There it is – the last fish figure for the AYVALIK MOSAIC.
I almost procrastinated its finalization. These figures have been living with me for almost a year now. Every day I looked at them, checked the original photo against my copy, looked closely at single areas again and again, especially the fins. I always underestimated these little things. Yesterday it took me a whole day to put them and the contour line around the whole figure. I worked for eight hours solid until my eyes would not see and my fingers could not grip the little tesserae anymore.
These mosaics are lines that interact with each other in shape and color. Beautifully crafted lines and carefully chosen colors and their contrast to each other are making these figures look so amiable and pleasant.
Now the work is more mechanical, setting the background tesserae and finally installing the mosaic. I am very nervous about the latter as I have not done it in such a scale before.
I don’t know how on earth these people 2000 years ago could manage to put mosaic floors of more then 20m2 down. They must have had an army of workers cutting stone and laying them!
Next weeks I will hopefully have 2 helpers for the background so that I can concentrate on making little trial tiles to practice putting mosaic on a wall.
Any advise from more experienced mosaic crafters are welcome! Please use the comments section or contact me on the website.
But now its carnival in Brasil!
I am looking forward to relax my tired eyes in the colorful costumes,
my stiff neck in the rhythms of the different bands
and my far to tense mind in the company of people that just want to have fun for 4 days.
(For my German speaking readers, that are interested in the refugee crisis, please find this letter with a report about the situation in Lesbos in pressing on the link)