All posts filed under: Blog posts

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 …

Conceiving THE AYVALIK MOSAIC

Published by gertrud

For one whole year now I have planned and tossed the idea of making a floor mosaic for our house in Ayvalik at the northern aegean coast of Turkey. THE HOUSE is being renovated – so a great opportunity for me to do a floor mosaic as a sort of apprentice piece. I have been practicing mosaic making since 3 years. It started in a mosaic studio (see Facebook Mustafa Salih Kamanlıoğlu) in the old city of ANKARA in Turkey – because I was looking for a place to practice my turkish language skills – and got absolutely hooked to THE CRAFT. after attending a one week course in floor mosaic making at Luciana Notturni’s mosaic school   in the beautiful city of Ravenna in May 2015 I feel ready  … to take on this BIG PROJECT.