Mosaics

Mosaics are the art of creating images by assembling small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It is used to be a decorative art, or of cultural and spiritual importance, as in cathedrals. Small pieces of stone or glass of different colors, known as tesserae, are used to create a pattern or picture.
There are two different ways to make a mosaic. The direct method, or the indirect method, but the first decision is the design you want to make.

1. Direct method - This is the most used technique for making a mosaic. In this method you can either butter each piece of tesserae with your chosen adhesive, or you can put a small amount on the surface where you can put tiles on top of the glue. Be warned though, the adhesive can set quickly. This method is easier than the indirect method, because you get to see what you are putting down and can move the tiles around. This method should be used if the pieces of tesserae have varying thickness and it is desired that the overall mosaic will have a 3D effect.
2. Indirect method - This method  involves creating the mosaic upside down onto a sheet of brown sticky paper. The tesserae are stuck face down onto gummed paper, which is then set in a bed of grout, flipped over, when later the paper can be washed away when the grout sets. This method is simple to use when using glass, pebbles, marble or any tesserae that looks the same from both the front and back. This method is handy because you can work on a mosaic away from the final site. It will be able to create a flat surface while using tesserae of varying thickness. This method is very ideal for flooring.

Once you have finished creating your mosaic using either method, you will need to create the smooth finish by applying grout to the mosaic.

In my opinion I have found that the mosaic is one of the most fascinating types of art there is. It amazes me the work that artists put into them, such as the picture below. Making a mosaic is fun, but very time consuming. I have made one mosaic and now working on a mosaic table. The first mosaic though we made our own tiles out of cardboard and painted them. In that project we glued them to the board and put grout between the tiles. 

Famous Mosaic

Batiks

Batik is a cloth that uses wax-resist dyeing technique. The traditional colours back in the day were indigo, dark brown, and white, which represented the three major Hindu Gods. There were also certain patterns that could only be worn by nobility, or higher ranked society.There are numeral types of wax that can be used. Beeswax, paraffin wax, and resins are the most common. As for the fabric, it is usually imported to the United States from Indonesia.
There are also numerous methods of applying the resist to fabric. The tree most common are:

1. using a jaunting tool - this helps for free hand drawing each line and dot in the design.
2. using a metal tap - design
3. using a sponge of brush

Mariam Webster Definition: "batik (n): a fabric printed by an Indonesian method of hand-printing textiles by coating with wax the parts not to be dyed".

With my experiences with batiks I have figured that they are more complicated then many other types of art. A great tip for making a good batik is that sometimes the wax doesn't always soak all the way into the cloth, so make sure it does. If you are not in advanced crafts then you are not aloud to use a dropper, so start with light colors. If you are able to use a dropper though, DO IT!! It makes life easier. In all though get a great design and just experiment and learn from it.

 My Batik

  

Pastels

The one thing to know about pastels is that there are three different types

1. Soft and hard pastels - the most common.
2. Pastel pencils - similar to hard pastels.
3. Oil pastels - the same pigments but bound in waxes and oils.

Pastels are known to be traced back to the 16th century. The invention of them is attributed to the German painter Johaim Thiele. An artwork is created by stroking the sticks across a paper, sandboard or canvas. If the ground is completely covered with pastel, the work is called a pastel painting; leaving much of the ground exposed is called a pastel sketch.

In my opinion pastels are one of the easiest types of art to work with. A main tip to remember though is to start at the top and work down, unless you want to smear all the hard work you did. Mixing colors are another importance for a great piece of artwork, but when you consider mixing remember to mix little at a time and add more gradually until you have the color you desire. For most people they will want to keep their artwork for a long time so I would suggest you spray an adhesive over it to preserve it longer.

My Pastels

so... this is the beginning....!!!

During the course of my blogging I have decided to pick “Different types of art/ different genres” as my topic. I chose this as my topic because I’ve had a lot of experience in art and it sparks an interest to me. The voice I am going to use is a perky and upbeat but I will also give advice on creating better art. If I run out of different types on my topic then I will show different art that is very unlikely classified as the typical art. Pictures are defiantly going to be a big part of this too.