Ammerdown mosaic weekend – food, mosaic, meditation and sticky tape

I had a wonderful time with my 9 students at the Ammerdown centre this weekend. It was hot and sunny and the gardens and grounds were looking beautiful, we had breaks under the dappled shade of a blossoming cherry tree , and kept  cool in the workroom. The food was scrumptious as usual – large portions of vegetable curry (for the veggies) and yummy apple tart and cream for lunch on Saturday, and nut roast , roast potatoes and vegetables with trifle for pudding on Sunday lunch. All hand made with love and care. Much like my students mosaics – made with love and care!

I think we caused a bit of a stir in the centre – a Zen workshop was also being run. The participants were on a silent retreat. But on Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had several men from the workshop visit us to look at our work. I think they may have broken their vow of silence when they spoke to us! They were fascinated with the workshop, as they had been listening to the snip snip snip of the nippers while they sat in silence in the room next door.  I suppose we were all in our own form of meditation.  And I think we may have some more participants for the workshop next year!

All my students finished their mosaics, one stayed up until 3.30am on Saturday in order to finish, and it was only the sound of an owl outside that finally drew her to her bed…(“hoot, hoot ……go to bed Sam!”)

Another student, Petra, from Portugal has been practicing the art of mosaic for 12 years and she brought with her an interesting technique. Instead of using the indirect method to enable her to transport the mosaic home, she places the pieces onto paper or a board (no glue) and then carefully sticks sellotape onto the work. Here she is in the video demonstrating her technique.

You can see the students mosaics if you click the link on the right of the page under Ammerdown 2010.