1108 News from Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art

Posted on December 31, 2014 by admin

Santa

Barbara

School of

Mosaic Art

 

August 2011     

WOW what a summer it has been so far.  Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art has been a great place to be these last few months.  Thank you to everyone who has shown interest and attended workshops over the last year and a half.  SBSMA is growing at a great pace.   

Just last month we had our first guest teacher, Betsy Gallery, who taught Mexican Smalti to a sold out workshop.  As well as many new students finding their way here through the Santa Barbara Groupon feature.   

Many new styles of workshops have been added
including a second Mexican Smalti workshop.  We have concrete sand casting of  mushrooms as well as a fiberglass mesh flower workshop.   

LAB time is also filling up and students are really letting their creativity take over and creating some amazing pieces.

Don’t let the summer get away before you have the chance to create something great while learning new techniques.   

A few spaces left in the August Table Top workshop. 

 

      Remember if you are on Facebook don’t forget to “LIKE” the Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art group!

All workshop descriptions are available at

www.santabarbaraschoolofmosaicart.com

 

    

Class Schedule   

Table Top Mosaic Workshop       Aug.  13th & 14th                       $175
Fiberglass Mesh Flower                 Aug. 27th  &   28th                     $165 
Beginner  Mosaic Workshop        Sept. 10th & 11th                        $145
Mushroom concrete sandcasting  Sept. 17th & 18th                       $165 

Smalti Workshop (guest teacher)  Oct.     1st & 2nd                         $195*
Boulder/Garden Sphere                  Oct.     8th & 9th                         $185
(additional materials fee)  

 

MEXICAN SMALTI WORKSHOP 

smaltismalti2

smalti1

Here are a few of the students pieces in the Mexican Smalti

workshop.  Amazing the explosion of color and vibrancy with Mexican Smalti. 

To see more go to the Facebook page for Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art.

 

Examples of Mushroom Concrete Sandcasting Workshop

For more details on this and other workshops visit  the SBSMA website

mushrooms
mushroom1

   

 

     

 

 


 Recent Publicity

Looking forward to a small write up in the “805 Living” magazine.  Keep an eye out for the article on Mosaic Artist Dan Chrykno with a small piece on SBSMA. 

 

 LAB punch card
SBSMA LAB punch card.  For every 10 hours of LAB time you get the 11th hour free.  Students are loving their punch cards and getting their free hours. 

LAB time is a great way to work on all your mosaic projects.  For $20/hour you have access to all adhesives, grout, tools and my time as well as not worrying about making a mess.  

 
SBSMA Supply Store

 SBSMA has all your mosaic art supply needs. More new colors added to the tile collection as well as stained glass. There are new tools stocked up as well as nippers, files, adhesives and grouts.  Just added are Leponitt brand mosaic wheel nippers for $28.95. 

  

Bring a friend discount

Any time you bring a friend to a workshop you and the friend get a 10% discount on your fees and this month there will be an additional 10% off all supplies and tiles at the time of your workshop.  

 

 Tips and Techniques

TECHNIQUES FOR APPLYING YOUR GROUT

 

Now that you haven chosen your grout color and style it is time to apply the grout.  Grout is my favorite part of mosaic.   It is when the piece comes to life and reveals itself.

The first step before grouting is making sure the piece is clean of any mastic, glue or thin-set on top of the tesserae.    

Grout since it comes in powder form needs to be mixed with water.  Depending on the size of the piece will depend how much grout to use.  Once it is decided on the amount add water till the grout reaches peanut butter consistency.
Once it is mixed it must “slake” much like thin set it needs to “set up” for 5 minutes.  Once it has slaked stir entire batch one more time then you are ready to grout.  Using a damp tile or kitchen sponge (no scratchy sponges) pick up a small amount of the grout out of your bucket on to your sponge and begin to apply with medium pressure by smearing the grout all over the piece.  Continue this over the entire piece.  Using a clean bucket of water wring out a second sponge as much as possible and begin to wipe off the excess grout.  Once it is cleaned off let it dry for a few minutes till there is a light film of grout over the piece.  Using a very clean rag wipe off the rest of the grout and begin to buff it till it shines.  
….   

  

stay tuned next month for techniques for sealing your piece  

 
Santa Barbara School of Mosaic Art / tami@allcrackedupmosaics.com / Santa Barbara, California 93111 / 805.703.4291

This entry was posted in newsletters. Bookmark the permalink.