Out and About
Your invitation to visit…Twenty-One, Southend
Time has flown since I last updated you from Mrs Mosaic’s Studio. I recently had some creative friends over for an evening of relaxation, drinking some much-needed refreshment and catch up whilst crafting the night away. We had a lot of laughs whilst putting our worlds to rights, a fair few secrets were shared and we agreed what was said in the cabin should stay in the cabin. So I’ve come up with a new name for my log cabin workshop:’ Mrs Mosaic’s Speakeasy’! At some point I will get around to making a sign to go over the door.
Out and About
Busy times, for us all I managed to pop into The Peoples Gallery at Southend Library where my friend, Nicola (what is it with that name!) has a joint show of her work with the photographer, Terry Mendoza with his vibrant images of culture in Africa, a great collection which was an effective display with Nicola Osborne’s bright Origins collection.
Trip to Brighton
We had a wee visit down to take in the sights, sounds and smells of Brighton over the half term week. We walked miles and had a few cheeky dips in the Channel …brr! It was a lovely change to be in blue sea rather than the murkier waters of our home estuary! We squeezed in a quick visit to the University of Sussex Open da which has a fabulous campus but was not the right course for my daughter. We did plenty of moseying around the independent shops of North Laine and the Lanes and were lucky with the weather. I loved the vibrant street art, plenty of colourful inspiration. Here are my favourite shots.
Workshops
Classes this summer: return to Barcelona
Paving slabs – Barcelona style, it has been a few years since I’ve run this fun course. It’s a messy and relatively quick mosaic method, as well as being physically quite hard work. The final part of mixing a cement slurry is best done outdoors as it can be a bit splashy, so this is very much a class that suits the summer months between July and September. The piece needs to be made over two sessions, at least a week apart, the first session would be 10-2pm. At the session two which takes 1-2 hours you release the slab from the mould for the exciting reveal of your design and finish off with a clean and top -up grout.
I’ve completed making a few samples now, which are pictured on my social channels and feature as a bookable class on the website. There are only a few dates at the moment, if you want to liaise on a date that better suits you please email nicola@mrsmosaicart.co.uk A minimum of two students is required to run a session and there has to be a gap of at least 7 days between the two classes for the cast piece to cure fully before a final grout once removed from the mould. Expect a lot of fun and a little of hard work mixing the cement too!
Recent Mosaic Classes
May was a busy month (somewhat surprising with so many bank holidays) A mosaic class is always an unusual gift and below you can see the results of a one-day class for a special birthday present among three friends. This piece was intended to hang in a beach hut called Peggy in Walton-on-the-Naze, incorporating all the family’s beach finds collected over the years. The hut can be hired for a day out too, here’s a link https://www.waltononthenazebeachhuts.com/peggie/ if you fancy getting some friends together for a traditional day at the beach. Now that the student has finished it, they’ve decided they might need to make another one as they can’t bear to be parted from this one and I can’t really blame them. I just love how the prehistoric sharks’ teeth are arranged around the mirror.
I also met a wonderful mother and daughter who had been searching for something to make whilst spending quality time together. They made these wonderful butterflies and had a special afternoon together.
Exhibitions and fayres
LTC November Mosaic Exhibition – name…project…
We have agreed a title for the show at Leigh Community Centre now- the popular vote went to: “Mrs Mosaics Marvellous Mosaic students”.
Posters for the exhibition are the next job on my list. I’m also liaising with the people at the centre about potentially having a drinks reception and possibly a room to offer my ever-popular Xmas Star mosaic workshops.
Special Project – the largest wall for hanging work to ensure an impact is the main stairwell so I’ve created a project for all students. Anyone who has already taken part in a class with me is invited to collect a small piece of board to decorate and display in the exhibition on the main stairwell. The aim is to communicate visually how diverse the medium of mosaics is and that they be made from nearly anything. The challenge is to limit the use of traditional tiles, be it glazed tiles, vitreous glass tiles, or porcelain (unglazed) ceramic), to keep the wight down as they will be hung on a special system.
A £5 donation will be asked of each student which will be used towards the exhibition costs, (primarily liability insurance) in exchange for a 20×20 or 15x15cms board with dry cement adhesive, already be mounted with hangers. This could be a lovely summer project to continue whilst I’m not scheduling classes over the summer months. Please drop me an email if you’d like to take part and we can liaise over the details.
Twenty-One Southend Exhibition
I’m delighted to have my mosaic work featuring on a small display wall at Twenty-One Southend until 26th June so please try to get down there if you can. The gallery is right under the head of Southend Pier (it’s the longest pleasure pier in the world, in case you didn’t know) What’s particularly lovely is that I am exhibiting alongside a display of photographs of Owen Harvey on the gallery’s main curved wall. The collection needs to be viewed in the large-scale print to fully appreciate the beauty he has captured in our everyday life at Southend on Sea. Check out his website here: https://owen-harvey.com/
Show up Southend
I’ve mentioned Show Up Southend previously, it’s a great organisation that has developed a voice for all local creative people. Rachel the organiser is multi-talented, and recently put together the fantastic all female panto, Robyn Hood in January this year. One of her latest projects has been collaborating with the council to bring a maker’s market into Southend Victoria Centre in partnership with the Design Shed and Indie Rock (where local performers are invited to an afternoon of open mic during the event). I was lucky to take part in the first one, on the success of which the council has approved it to run on the last Saturday of the month. Well worth a visit: http://showupsouthend.com/index.php/bigupsouthend/
Old Leigh Artist's Market
I also took part in the brilliant Old Leigh Artist Market in May. It started off as a very grey bank holiday Monday with ominous clouds looming over the estuary. Fortunately after few fats drops were blown away, the rain held off and the warm day encouraged a steady flow of visitors. There were points where my poor husband was on queue management for a while (well, asking two groups of people who was first).
The next Old Leigh Artist Market is on Monday August 28th, so if you’re not away (and why would you want to be stuck in bank holiday traffic?) do please pop down. What makes this market so special is the number of artists who are working live and giving demonstrations at the event.
Thanks for reading my latest newsletter. The next one will be in August and its already going to be a scorcher! If you know anyone who would like to read my latest newsletter please feel free to pass this onto them.
Many thanks for reading.
Nicola
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