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| This is a piece of my mosaicing, please do not copy the picture without linking back to the page! |
I discovered to my astonishment that micro mosaicing had actually been around for centuries.
Not the way that I do it of course, as you can see from the photo above, I use glass beads of various shapes and sizes for my work.
Micro mosaics have been found dating back as early as the Byzantine Empire as early as 300 AD and were unusual to other mosaics of that time in that they were small enough to carry. A big change happened in Italy when a law called The Edict of Milan was bought into being by Roman Emperors Constantine 1 and Licinius. This edict made it legal for open Christian worship and a huge new art form was born as people made all kind of religious works to show their love of Christ. All micro mosaics from that time were of religious design and not many still remain although some work has been preserved from Pompeii. It was very rare at that time although there are still some works you can view still today, most significantly The Twelve Feasts of the Greek Orthodox Church in Bargello in Florence.
This picture is of a 45cm high micro mosaic that can be found in Saint Katherine's Monastery in Sinai in Egypt. It dates back to the early 13th century and is reproduced here because it is a public domain piece, to old to have any copyright on it.
Micro Mosaicing as an art form began to become popular and much more sought out after the Renaissance period of the 14th to 17th century, when work resumed on this diminutive art form. Most popular amongst the nobility taking the Grand Tour - travelling around Europe to immerse themselves in experiences and cultures unlike their own - the 19th century saw a massive burst of micro mosaics. Artists had moved away from the religious iconography and into more pastoral scenes for inspiration and people would by small pieces of work either to send back to be inlaid into furniture at home or worn as jewellery.
Fun Fact; Often pieces of work were sent home to loved ones just as a kind of gift to say that the person was thinking of them. They were the forerunner of the modern day postcards that are so popular now. Our modern postcards are much lighter, however and considerably cheaper too.
This is a micro mosaic brooch of the Pantheon made around about 1875 and is set in black glass. Again it is a free public domain picture which you are free to use as distribute as you like.
Italian micro mosaicers would rarely sell their work within their own country, preferring instead to import them to England and France where they were hugely popular and would get the best prices. These days most mosaicing is recognised as being made of small square tiles (called tesserae) and were only the possessions of the truly wealthy. Mosaics like the floors at Fishborne Roman Palace in West Sussex in England were huge and took many man hours to complete. Micro mosaics, however were much smaller but still only really available to the very wealthy.
Using tiny oblong tesserae of glass, these micro mosaic artists could fit anything between 3000 to 5000 of these tiny tiles into a square inch of mosaic! I have often wondered if I should count the beads on my own work to put into listings. It doesn't seem like such a scary task having read that!
Mind you, ancient micro mosaicers would not have just used these tiny tiles, some used enamel to do their work in and some used microsopic cellular algae called diatoms for their work. Not just super art but super food as well! In fact some artists painted work with really teeny, tiny lines on to make them looked as if they had been micro mosaiced. That is a labour of love if I ever heard of one.
Micro mosaics, particulary of the jewellery kind went out of fashion in the 1870's and these days you are unlikely to find anyone working to that standard of minutae. In Asia some work is being done using machines to make and place the tiny tiles but the art of hand working such small pieces of micro mosaics seems to be more than modern artists can handle. Still in the province of the wealthy if you find a piece of Roman micro mosaic art for sale now you can still expect to pay through the nose for it.
Which is where I come in, although even I would not do the standard of work the ancients did routinely, I do use beads as thin as 1mm and have to use tiny needle pointed tweezers to place my beads and sometimes to hold the work still as I am beading. I use a range of types of beads, seed beads, bugle beads, faceted beads (seen in the heart tea light holder above), sometimes even tiny shells and sequins. Unlike the old micro mosaics however, I aim to make mine cheap enough to be purchased by more or less anyone. Mosaics can be so beautiful and I think that it is sad that everyday people were unable to enjoy them the way the wealthy did in the past.
My job is to make art work using micro mosaic techniques that are not only nice to look at but that also serve a function. From jewellery to Christmas Decorations, key rings to key holders and many other pieces of functional art, I hope to bring micro mosaicing into as many homes as possible. I just have to work out how to get my work on that first page of Google and out into the world now. Ah well, just like with the ancient micro mosaicers, practice makes perfect right?
An example of a modern micro mosaic jewellery piece, this little bird brooch is made using glass seed beads of different sizes and colours. Please link back to this page if you want to use this picture and include accurate atribution to me.
For further information about the micro mosacing that I do, pop along and like my Facebook Page.
To purchase any of the pieces in this blog or on the Facebook Page, pop along to my Etsy Shop,
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