About 12 years ago, I fell in love with Tosca, my sister’s Border Collie !
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| Tosca in Saint Valery sur Somme, France. |
About a year later, a friend of mine having located a breeder with puppies not to far from home, I went there to look at them. I wanted a black and white female like Tosca. I ended up with a Red Male...
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| Mugen, 3 month old. |
I named him Mugen – a Japanese words meaning Endless or Infinity.
A loving and cheerful companion, Mugen had an endless creativity. Life never was boring around him !
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| Mugen loved water and destroyed a few water hoses... |
Extremely loving and sociable, he knew everyone in the neighborhood and everybody knew him, cooked for him, invited him to play, drive, spend the night and they would drive him home. I was just known as Mugen’s Dad...
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| Mugen, 5 years old |
When Mugen accidentally died in 2014 I was heartbroken...
Since I have this year created several mosaic models of beloved pets for their owners, I decided to build a mosaic to celebrate Mugen’s memory, based on the above picture of him.
This is the picture I worked from :
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| Mugen's Eyes. |
Using my Opus Pixellatum technique to realize this project, I created a model and had it printed.
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| Opus Pixellatum model for the Mugen Mosaic. |
I installed the model under a sheet of transparent vinyl on a bench in my studio.
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| The model under its vinyl sheet. |
I cut a piece of fiberglass mesh to be glued on top of it (the dark rectangle on the bench above the model)
And started to glue my tesserae on top of the mesh.
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| The Mugen Mosaic, first tesserae laid. |
I first lay every other tesserae, because it helps the glue set faster, and also because it allows me to later use - if I decide to do so - colors different from what is called by the model. This is one of the many variations allowed by Opus Pixellatum.
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| Mugen Mosaic, 50 % of tesserae laid. |
At this stage, I have to lay the remaining tesserae, I will use some iridescent tiles in lieu of the regular ones to complete the piece. Once everything is set, I will remove the enmeshed mosaic from the model, glue it to its support, and grout it. That will happen in the next article...
If you would like to build yourself a mosaic portrait of your pet, I will create a model of it from your picture. This printed model comes with a list and quantities of the tiles needed and instructions to carry out the work.
Beside the fact that such mosaic will end up costing you a fraction of the cost of a regular piece, you will have the great joy and satisfaction of building yourself a faithful and long lasting portrait of the beloved creature who faithfully shares or shared your life !
I am a French mosaicist
living in Headland, Alabama, USA.
My Art is about inspiring people.
You can contact me either by phone
at (334) 798 1639 or by email at
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