It was through the Light of the North Art Trail that I discovered Dunblane-based mosaic artist Rachel Davies. Postponed 'til this coming spring, over forty decorated lighthouses located throughout Aberdeen city, Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Northern Isles will shine a light on local cancer support for CLAN. I'd seen one of these lighthouse sculptures as a work in progress at the studio of my friend and art mentor, Fiona of Create With Us. They are huge, and the finished designs are still under wraps until the trail begins.
Unless, that is, you follow the artists' social media accounts where you might get a sneaky peek. That's how I found Rachel's online mosaic workshops offering the chance to make my own slate creation. I immediately sent for a kit.
Arriving in good time for yesterday's Zoom class, the kit contained everything needed for the explosion design which first drew me to Rachel's work.
I received a prepared base, a bag of slate pieces, adhesive cement powder ready to mix, and tiles in the colour of my choice. A timely email also suggested some materials from around the house I should assemble before the class.
After introductions, the two hour workshop began with Rachel explaining how the base is prepared. Lightweight compressed foam, used by plumbers to line walls for tiling, is edged then painted by Rachel, ready for our mosaics. She suggested we started to lay out the main elements of the design whilst she described the slate and how it's cut by a special saw or bashed with a hammer, depending on the desired effect.
I transferred my fledgling design away from the computer to my nearby wipeable work surface and mixed up my adhesive. Rachel checked that we'd all achieved the correct gluey consistency and advocated wearing a mask whilst mixing due to the cement dust, something we all have to hand nowadays! Though nearly everyone in the twelve-strong class had made mosaics previously, there was nothing to daunt the beginner. With pre-cut pieces, no special tools were required either.
We were encouraged to incorporate any found or foraged natural materials we wanted into our mosaics. I toyed with the idea of including shells but preferred the raw jaggedness of the slate for my explosion. Material is bedded into the soft adhesive spread thickly over the base. There's no grouting afterwards - once the assembly is complete, the mosaic is finished and there's something very satisfying about this one-step method.
Rachel carefully positions each mosaic piece with tweezers but I enjoyed pressing the slate and tile fragments into the squidgy base by hand, allowing my design to appear organically. I'm usually a careful planner so I enjoyed the freedom encouraged by this form of mosaic art.
Rachel chatted away while we worked, checking in with everyone individually to make sure we were on the right track. There was plenty of opportunity to ask questions and learn more about this technique and Rachel's artworks. A comprehensive handout detailing the facts we might easily have forgotten, being so immersed in mosaic making, was also emailed out after the class.
In the two hour window, everyone's slate mosaic was complete, including mine. We were encouraged to showed them to the camera to see each other's work. I'm always awed by the unique designs created even though we all start with the same materials. Now there are slate explosions in Norway, Cyprus, Belgium and the US as well as around the UK thanks to Rachel's workshop yesterday. For that is the up-side of an on-line class, you can join from just about anywhere in the world.
My explosion is most likely to reside in my Aberdeenshire garden near the blue plant pots.
Or maybe near the front door to welcome you in - when you can come to visit, that is.
Details of all Rachel Davies Mosaic Art workshops can be found here:
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