I finally finished my Covid Fish mosaic project in March 2021. Most people would complete a washroom splashback in a weekend. This has taken the better part of a year. The earliest photo is dated April 2, 2020.
The design was derived from the Greek ceramics, bought in Leros in the mid nineties. I also painted the glass bottles (a first attempt at glass painting and very crude).
Apart from the backing board, glue and grout, all the materials are scrounged (tile samples), found (shells and coral) or repurposed (from a favourite necklace and bracelet that had fallen apart).
I don’t spend enough time doing mosaic work to be a true craftswoman – this Fish mosaic is only my sixth piece. Nor do I have all of the tools that would give my work additional finesse. I have no great skills as a draftswoman, but then mosaic design requires a degree of simplification that suits me. From the start, though, I seem to have had my own sense of how I want to use the medium, enjoying variation in depth of tiles and the energy created by combining different cuts and the patterns in which you can lay them.
