Remnant: Winter White

Remnant: Winter White

Creating a series hadn't occurred to me until about three or four years ago. Even as I was working on this sculptural mosaic this thought hadn't gelled until I was well into the project. The idea was to create something that had a softness about it while using the hard materials associated with mosaics. During the process I realized it would be interesting to continue beyond this first piece that resembled a scrap of fabric and create more shapes that would represent remnants of material that came from old clothing or other items, i.e. a curtain, bedspread, anything that could reveal a story of days gone by. 

The question as to how this was created has come up often. Hardware cloth (a wire fencing like material) was used to form the shape to be mosaiced. This step took a while ... cutting, bending, cutting some more, leaving the shape to sit for a while and going back to continue the shaping process until it felt right. The wire form was secured to Hardi backerboard that had been covered with a skimcoat of thinset and painted, in this case, grey. The next step was to put a layer of plaster gauze cloth on the wire shape in order to have a base. Next  a layer of white thinset was applied to create a hard substrate to adhere the mosaic. Shades of white Orsoni smalti were used for most of the form with some white marble and silvery gold smalti interspersed here and there. A second layer of Hardi board (about 15" square), wired for hanging,  was adhered to the back of the first layer (12" square). This second resulted because I decided not to use a floater frame, my preferred style of framing for mosaics. The mosaic looked better without the smooth edge of a frame and since the first layer of Hardi-board had not been wired for hanging and couldn't be with the form to be mosaiced already attached, it seemed the best solution was a second layer of backerboard. Though it added weight, the 1 1/2" wider surround for the main backerboard provided a nice look ... apparently it was supposed to be that way all along! 

This is the first in a series that is on going - several are already completed. More works from the Remnant series will be posted in the future.