Mosaic Travelogue, Part 3

The Making of Dawg

First up, I changed the title of my blog to Tales From the Homestead. The name of my workspace is Homestead Studio and I like the ring of it better than Music, Art, Life.

OK, don’t tell anyone that I’m letting you in on my confidential, classified, and undisclosed trade secrets by showing you the process of the making of one of my mosaic sculptures. I mean it! Well, maybe your cousin, a spouse, or an old friend or two. But that’s it!

In 2017 I decided to make a dog sculpture. I had no idea what I was doing so I just plowed in. Here’s the finished guy who lives with very good friends in northern California. We miss him but will visit again when the time’s right.

I knew some sort of armature was needed to start. I just used a bunch of stuff I had in the studio and wired it together to create a basic shape (bailing wire is my best friend). Notice the trumpet parts for the neck and head. Yes, that’s duct tape. And Styrofoam.

Then I made a tail and stuck it in the structure, used some clay to create more of a dog ‘head’ with ears, then wrapped it all with chicken netting. Then I slathered on quick drying cement. I use cement as it’s a great base for the ceramic pieces and it gives the structure some sturdiness.

The next steps are always the most fun which is to stick the parts to the armature. I don’t get too fussy or overthink this process, using the sage advice from Isaiah Zagar – don’t think, just do! I have dozens of containers filled with broken plates and other found ceramics, all categorized, to choose from.

Then, once all the pieces are on and the mastic is dry I grout the entire piece. Grouting is messy and laborious but the end result is like seeing an image come up in the darkroom chemicals. You don’t exactly know what you’re going to get until you’ve wiped off the grout.

I hope you enjoyed a bit of the behind-the-scenes look at my process…comment if you’d like to see more of the same as I tend to photo document as I work. Thanks again for reading my ramblings!

And now, your moment of philosophy.