Polymer clay mosaics - trending now

I had quite a surprise today, when reading this post on the Polymer Arts Blog about polymer clay mosaics, to find myself mentioned:

https://www.thepolymerarts.com/blog/mosaic-flow/

New Zealand Mosaic Art Inc - New Website

The website for the New Zealand Mosaic Art Inc is now up and running: www.nzmosaicart.co.nz
You can see some of my polymer clay mosaics featured in the Member Gallery

2017 Polymer Clay Awards

PHOTO TO BE POSTED LATER

I have just finished my latest polymer dot mosaic artwork, which will be my main entry for the 2017 International Polymer Clay Awards competition. Unfortunately I cannot show a photo of it yet, as I believe one of the rules of the competition is that it must not have been exhibited or shown (which includes online) anywhere before. As soon as the competition has been judged, I will post a photo and a description of why I believe it fits the theme of the competition, which is "To Boldly Go".

New look website

This is my first post of 2017 and it is well into January because I have seriously been considering my creative direction for this year. After a little mishap on 6 January, involving resin and a pocket money idea, my husband reminded me that one of my New Year's resolutions was to ‘be proud of my creative artwork’. So rather than spend any more wasted time on salvaging the disaster, which was only started to use up some coloured varnishes I no longer wanted, it went straight in the bin.

It also reminded me that it is my dot mosaics that I am most proud of. So, I will concentrate on creating some of these, which can then be reproduced (as greeting cards, block prints and possibly pendants and other gift items) to provide lower cost items to sell at selected markets and art gallery stores while promoting my mosaic art. I will try out the pendant idea at the Mission Bay Art and Craft Market at the end of this month.

I have also given my website a new look, to reflect my creative focus for 2017, and hopefully future years.

Post Script: Since writing this, I have decided to also continue with my idea of making Swirl-StoNZ, as small souvenir/gift items to demonstrate and sell at art and craft markets, to attract interest in my own work and polymer clay as a creative medium in general. The relatively quick and unpredictable design when making these Swirl-StoNZ, (based on the polymer clay Lentil Bead technique) is a perfect balance to the slow, precise nature of my mosaic art. I will post more about this project when it is fully developed.

Puhoi Art Show - People's Choice award

Found out tonight that I won the People’s Choice award at the Puhoi Art Show. I had three entries in the show but I believe it was for my polymer clay mosaic titled ‘Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto’. This news made my evening.

Puhoi Art Show 2016

Tonight was the opening night of the Puhoi Art Show. It runs from 25 November to 4 December in the Centennial Hall, Puhoi. I have entered three pieces: ‘Green Kiwi’, ‘Lady Aotearoa’ and ‘Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto’.

Here are the results, so far

Thank you all so much for taking the time to vote. Yesterday I reviewed all the responses over the last week (from my Facebook page, the International Polymer Clay Association page and the New Zealand Mosaic Art page). Here are the combined results:

15% preferred ‘A’

80% preferred ‘B’

5% liked both or did not choose

So the real mosaic made from polymer clay tiles ‘B’ triumphed over the computer generated mosaic ‘A’. It is good to know, as I plan to do more, that it is worth investing my time in creating this type of mosaic artwork. Thank you again for your interest.

Please vote

It is the same image made up of round mosaic tiles:

A – computer generated mosaic using the Percolator app from Apple

B – actual mosaic created with handmade polymer clay mosaic tiles 

NZMA - a new way forward

Members of the New Zealand Mosaic Art organisation

This was all very last minute but earlier this week I become a member of the New Zealand Mosaic Art organisation, just in time to attend their Symposium and Workshops being held today at the Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa. I had attended the opening of the NZMA national exhibition last night and already met some of the members. Today turned out to be an interesting and exciting event, being present as this organisation (mainly on Facebook) voted to move forward and become a National organisation.

I have always been drawn to stained glass/mosaic work, particularly contemporary styles, but was not sure how my polymer clay mosaics would be received. From the members I spoke to, they were appreciative of anything mosaic, and several actually used polymer clay. I received many complimentary comments on the photos I showed of my dot mosaics. Unfortunately, as I only joined last week, it was too late for me to enter anything in this current exhibition. I will have to be patient, as the next national exhibition will not be until 2018, in Whangarei.

I now feel quite inspired to continue with my dot mosaics, and become involved with this group (as the Auckland Polymer Clay Guild is no longer running). There may even be future opportunities to demonstrate/teach how to incorporate polymer clay with more traditional mosaic materials. 

So many ideas, I just need to decide what to start next - but first my studio needs a thorough clean and tidy! 

My entry has been submitted

Photo coming soon of 'A New Approach' 

My entry has been submitted, for the 2016 Hibiscus and Bays Art Awards, by photograph. Hopefully it will be selected for the exhibition. I will wait until the exhibition has opened before posting the finished photo. It will run from 28 October to 11 December 2016 at the Estuary Arts Centre, Orewa, north of Auckland.

The final tile is in place

Today I stuck the final tile down on my latest mosaic artwork, titled ‘A New Approach’. Just got to grout it now and then it will be ready to photograph and submit for the Hibiscus and Bays Art Awards 2016. 

Work in Progress - September 2016

I have 3 weeks left until the submission deadline of 3 October 2016, for the Hibiscus & Bays Art Awards. Not only do I have to finish making and sticking all the tiles in place, it then needs to be grouted and photographed, as initial selection for the competition is by photograph. Will I get this finished in time? Yes, I have to!

Members Merit Awards Exhibition 2016

In the foreground: 'Flowers in the Round' and 'Lady Aotearoa'

Have just returned from our two week trip to the UK, so went to visit the Members Merit Awards Exhibition at the Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa today. I missed the opening night on 7 July, as we were flying back from London, but was pleased that two of my three entries had a very central position in the exhibition.

For more details of the exhibition, which runs until 31 July, see 
www.estuaryarts.org

Lady Aotearoa

I started this sculptural piece while we were waiting for our New Zealand Citizenship applications to be approved (November last year) and I have incorporated some NZ icons (two Kiwi, the Pohutukawa flower, a fern leaf and Koru/fronds which are repeated as curls in her hair) into the design, so it seemed appropriate to call her 'Lady Aotearoa'. Now she is finally finished, here are four different views.

The core of this sculpture is a polystyrene head, which I used a few years ago as display prop, covered in several layers of papier mache and modelling paste and then sealed with acrylic paint and PVA glue. Onto this base I glued round mosaic tiles, made and baked from polymer clay, and then filled the joints with white tile grout.

Lady Aotearoa will be one of my three entries in the forthcoming Members Merit Awards Exhibition at the Estuary Arts Centre at Orewa (north of Auckland, NZ).

Featured on the The Polymer Arts Blog

What an honour to find out that my 'Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto' mosaic artwork was featured on The Polymer Arts Blog today.

https://www.thepolymerarts.com/blog/dots-and-lines-and-landscapes/
This really made my day.

PRESS RELEASE: Approximately 6,935 pieces

Local polymer clay artist, Claire Fairweather, is showcasing her first large mosaic artwork at the July exhibition at Beach Bistro. Titled ‘Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto’, this local scene is made up of about 6,935 handmade round polymer clay tiles. The whole artwork measures 102cm wide by 40cm high and forms the centrepiece of the exhibition.

 

“It turned out to be a labour of love but I am proud of the end result,” says Claire “I had no idea how long it would take to complete. In the end I spent over 150 hours and finished it just in time for the exhibition. This is a view that I love and I have enjoyed every minute of the making of this artwork”.

 

Claire won a ‘Best in Sculpture’ at the 2014 International Polymer Clay Awards for a three part sculpture titled ‘Spring Trio’, which was sold at a previous exhibition at Beach last year. Since then she has been developing her own unique style of contemporary mosaic art, making her own round mosaic tiles from polymer clay.

 

‘Mosaics, Jewellery & More’ is a mixed exhibition that has been put on by five members of the Auckland Polymer Clay Guild - Claire, Joy, Kesten, Nicky & Sue. Polymer clay is a very versatile creative medium, which is shown in this exhibition by the diverse range of work from the five different artists. There is jewellery, mirrors, mosaic art and sculpture on show throughout the month of July at Beach Bistro, 1A Beach Front Lane, Browns Bay, open from 7am – 7pm, seven days a week.

'Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto'

'Watching the sunrise over Rangitoto'
102cm x 40cm (40 x 16 inches)
polymer clay dot mosaic

Here it is, my first large 'dot mosaic' artwork. It is made up of about 6,935 tiles and took over 150 hours to complete. Each tile has been handmade, from polymer clay, and glued in place on the canvas before being grouted with coloured acrylic modelling paste.

 

The story behind the picture: One morning when I left home early, I saw this beautiful sunrise over Rangitoto from the beach reserve at Browns Bay [Auckland, New Zealand]. I immediately thought this would make a great picture, as I love this view, and I will so miss it when we relocate. I took some photos on another day, for reference purposes, particularly to show the outline of the vegetation that I planned to use in the foreground of the picture. There happened to be this couple, sat on the edge of the reserve, in one of my photos, and so I decided to include them in this picture for added interest.

 

Here is another photo taken with different lighting, although the colour is not so true, it shows the textural surface of the tiles better.

 

Counting the tiles: I knew someone would ask me how many tiles were used to create this picture, and I was curious myself, so I spent several hours this weekend counting them. Here is my counting copy.



Counting the tiles

I was only going to do it once, so I wrote on a photocopy (two A3 sheets joined together), numbering each tile as I went, just in case I lost count. The thick black lines mark blocks of 500. I am fairly sure I counted them all and, give or take a couple, there were 6,935.

 

 

My 'labour of love' is complete

I have not posted for a while because I have been working every spare minute to get my first large dot mosaic picture finished in time for an exhibition next month. I have just calculated that I have spent about 150 hours creating this mosaic artwork. Measuring approximately 115cm x 40cm (40 x 16 inches), it is called 'Watching the sun rise over Rangitoto',  and today I have finally finished it, just in time. It will be the centre piece of my display in July's month long exhibition at Beach Bistro (formerly Beach Café), 1a Beach Front Lane, Browns Bay. Open 7am - 7pm seven days a week.

 

I will post a photograph, and the story behind the picture, once the exhibition has opened.

Still a long way to go!

My first dot mosaic in progress

I am really pleased with how my first dot mosaic is taking shape but there is still a long way to go. Unfortunately I did not complete the whole picture in time to enter it in the Members Merit Awards exhibition, at the end of November, which was my original plan. I had no idea how long it would take me, and at the rate it is going, it might just be ready for the exhibition next year.

As this is my first artwork using this 'dot mosaic' technique, I want it to be the best I can do, so it will take however long it needs. I have no idea how long this will be but I am finding it hard to continue at the moment, due to social events and planning the run up to Christmas but more so because I feel some trepidation about what will happen when I eventually come to grout it.

 

After all the hours I will have spent making the tiles and gluing them in place, I would hate to ruin the whole piece by using the wrong grout mix. As I have used an art canvas as the base, I need to make sure that the grout will flex and not crack. To put my fears at rest, I have decided to make a small dot mosaic on a canvas, so I can experiment with the grout mix before I apply it to this piece.

 

I am not likely to get any more studio time in before Christmas now so here is how my artwork, titled 'A New Approach', looks now. Next year I will post more progress photos as the dot mosaic develops.

'A New Approach' - in progress @ 29.11.2014

I need to do what inspires me

We are well into the year now and, when I look back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2014, I do not feel I have spent that much time doing ‘what inspires me’. The first four months of the year were spent on my application to CreativeNZ, for a grant to attend the EuroSynergy Conference in Malta, which was successful; then organising for and attending the event at the end of April/beginning of May. This was a fantastic opportunity and was made even better by the fact that I won a ‘Best in Sculpture’ in the 2014 International Polymer Clay Awards, announced at the conference. Apart from teaching a short course of polymer clay evening classes, other polymer clay workshops have waned because of lack of participants, which is disappointing after the amount of time I spent last year preparing teaching material. Exploration of a few ideas (hollow lighting forms and PINZ) then crept in as well as the creation of a couple of sculptures (from long planned ideas) for exhibitions.

A few weeks ago I spent three solid days thoroughly cleaning, tidying and de-cluttering my tiny studio. I have a few events planned to try and clear old stock from my de-cluttering process. I now feel in a good frame of mind to work on something new and, for a while, to just ‘do what inspires me’ rather than creating work to sell. I posted recently about a new area of exploration that I am calling ‘dot mosaics’ for want of a better term. As I have said previously, my original reason for turning to polymer clay was so I could make my own mosaic tiles. I have searched extensively on Google and cannot really find anyone creating mosaics with round tiles, especially not hand made, which is good as I always want to do something different to everyone else.

I enjoy creating mosaic designs and laying out the tiles. I have not yet tried making a mosaic with round tiles but I am hoping that, if I keep the designs simple and use a range of different sized round tiles, there will be no need for cutting tiles. The round tiles should be able to be placed fairly quickly, butt jointed in a random fashion, just filling the larger interstices with smaller tiles. I will have to see if the design will still read but hopefully by varying the shades of different colours and maybe introducing different textures, as well as leaving a slightly wider grout joint between different elements in the design, it will work.

Apart from being a quicker method for creating mosaics (although I will have to make all the tiles from polymer clay), I hope it will create mosaics with a softer, more organic feel, rather than the normal square or angular cut tiles that are used. We seem to be naturally drawn to circles – it is a natural form, living things are made from cells and is it not said that “there are no straight lines in nature”? I would love to be able to create beautiful mosaics that people are naturally drawn to and want to touch. A very contemporary use of an old technique – both in tile shape (round) and material (polymer clay).