Charlotte & Carlotta

On this August 2nd, 2015, Charlotte finally met Carlotta ! 

Charlotte - Cellist, London, UK

Carlotta - 24 x 24", 61 x 61 cm, glass, ceramic & stone

The encounter was a surprise, Charlotte was not aware I was making her portrait !

Do you see a happy young woman, or what ? 

My Mosaic Portraits make great and unforgettable presents...

If you think you might be interested by one of you or of a loved one, please contact me by phone at (334) 798 1639, of by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com.

I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. I share my passion in my newsletter, as well as the work of other more modern mosaicists working with traditional or non-traditional media.

You can see my own mosaics on my mosaicblues website. If you are interested by my work or would like to chat about mosaics, please contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also

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Flying with Mosaics

Although my last mosaics are lighter than they were 5 years ago, they still are 5 to 10 times heavier than a painting of the same dimension. 

This may be why galleries do not like mosaics very much: they find them harder to hang on a wall. Actually, there are now easy ways to hand heavy loads on any kind of walls, at a reasonable cost. I'll review these methods in a next post.

An other negative aspect of a mosaic's weight is  Shipping...

Over the past 2 years, I have sold 4 mosaics in France. Shipping them would have been very expensive, so I simply travelled with them. I carried an extra piece of luggage with my mosaics in it.

As long as you keep the total of added dimensions under 64" (160 cm) and the weight under 50 lb (23 kg, it costs $100.00 for one additional suitcase on a transatlantic flight. 

I have reduced the weight by 70 % by building my mosaics on fiberglass mesh. All that travels with me are the Tesserae glued on a very light mesh. No concrete, no backing board. I now have in France a small studio where I mount my mosaics on their final support and frame them.

Mosaicblues French Studio, Dec 2014

The important point is to pack them very carefully. 

Here are the 4 pieces flying to France with me mid-July 2015.

From top to bottom and left to right : 2 Green Eyes Girls, Carlotta, and the Pomegranate Tree. These 4 pieces are reverse method, so what you are now seeing are their backs. 

I built a wooden crate / suitcase for them. The contour of the crate was made of 3/4 " (19mm) yellow pine wood, the sides of 1/4" (6 mm) plywood, reinforced with fiberglass mesh. 

I placed a sheet of 1/2" (12 mm) insulation foam at the bottom and placed "Carlotta", sandwiched inside an envelope of tar paper on top of the foam.

I slightly sprayed the mosaic with water to increase its flexibility and I placed an other layer of 1/2" foam on top of Carlotta.

I then installed "Pomegranate Tree" on top, also wrapped in tar paper.

Covered it with more insulation...

I placed the 2 Green eyes Girls over this. 

And covered them with another foam sheet. 

I have some space left, which I'll use for various goodies to bring back home (Mexican Chorizzo among other things...)

Next Month I'll tell you more about each one of these pieces coming with me to France...
 

I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. You can see my own mosaics on my site at mosaicblues. 

If you are interested by my work or would like to drop me a line please contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also

(and I recommend it !)

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NEWSLETTER

Carlotta - Part deux

3 weeks ago I posted in Digital Drawing of a Mosaic Portrait about the first stages of the design of an actual mosaic portrait.

From an original picture I designed a coloured and a black and white drawing of my mosaic.

Carlotta - Polarized.

From that picture came a black and white one later to be used to print the actual model.

So far, most of the work had been realized through computer.

As I intend to build this piece in a classical roman style, I added around our young friend a double meander frame.

Carlotta ready to print.

I still had to define the colours for the unglazed ceramic tiles on the colour picture itself.

And on a Chart going with it. These are unglazed ceramic tiles.

And finally also had to define the colours of the glass tiles for the double meanders, which I did based on colours used on various actual Roman mosaics.

Lod (Israel)  - Detail of a panel border.

After all these definition work it was time to decide which actual tiles I would employ. This is going to be my first portrait made of unglazed ceramic only, and I have had to find tesserae of  21 different colours. Having accumulated ceramic tesserae from several trips to Europe, I found in the workshop all that I needed. 

On March 15, I lined up the containers of tesserae around Carlotta's model, on the working table where I will build her ! 

This is the actual support onto which I will build the mosaic itself. I will use the reverse method and you can see it is the mirror image of the original picture...

In a next post I will show you the actual building of this reverse method mosaic. Make sure you receive it in your mailbox : please subscribe to my Mosaicblues Newsletter where I also share with you news about Materials, Techniques and Sources of Inspiration of modern and antique (Specially Greeks and Romans) Mosaic Artists and Patrons !

I am a French Mosaic Artist. I usually live and work with my 2 dogs, 2 cats and 10 chickens in Headland, Alabama, USA but I have a second studio in Saint Valery sur Somme, France. You can see more of my mosaics on my mosaicblues page.

If you would like to discuss or commission a portrait mosaic, or any other type of mosaic, please call me at (334) 798 1639 or drop me an email at  frederic.lecut@gmail.com.