The Merry Month of May

I am jumping around my garden today like a Morris dancer, not just because it is the 1st of May!
I woke up to two exciting email announcements.

Firstly two of my mosaics “Chorus at the Wake of the Sun” and “Unfinished Symphony” have been selected for a prestigious mosaic exhibition in Chartres, France.
British Association for Modern Mosaics – LES RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES DE MOSAIQUE 2014
which will take place from 18th October – 9th of November, in the Museum of Beaux Arts, cloister of Notre Dame in Chartres, France.

I have never been to Chartres, which is about 50 miles South West of Paris, but from photos it looks very old and very beautiful. Not only that it is famous for La Maison Picassiette, built by Raymond Edouard Isidore in 1930 for himself and his family. Then from 1938 -1964 he covered it inside and out in the style known as “pique assiette” mosaic. Pique Assiette meaning in French “steal plates”. The mosaics are made with broken china, bottle caps, stones and other recycled pieces.
I hope I can save enough pennies to visit Chartres this year  🙂

My second piece of news is one that I have been awarded a Craft and Design Selected Maker Silver Award in the Specialist Media category. This means I will get a full page feature in the craft and design magazine and quite a lot more publicity which I am sure will be a very valuable prize.
Thank you so much if you voted for me!

And finally …

The last couple of weeks I have been preparing for my new course “pique assiette” mosaics which I am running on Saturday. (Yes, it all seems to fit now!) I made the “Green Man” mask at the top of this post and this one “Earth Mother” to bring to the workshop as an example to show students.

It was really fun making them and has got me back into working after a month of illness. I have some face shapes cut out for them too, so quite excited to see what they will make!

Happy May Day

🙂