Wiregrass Mosaic Project - Troy University

On Sunday October 10, and Thursday October 15, I led 4 free mosaic workshops at Troy University Campus in Dothan. October is a gorgeous month in Alabama, and we were working under a tent graciously installed there for the occasion by the University Staff.

Our goal with this project  is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of community mosaic projects by quilting together a great number of small individual mosaics.

Altogether, about 40 people came to enjoy the cutting and laying of tesserae on a mesh.

We had one 3 hours session on October 10, and three 2 hours sessions on October 15.

There were only 2 patterns proposed for these 2 first sessions.  A Traditional Roman geometric one : 

And a Malta / St Andrew's Cross

We actually spent 9 hours tiling and produced 56 individual brightly coloured 6 x 6" mosaics.

The individual pieces at the Library.

The next stage of the project will be the installation of these pieces on the rectangular table and benches in the park.

After that, we will have more sessions to realize the mosaics needed to cover the Round tables and benches. 

We need your help for the next stages !

If you would like to help and participate, or learn more about this Project, please contact :

• Donna Miller by email at dmiller@troy.edu or by phone at (334) 983 6556 ext 1321, or

• Frederic Lecut (me) by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639

 

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

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Miura Hanshi Mosaic, all tiles laid !

I finished laying Miura Hanshi's last tiles last night ! 

I worked fast on this piece as I want it ready as early as possible to take pictures, wrap up the rewards for my Kickstarter campaign backers and take with me to Pensylvania for the KNBK Gasshuku in November.

It took me just a little more than 2 weeks to lay this 22 x 30' piece. I hardly worked on any other mosaic while I was building this one.

Miura Hanshi Mosaic, October 3, 2015, DRY

Remember that you are seeing the back of the piece. it will be glued onto a ridgid support before it can be flipped and seen for the first time.

In the afternoon I sprayed the piece with water to show its actual colours.

Miura Hanshi Mosaic, October 3, 2015, WET

Water turned the granite tesserae from a dull grey to a brilliant black. You still cannot see the difference between the two different granites used for the background and for Hanshi's black attire. You'll have to wait until the piece is flipped - which should happen sometimes this week - and cleaned up, which should take care before October 15. 

 

Detail of the head

If you liked this post, please forward it to a friend. If you did not like it, feel free to forward it to your ennemies. 

 

 

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

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Mosaic Project - TROY University

On Sunday October 10, from 2 to 5 p.m., I will lead the first FREE workshop  of our next Wiregrass Mosaics Project at the Troy University in Dothan. A second workshop will follow on Thursday October 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Our goal with this project  is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of community mosaic projects  by quilting together small individual mosaics.

In community mosaic projects, often, one big mosaic is realized by a team of individuals working together on a big mosaic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A group snail mosaic

In our case, individuals will realize their own mosaic, which will later be quilted together to realize a much bigger piece. 

An individual snail mosaic

Once we have demonstrated our technical and organizational ability, we will be in a position to launch bigger projects involving much more people in the Wiregrass Area.

In this first stage, our goal is to cover with mosaics concrete furniture installed behind the Malone Hall. 

They include :

4 round tables & 12 round benches

1 rectangular table & 2 rectangular benches

Only the tops of the tables and benches will be covered with mosaics, the rest of the furniture will be painted.

On October 10 and 15, we will hold 5 workshops of 10 to 15 people each, to realize the individual mosaics. The participants will work from printed designs.

Later in October we will set the mosaics on the furniture.

I have organized similar projects over the past 2 years with the Wiregrass Museum of Art and the Headland Chamber of commerce.

• WMA Workshop, March 2015
• Headland Spring Festival Workshops, May 2015.

In May 2015 at the Headland Spring Festival, 20 small (6 x 6”) mosaics were realized by  children between the age of 7 and 12, some of them with the help of their parents.  We only used black and white ceramic tiles.
 

At Troy participants will mostly be adults: students of the University, and volunteers from the outside.  We will use the same type of ceramic tiles we used in Headland, only  in 10 different colours.

As I explained in an earlier post, I believe Art is the best way to develop creativity in people, because they can immediately see the result of their own creativity; and our world will need creators.

What is also very important is to help people realize what they can do as a group. Here, every individual makes a little mosaic, that little mosaic may not look very fancy by itself...

… But when you put side by side in an harmonious way all these little pieces, you get an amazing result.

 

This is why I like the concept of individual mosaics rather than having a group working on one big piece. In a group, the less assertive individuals might not be able to express themselves.


These workshops are open to students and teachers of Troy University AND  to the general public.

We would love to have you come join us, participate, and learn how to do these mosaics.

I will need much more participants for our 2016 projects, and am hoping to train people needed to lead small mosaic teams.

You need however, to REGISTER to participate so we can properly plan the workshops.



 
To Register and/or for more information, please contact :

• Donna Miller by email at dmiller@troy.edu or by phone at (334) 983 6556 ext 1321, or

• Frederic Lecut (me) by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639

 See you in October !

Chi lavora con le sue mani è un lavoratore...

Chi lavora con le sue mani è un lavoratore.
Chi lavora con le sue mani e la sua testa è un artigiano.
Chi lavora con le sue mani e la sua testa ed il suo cuore è un artista.

San Francesco D’Assisi

Who works with his hands is a worker,
Who works with his hands and head is a craftsman,
Who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.

  
S. Francis of Assisi


Qui travaille de ses mains est un ouvrier
Qui travaille de ses mains et avec sa tete est un artisan
Qui travaille avec ses mains, sa tete et son coeur est un artiste !

Saint Francois d'Assise 

Win an original mosaic with $1.00 !

We made it ! 

My Kickstarter Campaign for the Miura Hanshi Mosaic is now fully funded thanks to an amazing international community of persons, some of whom I have known for decades, some of them I never met before !

To express my deep appreciation for the wonderful community of my supporters I created a 3rd special reward, an original 6 x 6 " mosaic, which will be made out of the same materials I'll use for the main mosaic. 

This is how it goes :

• I have generated a 3rd Lucky Number between 5,523 and 5,999.
• If you pledge $1.00 to my Kickstarter campaign and are the FIRST person to reach the 3rd Lucky Number of the campaign, or you are the LAST person to pledge, you will win this original mosaic.

Here is the Link to pledge or forward : 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/262991818/mosaic-portrait-of-sword-master-miura-takeyuki-hid

We have a little less than 2 days left. 

Good Luck, Thank you again ! 

Frederic

The campaign ends next Tuesday, September 15 at 2:17 PM Central Time.

Le Grenadier

While I am devoting lots of time and energy to my Kickstarter campaign, I am not neglecting actual mosaic work ! 

I am presently working on 3 projects. One pair of eyes (a rather famous guy), a community project in partnership with Troy University in Dothan, and a bigger edition of my Pomegranate Tree presently in France. 

All of this is very exciting for a number of reasons, but tonight I wanted to introduce my "Grenadier" (this is French for Pomegranate...)

Most of you have seen this first Pomegranate Tree,  all made of glass, I built it on mesh in Alabama and assembled it in my French Studio last July. 

Is this a beauty or what ?

However, I believe the next Grenadier will be even more beautiful, and I'll tell you why : 

• I just brought back from France with me some really gorgeous tiles. 
• I added two alchemical Sun and Moon at the top corners of the tree  !

Can you see the joy in these golds and orangey yellows I purchased from my friends at Championnet Carrelages ! This, my friends, is going to be gorgeous. 

Please let me know how you feel about it !

If all goes well, Grenadier will be available in December 2015, a fantastic Christmas Present don't you think ?

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 this piece or my work in general 

or if you would simply 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 !)

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER

 

 

 

The Miura Hanshi Mosaic, Half Way there...

Hello everyone, 

As per this Monday morning, August31,  2015, the project has collected a total of $2,942.00 or 53 % of a total goal of $5,500.00. Pledges have been coming mostly from United States last week.

I explained all the details of this project in my last update post last week.

The mosaic model.

Here is the link to the project : The Miura Hanshi Mosaic Portrait.



This result is exciting of course. I have been wanting to do this mosaic for a long time. Actually, I started to think about it about 4 years ago, while Miura Hanshi, and Shimabukuro Hanshi were still alive. I wish they both had been able to see it... This will be my way to thank Muira Hanshi for all he taught to the men and women who teach me today ! Now, with your support, it might very well become true.

Beside the financial contributions, I have also received very kind words of people who cannot contribute financially but send words of encouragement, and ask me what tey can do to help. And it is very important, because pledging money is not the only way you can help !

One very important thing you can do is SHARE the project around you. 

This is very easy to do : 

Go to the Project Page by clicking HERE

Under the video find the line "Share this Project" 

Click on it, and a wide box will open under it. 

This box has several sharing options to different social networks, from left to right Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler & Pinterest. The most important are Facebook and Twittter.

So now if you click on the Facebook Share button, a window will open on your screen.

 
This is the regular Facebook Sharing window. Please share to your timeline. It would greatly help if you'd add a small line such as "Check my friend Frederic's awesome Mosaic and Martial Arts project !"



For those of you who use Twitter, you can use the same procedure to share, Twiter will directly generate the tweet on a window, you just have to send it !

Thank you, 

Frederic

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 !)

SUBSCRIBE to my

NEWSLETTER