Hale, Ryan Branchini, Katie Albert.
Primitive humans arranged stones and pebbles into patterns. Some say mosaic history begins in the ancient Near East. Mosaics have been excavated from ancient civilizations that flourished more than 5,000 years ago. As one of our earliest art forms, Mosaics have an ancient and glorious history.
Mosaics are still a very labor intensive process, especially when viewed through 21st century society's lens of immediate gratification and electronic communications. In ancient times, mosaic art was primarily used to decorate architectural surfaces. Still true today, mosaics are also considered fine art and often an integral part of the collaborative process of community building.
Please join the Museum of Glass and Betty Rosen Ziff and become part of mosaic making history this July, as we design, fabricate, grout and install our mosaic mural.
 Museum of Glass -Tacoma, Washington and the exterior Chihuly Bridge of Glass. |
 Todd Pottinger , Filmmaker and Audio Visual Dude at MOG, greets BRZ at Seattle's Baggage Claim...In front of Richard Eliot's Mosaic made of Safety Reflectors |
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 On the Chihuly Bridge of Glass with Hot Shop Dome in background |
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| Week One
DESIGN, STUDIO SET UP - We are drawing the images of Fire, Sand, Team Work and the Goblet, setting up the studio, cleaning, sorting, tumbling recycled glass from MOG's hot shop waste, learning about the mosaic making process, looking at images of ancient and contemporary mosaics. At week's end, we posted drawings on the wall and asked subsequent visitors and MOG staff to choose images that they liked by tagging them with sticky notes. We will use elements from as many images as we can to determine our final design for the mural and its border and begin fabrication. | ||
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 Mick plans for Mural Installation |
 .... and then chooses his favorites |
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 Katie hauls in the Hot Shop glass to be recycled and tumbled. |
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| Week Two
FABRICATION - The visitors to the Museum of Glass have come from all over the globe. From Austraila, Denmark, England, Korea, India as well as locals from the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, New York, Hawaii, Arkansas, Montana etc. and even a few new friends from my neighborhood in Los Angeles! We spent a few days making 6" mosaics on mesh. Many of the drawings from Week One were transformed into mosaics using this method. We also used blank templates of squares and circles and triangles. No one worked alone. Some visitors worked with beans and noodles and took mosaics home. Some worked as families, groups, partners, and new friends. We even had some 'gremlins' (a term of endearment) come in and make truly imaginative, meaningful and beautiful mosaics while no one was looking... Many visitors became instant teachers and passed the technique of 'dabbing' onto the next artisans. | ||
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All through the month we have had help sorting and cleaning the glass
by kids of all ages. We've also had lots of help moving panels and
generally
reformatting the studio as there are other terrific programs happening
in the Educational Studio. Be sure to visit museumofglass.org to learn
more.
Barb White - a docent/teacher/artist and bright spirit worked with Visitors on my days off to give us ideas of what the images would look like. We then further translated them in chalk directly onto the cement board.The final images of SAND, TEAMWORK, FIRE, and THE GOBLET! are coming to life on four panels. We are in the middle of using the direct method now, "buttering" our tiles and gems (some graciously donated from mosaic artist Jennifer Tipton in South Carolina and Joe Moorman from mosaicartsupply.com, as well as smalti from mosaic artist Debbie Stefl in TX! - We did get another package of donations but no letter or information. Please let us know who you were so we can thank you.) Katie and I began to use the tumblers for the recycled some glass from MOG's hot shop, as well as another generous donation from the extraordinary glass artisan James Minson. (visit James' website jamesminsonglass.com to learn more about his glass school for children in Guatemala. Walter Lieberman spent part of his break from the hot shop teaching me how to mix and paint on glass to add text and signature to our Mural. He used a combination of glass powder, coolant and Karo syrup! | ||
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Copyright © 2006 Betty Rosen Ziff | All rights reserved | Contact.
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