Mosaic Art
My inspiration for the upcycle project is mosaic art. Not only does the history of this art form fascinate me, but the creation of mosaics makes me really excited as well. Mosaic art originated from Mesopotamia, and is compiled bits and pieces of colored glass, stone, clay, and others. The very first mosaic tile was found in Iran around 1500 BCE, but spread into Macedonia, Carthage, and Rome.
The Greeks used stones and pebbles to make decorations, but transformed the art into intricate designs. However, the most glorified history of mosaics is with the Roman provinces in Africa and Syria. After the fall of the Roman Empire, mosaics transformed into intricate wall decorations for religious purposes.
The Islamic world also developed geometric and mathematical based mosaics, embellishing beautiful palaces and religious buildings (ex. Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem). This was after the Muslim conquest of eastern provinces of Byzantine Europe. This art form flourished in Islamic culture and became the main form of wall decoration.
Mosaics have become a popular form of art in modern culture. People use anything from old, broken bottles to torn pictures and compile these art forms into anything you can think of (benches, houses, statues, bicycles, etc.).
My plan for this project is to take a compilation of recycled bottles, glassware, tile, beads, and anything else I find I could include, to create a mosaic piece of art myself. I will press the broken pieces of material into a clay material and hopefully create a few different art pieces.
Citations:
http://www.artisticportland.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-mosaics
4 Comments. Leave new
Hi Hailee,
I love the in-depth history of the mosaic art. It’s clear you have thought about what you wanted to do. I love how perfect upcycling is for this inspiration. How confident are you that the clay will hold your material? Have you thought of maybe using resin to prevent the glass and beads from leaving the clay? Will you have a back piece to hold the clay? I think if you needed more color, you could paint clear glass if you can’t find the colored materials you’d like.
Great job, I look forward to seeing it.
Hey Justin, thanks for the feedback!! I’m really excited to be working with old, recycled glass to make art! I am not confident that clay will hold the material, but I will definitely look into using resin. I’m thinking of using old picture frames to be the bases of the mosaic’s, but if you have any ideas that would be very helpful!
Thanks again 🙂
This is a really interesting and rich form of art. I see it a lot back home (Saudi Arabia) due to its history and beauty just as you mentioned. In my opinion, I think mosaic art looks better when smaller shiny pieces are selected. What makes it unique is that it has a really nice reflectivity that forces everyone to look at it and be surprised. Great job talking about and I am excited to see your final piece. One question I have is are you making individual art pieces of single material or are you mixing everything for all of your pieces?
Hey Abdul! I agree, mosaic art looks much better with small, shiny pieces. I’m hoping to find maybe some old mirrors to incorporate into the piece as well. I am hoping to make 2 or 3 different mosaic pieces, but use all of my materials in each piece- so they all come together and have similarities in the end. Thanks for the feedback!!