Hand-Mosaics

by Michael Conrad

Hand-Mosaics was established to preserve the ancient and precise tradition of re-creating hand crafted ancient mosaics. Every piece of marble and smalti glass cut by hand uses tools and techniques that would be familiar to the Romans 2,000 years ago.

This classic art form is brought to life with both passion and enthusiasm for established Roman practices and processes. The approach to design and creation remains unchanged - marble, glass and semi-precious stones are selected for their colour, tone and texture. The design is initially made onto a temporary bed of lime into which the tesserae are set during the
creation of each piece. This offers unique flexibility throughout the course of creation.

To finally lift the mosaic from its temporary base to a permanent binder an open-weave fabric (normally several layers of cheese cloth) is glued on to the surface of the mosaic. As always true to traditions the water-soluble glue used has exactly the same basic ingredients as that used by ancient mosaic artists in Ravenna - rabbit skin and bone! With all the individual tesserae glued to the cloth the entire mosaic is removed from its temporary setting and placed onto a permanent base. Once set the cloth is removed from the face of the mosaic by dissolving the glue in tepid water. The mosaic can then be cleaned and completed.

The way that each finished work of art reacts to light and weather remains a fascination and inspiration.