We are still at the Florentine mosaic artist’s shop. I want to try and show one project that one artist was working on while we were in their shop. We got the artist to give us an extensive look into how it was done. I have to say that in all my years and in all my visits to artists and crafts people around the world, this might be the best artist’s shop ever!

In this project, a couple wanted a Florentine mosaic made of a photo of themselves. You can see the couple in the first photo. This is the photograph that the artist used to create the mosaic.

Normally, the mosaicist begins his project by doing a sketch of what he wants to create, like the flowers in the last post. But in this case, the artist had a photograph that he used, since that was the mosaic that he was to create. You must look closely to see how the artist made a copy of the photograph and then broke it down into pieces, in this case, the woman’s face. Then he created the color lines in her face that he needed to find a different piece or shade of stone to make that section of her face. You can see the shape and size and color of each stone needed. He had to do this for the entire photo.

We asked him how he managed to create the very small and peculiar shaped pieces of stone. So he was kind enough to demonstrate it for us. He created a very small piece of her face. It was slow, painstaking work. I don’t have the patience.

He further discussed the process and talked about finding the right colors of stone and so on. You can see the artist and his progress in the fourth photo.

The last photo is just a close-up of the work in its current state. Compare that to the first photograph and its very impressive, as in WOW!