Author: gertrud

My first Brazilian mosaic

Published by gertrud

  Brazilian Tile , 41x41cm , hand cut ceramic tile pieces glued on fibre netting, grouted with black tile grout, mounted on black mdf board The call for artists for works inspired by textile&tesserae of the Institute of Mosaic Art, Berkely, encouraged me to pursue an already existing idea – to translate designs originally created for textiles into mosaic. When I moved to Brazil I became enchanted by the floral patterns of the textiles of the North East. In search for a motive for my first “Brazilian” mosaic, I remembered these textile patterns as ultimate designs of Brazil – colorful, big, bold, dynamic and yet humble as they depict nature – flowers and leafs. Embracing the adventure and leaving my field of expertise – roman style mosaics made out of natural stone – I created my first Brazilian mosaic out of ceramic tiles. The new material – ceramic tile – was also a choice because it is a common material to decorate floors and walls in Brazilian homes. It fitted my philosophy to create mosaics …

Mosaics in Rio de Janeiro

Published by gertrud

If thinking of Rio de Janeiro mosaic is not what comes up your mind first. Its the sugar loaf or the Corcovado that are the images of this extraordinairy city.   If you think of Rio you have these views in mind: Maybe some of you  which have been to Rio might have gone up or down the famous stairs that connect the district of Lappa with Santa Theresa. The stairs were decorated with tiles over many years by a chilenean artist who sold postcards to be able to buy more tiles and got so famous that tourists from all over the world sent him tiles typical of their countries or depicting their home town which he then incorporated in the decoration of the stairs. We even found a tile from the city my father was born in “Erfurt” in eastern Germany. But I wanted to see more mosaics in Rio. Through a friend in Brasilia I got the contact of Moema Branquinho who lives and works as a mosaic artist in Rio. Asking if I …

THE AYVALIK MOSAIC

Published by gertrud

The Ayvalik Mosaic – grouted and ready to be used! The aim of this project was to decorate a room in a restored greek townhouse in Ayvalik at the norther aegean  coast of Turkey with a mosaic. This newly build multi purpose bath room which is accessible from the garden and from the house has features of a turkish bath/hamam: a heated floor, heated marble benches and walls but also serves as a water play area of the patio in summer and a second shower room for the 6 bed holiday house. Fascinated by the beauty of antik mosaics I wanted to recreate some of the decorative elements of an antik mosaic to appear in our modern life today again. And I wanted to give this mosaic the purposes that mosaics  originally were created for: a practical purpose of covering a floor to be better walked on, water to be better drained from the floor into a drain system and the floor to be better cleaned, a decorative purpose to add color and designs to …