Workshop facilitation: designing a mosaic

Designing a mosaic with the members at Living Potential Care Farming

The brief:

I have been commissioned to facilitate a workshop in which me and the members attending design a sketch of a mosaic. This would be a 75cm size piece that says 'Thank you' with decoration that the members choose to include, such as the farm animals. It also needs the logo of the farm. The mosaic will be under a the National Lottery Heritage sign and next to a tree of gratitude.

Thoughts on the design of the workshop:

To run this workshop, I researched how to design mosaics and gathered some example mosaic artwork I found to show during the session for inspiration.

As I will not be involved in the creation of the mosaic, I need to ensure the design is simple and informative for those making the final artwork. I don't know what tesserae they will use or what colours they will have available, so I will keep it as simple as possible and allow the artists to develop it further during the the creation of the mosaic. The sketch will be to scale and have each element clearly outlined and coloured.

I want to design the workshop so that the members are involved in the process as much as possible, with everyone feeling like they have contributed. I also want them to have fun and reflect on the experience they at the farm, since it is an opportunity to celebrate it!

About the farm:

"Living Potential is based on a working farm, near Wetherby, Leeds. We are a community interest company, set up to be a non-profit social enterprise. It is run by Tanya and a team of staff who have many years of experience, teaching and working in a variety of environments and who have seen first-hand the therapeutic effects of nature-based interventions."

It is an inclusive and accessible farm offering a variety of activities where members can learn a range of skills. It is a mix of ages and abilities, so the session will be appropriate for those with disabilities. I will have a member of the team with me as well for support with this.

Mosaic designing:

Ideas inspired by this article by Helen Miles.

• Use rule of thirds for the composition.
• Keep it simple allowing there to be space so that it isn't too busy, as the small pieces of tesserae are already a lot for the eye to take in.
• Blocks of colour and shape will allow the mosaic to shine as it will give the artist freedom to experiment with the different tones tesserae creatively.
• 'The bigger something is, the more visual weight it has'.
• Contrast and gradients can be easily achieved with mosaic.
• The direction of the elements in the design of a mosaic impacts the way the piece flows immensely. Make use of leading lines to allow elements to flow off each other.

History of Mosaic:

Information taken from this article by Tile Club.

• Mosaic involves the arrangement of tesserae, which are bits and pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials, to create a piece of art. It is hand crafted by skilled artisans that create the arrangement and then set it in mortar or gout, or some kind of adhesive. 
• Being so durable, it is used for residential, commercial, and as public art installations. It is an old art form that has proven to stand the test of time, remaining beautiful for centuries; all the way back to the early Bronze Age (the time when the pyramids were being built). Because of this, they teach us a lot about the history of human culture and ancient ways of life, telling us stories from all over the world.
• Ancient Greece used it to create ornate floors and walls filled with patterns, and also depicting stories of daily life, and heroic legends.
• The Ancient Romans used it to create scenes of the gods and intricate geometric designs.
• The Byzantines used smalti tiles, which are smaller and vibrant and made from glass that could be tilted to reflect greater light. They created bold deigns and were often backed with genuine gold or silver leaf.
• Islamic craftsmen adopted the classical technique known as Zellij, which involved creating tiles in different colors and shapes and fitting them together to form intricate geometric and abstract patterns with a seamless finish. Today, Zellij art is the visual language of North African architecture, particularly in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
• Persia adopted mosaic creating a distinctive style of highly detailed designs using colored stones and brick. They made patterns of triangles, semi-circles, hexagons, and polygonal forms that involved humans, animals, birds, and floral motifs.
  
• Trencas also had their own style using tile shards and broken chinaware that were pieced together to create pictorial scenes and geometric patterns. This is what the popular artist and architect Gaudí is known for.

Inspirational examples of mosaic:

I collected a range of examples of mosaic pieces that align with themes that may inspire the members. They also show a range of compositions, uses of colour, and different techniques.

Session one of workshop:

The first session entailed discussing what mosaics are, what we want on the mosaic and how our sketches might materialise in the making.

We then each sketched ideas of what we would like in the design. After, we looked at each persons design and discussed what we liked about them. We then combined them into one large piece to scale, which I then redrew after the session to a make sure it is defined and the mosaic aspect considered, ready to be coloured.

My sketch

Holly's sketch

The other members sketches

First sketch of combination of ideas and scaled to life,
then the refined sketch with clear outlines.

Final sketch from session one

The second session will involve amendments of the design after feedback from the members and Tanya, who is the Managing Director. After this we will add colour to each element, and hopefully finalise everything.

Feedback from session one from managing director:

Tanya had a look at the design and sent feedback over email saying;

"The design is lovely, so glad you enjoyed it and the members certainly did. We think we’ll scale up to a metre and can we make it a circle rather than a square please. The heritage circle plaque will sit on top of this circle mosaic, like a big snowman!
One small alteration is I think we could probably do with a chicken or two, maybe instead of the strawberry? Just because the egg production is so central to what we do and the members care for 120 chickens every day!"

Session two of workshop:

In session two we looked at the design we had so far, which the members were very pleased with. We discussed what needed to be amended and got to work.

We started b creating the circle template that is a meter in diameter by sticking the paper together and using a pencil and string to draw the circle. The members held the string in the centre while I drew with the pencil attached to the other end of string, creating a curve as I pulled it round.

The members then cut out the elements of the previous design, to save time on re-drawing, and I stuck them into the new circular template where visually appropriate. We discarded the strawberry and added a chicken head. I had some of them draw chickens to occupy them, as not all could fit around the table to help with cutting and sticking, but in the end I drew the chicken head myself, as to fit the brief. I then had the members colour in each of the elements, which they seemed to really enjoy. We all discussed and voted on what colour each bit should be, so that everyone was happy.

Members colouring the elements of the mosaic.

Outcome of session two.

We didn't have time to complete the design and the colouring, however this wasn't an issue and they went ahead with making the mosaic.

I wasn't able to attend the mosaic workshop, however I have photographs that someone took. It is exciting to see the design being made and all of the members having a good time. It seems that the design was suitable for the requirements, being not too difficult to fill with the tiles, and each component of the design being identifiable.

These photos were taken from the Instagram, which had this caption and comments;