The mosaic. The craft technique of mosaic

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There are mosaics that are authentic works of art. For this it is essential, in addition to practice -as in any other discipline-, the knowledge and application of the necessary technique.

the mosaic It is a technique that is used either as a floor or as a wall covering, and that uses as a consubstantial element the tesseraethat is, the pieces that make up the mosaic and that can be made of stone, in which case there are innumerable materials and sizes used throughout history (pebbles, marble, granite, semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli or malachite, etc. ), or from vitreous paste, easier to cut and more striking because they have more attractive colors and transparencies. In general, the mosaic that uses stone tesserae is used more as flooring, and the vitreous paste as wall covering. Sometimes and when you want to enhance the mosaic, the golden tessera is also used, which combines the splendor of its brilliance with its material richness.

Even today, the mosaic technique is widely used, mainly in bathroom decoration, enhancing the shower area.

Its use like pavement It goes back to the field of Cretan art from where it passes to Greece, and from there to the Roman Empire, which would be one of the great protagonists of the use and diffusion of the mosaic.

What wallcoveringwith glazed tesserae, its use is already known in Egypt, and of course in Rome, where it served as decoration for the caves dedicated to the muses, from which its name derives. Once again, the Roman influence imposed the mosaic on Early Christian art and especially on Byzantine art, at which time the mosaic reached its golden age.

Techniques for making mosaics

Regarding his techniques, we can especially distinguish three:

Opus Sectile.- It uses large stone tesserae and is used as pavement. It is the most archaic technique and it is more difficult to get small fragments, so the gaps between the stones are larger.

Opus Tessellatum.- It uses stone tesserae, regular, with cubic or rectangular shapes, which allows their perfect adaptation and the reduction of interstices. It is also often used as flooring.

Opus Vermiculatum.- The tesserae are very small, either made of stone, gold or vitreous paste, and are used indistinctly as flooring or wall covering. The technical perfection that it achieves reduces the interstices between the pieces to a minimum, with which they reproduce with much greater perfection the image to which they must be adapted. To this must be added its greater degree of color and brilliance.

How to make a mosaic

Now we are going to see, step by step, the work carried out by Marina Gullón: a MOSAIC made to INDIRECT TECHNIQUE. This technique consists of arranging the tesserae with the tile biscuit facing upwards, the disadvantage is that the true result is not appreciated as you work, even so you can see the rhythm of the tesserae, the drawing and the cut from the same. Depending on the cut that is given to the tesserae, the technique is called in one way or another, in my case I have used the OPUS TESSELATUM (pieces of the same size, regular placed in the same rhythm) and the OPUS SECTILE (irregular pieces placed arbitrarily ).

The design of the drawing that she has used has been done by herself, she has done it with simple shapes because it was the first mosaic that she made and cutting tiles for the first time is quite an experience…lol. The cut is made with a diamond cutter, and is precise with the pliers. (Rubi Widia)

Little by little we are placing the tesserae according to the pattern of the drawing, and following a rhythm.

Once complete, it is cleaned well to eliminate possible pieces of tile, and the mold is made to pour the plaster.

To make the mold you can use any moldable and waterproof material, such as the plasticine that has been used on this occasion.

Although the photo is not shown, a mesh of wire or plastic is placed before the plaster is placed as formwork.

Once the plaster is dry, we turn the mosaic over, clean the joints with a burnisher and finally pour the grout, in this case he chose the black color so that all the colors would stand out more.

And here is the end result.

Source: Marina Gullon Y Creha.

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