Mosaic your Pet: Martin Cheek Mosaic Workshop Or New option: Mosaic your Zodiac sign

Mosaic your Pet: Martin Cheek Mosaic Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or New option:

 

Mosaic your Zodiac sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dates:     Sat – Sun September 13 and 14   Time: 9:30 – 4:30

Project:   Choice of 12” x 12” or 12” x 16” incorporating Martin’s hand made fusions

Tuition:    $250 + $100 Materials Fee*

*Materials provided as part of the tuition fee:
1 lb of Smalti, 1 x MDF Substrate, 4oz of Martins fusions, Vitreous Glass, stained glass.  Additional fusions beyond the 4oz. included in the class are available for $8/oz

 

Registration deadline:  August 30, 2014    .

50% deposit required by August 15 with

payment in full by September 1.
Cancellation refund requests must be made within 2 weeks of the workshop date.

 

This course is suitable for both”beginners and improvers”

British mosaic artist and author Martin Cheek returns to Montreal, Quebec, Canada on  a 2-day workshop! The theme of this exciting, fun, and inspiring class will be on making a mosaic of your beloved pet or your zodiac sign.

 

Creating Character in Mosaic

AIMS OF COURSE:          

This course aims to make the student think about the character and personality of your pet. It asks: What is your mosaic about?…and I don’t just mean – a cat or a dog…WHAT is it about that particular cat or dog that you are trying to say? What effect do you want your mosaic to have upon the viewer?  What emotional response are you trying to achieve?
When I am commissioned to mosaic a pet I try to find out as much as I can about the animal. Ask yourself: What is it about him or her that is unique? Write down a few descriptive words and keep those words in the back of your mind as you design and make your piece. You want to capture something of his or her personality in the piece you make. In this workshop, I will review various methods of how I use design elements with fusions and glass to capture a particular expression, or emotion that shows particular traits of a pet’s personality.

Martin will teach cutting, shaping and classical layout techniques of the tesserae along with some slide shows of Martin’s work.  He will demonstrate how the use of glass fusions can affect your finished piece, and work with you in providing guidance as you work through your own design and creation.   You know your pet as well as you know anyone, so let’s see if we can capture HIM or HER in your mosaic!

WHAT STUDENTS SHOULD ACHIEVE:
During the course you will design and make a mosaic of 12 x 16 inches or 12 x 12 inches in area. These MDF substrates will be provided. Participants can work to different and larger dimensions if they wish, but in that case they must bring their own substrates.

I do my best to encourage students to complete their project by the class end, but I cannot guarantee this.  My approach is not to hurry and pressure students to finish, but rather to accompany them at their speed of working.  I cannot say that all students will go home with a finished piece. But, I do my best to get you there!

Keeping your designs simple and choosing the smaller size mosaic substrate size (12×12”) both help in finishing your mosaic by workshop’s end.

STUDENT PREPARATION FOR COURSE
It IS very useful to bring with you two design ideas for your pet mosaic. Try to make your ideas different from each other, so that we will be able to discuss the various mosaic possibilities, which your designs will suggest to me.

If you don’t have time to prepare any designs before the course, then try and bring several pictorial references with you, not just of your own pet – but of the particular breed of, say, a dog or cat, a snake, a rabbit, etc.,  so that Martin can see get an overview of what the animal SHOULD look like!. This could be anything from a book to a greetings card that you like, a photograph, etc.

If you can decide and resolve your design beforehand, this will save you valuable time on the first day.

Martin is happy for you to email your design to him in advance, in order to discuss this with you.  If you choose to do so, please begin your inquiries with Martin at LEAST 30 days prior to the class.

Ordering Customized Glass Fusions from Martin

 

The most important thing that Martin needs to know is the SIZE / dimensions of your piece + the colours you would like.

A good drawing / illustration / diagram is much easier to work from than a low resolution/or out of focus photo of a dog. Please do your research and consider what you want. Avoid overly general requests such as “I want to do a bird” or I’d like a horse”. This is too vague.  To make fusions for your mosaic, I need a picture of what you want, so as to determine the features of the animal that would make out well as fusions.

DEADLINE FOR FUSION PIECE DESIGNS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MARTIN BY July 31, 2014.

 

RE: Coverage:  4oz covers an area of approximately the size of a postcard.

I will give you a price when I see the complexity of your design and then you can decide whether or not you wish me to go ahead.

Good luck with your designs – I look forward to making your fusions for you!

Warm wishes,

Martin

 

To see more of Martin’s work and better ideas on how glass fusions are used in his mosaic designs, visit:

Website: www.martincheek.co.uk

 

When Ordering Glass Fusions

The most important thing that I need to know is the SIZE / dimensions of your piece and the COLORS you would like.

A good DARK pencil or pen drawing / illustration / diagram of, say, a bird is much easier for me to work to than a thin drawing or blurry photograph – and preferably NO photographs at all please.

Please send these to me as a jpeg (no TIFF, PNG, GIF or other formatted files please) – preferably same size – so that I can download your design and use it as a template for your fusions.

The file / picture / reference attachment you sent needs to be at least 1920 pixels on longest side if I am to print it out clearly at full size and be able to use it as a template for making your fusion(s).

Please do your own research – please don’t just ask for a polar bear or a frog – in the past I have spent more time RESEARCHING the image than making the actual fusions!

Large pieces are MUCH easier to make than small pieces.

Your fusion does not have to be the entire bird / fish / butterfly whatever – it could just be an element – such as a wing or a fin for example.

RE: Coverage: 4oz / 112g covers an area of approximately the size of a postcard – you can see pics of 4oz mixes on my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Mosaicfusions, which will give you a good idea.

RE: Pricing:  Glass fusions are usually sold as jewelry for about 8 x the price that I charge. I will give you a price when I see the complexity of your design and can estimate how long it will take me to make the fusion(s). You can decide whether or not you wish me to go proceed and give me the go ahead if you do. I can only fire 2 batches per day and it takes a few hours to fill the batt… so I can only make about 500g of fusions per day.  You can see lots of examples of my fusions in my own work on:

mywebsite: martincheek.co.uk            facebook: facebook.com/martin.cheek/photos_albums

There is an album for each and every course that I have run in recent months; so there are LOTS of examples to look at.

Good luck with your designs – I look forward to making your fusions for you!

Warm wishes,

Martin