Interiors | Mosaic Love

My love of mosaic floors started in France but was cemented
on a trip to Pompeii … 

 Somehow, I convinced my other half in life and work that a mosaic floor was an essential element of the Byron warehouse. He stood stoically with me whilst I lost my mind sourcing the right tiles & tools ... and created this folly!

So many things about our move north were serendipitous, but none more so than meeting Jane from Villarustica.  Little did I know that Jane was a passionate creator of mosaics & like me, loved the traditional style. * Jane had the skill & the know-how to make it a reality...now I just needed to create the artwork.
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  *First things first. Create the typography & illustrate the floor with the words.
 In free-hand, using chalk I wrote "Love & the Sea is Free" on the floor.
After a few attempts it was perfected -  I copied it onto tracing paper. 
*Back in the studio, Jane traced over the words in black texta and transferred it onto mesh.   *The size, shape of the script and the flow of the font were critical to the design.
So far so good.  

Jane took me under her wing, and I became her most diligent student. We whiled away countless hours, chatting, cutting, grinding, gripping glueing tiles until our backs were sore and our hands were tired. Learning this hand-crafted and ancient skill was demanding on the body, but laughter and a few glasses of rosé eased the pain ...  

 Hours turned into days as we toiled away in Jane's recently completed studio and I fell in love with the Rafa & new puppy Roger...

Mosaic making is an ancient art form; images are created from coloured glass, stone, or other materials. The earliest known mosaic was discovered in Mesopotamia in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. It is pain staking work with each piece being cut by hand, the right tools are essential as is an attention to detail. 

Like any repetitious practice, your mind becomes a meditative part of the process as you focus on the art of making.   

In France I had seen brass banding used in mosaic floors and loved this idea for the Byron Bay entry. I sourced some brass bar and aged the pieces in the workshop, then booked the tilers. Hans and the team in pink shirts arrived, ready to work their magic - on this rather complicated mosaic floor. Thanks to Jane &  Decorated Earth. It looks awesome!

Slowly, the letters became words, and the phrase that we untangled from French to English, to Australian became a work of art in the floor.
*Read about the origins of the phrase found in Rome here  

(French friends explained zzat it roughly translates ‘to live on love and fresh water’
the expression being  ‘Vivre d’amour et d’eau fraîche’.
From this hybrid of words we came up with "Love & the Sea Are Free", which encapsulated a feeling and sense of place. 

To celebrate the finished mosaic floor we did a limited run of these T-shirts with the original graffiti - get in touch if you missed out & don't forget to look down when you visit. ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗