What have you been up to during this period of Lockdown? Like me, perhaps you’ve re-decorated everything in sight, cleaned out your cupboards and now have a stock of bags to go to charity shops, whenever they re-open!
I have also been working on some creative ideas.
I was cleaning the studio, repainting bits that need repainting and generally trying the occupy my time well. On one of the shelves I found some mosaic tiles that I had been ‘keeping for a rainy day’! They are Smalti tiles which are a particular Italian glass tile. They are formed into rounds – pizza – and then cut up into rectangular chunks of a fairly regular size. I had bought two sets of mixed colours, so I sat down to sort them out. At first, I thought I had 4 or 5 shades of each colour, then discovered that there were actually 11 or 12 shades of each colour. I do enjoy sorting things, jigsaw pieces, mosaic tiles etc so I had fun trying to sort them into one continuous colour line.
My husband suggested that I mosaic the step into my studio but when I looked into using smalti I discovered that they are unsuitable for walking on. The tiles are meant to be used sideways, cut side uppermost, but that surface is very uneven. The benefit is that light reflects differently off the surfaces, giving a particular effect, but not suitable for walking on. Also, unusually for mosaic tiles, smalti are not usually grouted.
So, I designed a piece for our garden. We have a messy bit of garden (as one does) and we’re going to put up a screen with the picture hanging on it. See what you think:
It’s very colourful and I look forward to seeing it hanging in its new home.
I wish you a healthy time during this weird period of our lives and I hope to be running workshops and attending craft fairs soon.
Jane
