Fyrewurks » Art http://fyrewurks.com between the click of the light and the start of the dream Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:58:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 SMALTI http://fyrewurks.com/2008/09/smalti/ http://fyrewurks.com/2008/09/smalti/#comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:10:27 +0000 Jennifer http://fyrewurks.com/?p=81 Smalti mosaic tileMy sister sent me a pic of some of the smalti tiles we chose from in our last class – as you can see, it’s much brighter and more colorful than the smalti used in Byzantine art: I chose lots of blues and greens – at the moment I thought something oceanic sounded cool… but [...]]]> My sister sent me a pic of some of the smalti tiles we chose from in our last class – as you can see, it’s much brighter and more colorful than the smalti used in Byzantine art:

Smalti mosaic tile

Smalti mosaic tile

I chose lots of blues and greens – at the moment I thought something oceanic sounded cool… but then I thought that maybe I’d do an autumn-themed mosaic so I grabbed a few autumnal colors (I also thought they’d complement my oceanic colors if I decided to use them in that anyway).  Then I grabbed some pink because – well – pink is just cute…. so now I’m debating between doing an ocean scene, maybe even a Mt. Fuji-esque picture, a fall mosaic, or something pop-y like cupcakes.  OR, Hello Kitty riding on a Mt. Fuji wave… though somehow I doubt that I should start with something so complicated.

]]> http://fyrewurks.com/2008/09/smalti/feed/ 2 Smalti Italian Mosaics! http://fyrewurks.com/2008/09/smalti-italian-mosaics/ http://fyrewurks.com/2008/09/smalti-italian-mosaics/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:45:18 +0000 Jennifer http://fyrewurks.com/?p=76 Jesus Christ, a Byzantine mosaic in the interior of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.My sister had the fun idea for us to take an Italian mosaics class together and we just got out of the first class – I’m so excited!  We’re using smalti for our mosaics in this class and I just love it!  The tile is formed by mixing molten glass with metal oxides and it [...]]]> My sister had the fun idea for us to take an Italian mosaics class together and we just got out of the first class – I’m so excited!  We’re using smalti for our mosaics in this class and I just love it!  The tile is formed by mixing molten glass with metal oxides and it comes out as this cloudy looking tile – just beautiful!  I (already) can’t imagine using anything else for my mosaics.

Many Byzantine mosaics like the following were made with smalti tiles and the tiles are either used as-is or covered with gold leaf:

Jesus Christ, a Byzantine mosaic in the interior of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

Jesus Christ, a Byzantine mosaic in the interior of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

I ordered a bunch of colors and they should be coming in next week… now… to figure out the design!

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