![]() ![]() A sort of mesmerizing search goes on to look for the exact piece. The downside is if you run out of the very colour you really need it can be devasting. I love putting colour combinations together and I can get pretty carried away finding shades and tones that are just right. What is your favorite part of the mosaic process? The good thing about Mexican smalti is that the squares are wildly different sizes so although I generally work in organised rows, it never ends up too regular or static. I don’t mind if I venture a little away from the principles, but I certainly use them as my first stop. I’m a real traditionalist, I usually follow the Roman rules around using the square as a working unit. I always loved transparent glass, and never thought that opaque glass would give me the same lift, until I discovered Mexican smalti that is! In addition, sometimes there are particular colours that are just so unusual and interesting, you can’t get another medium that beats it for excitement. There is something stunning about the intensity of colour, the transitions from light to dark and the unexpected elements left behind by the manufacturing process. Glass is one of the great loves of my life, especially when it’s handmade. Life is a bit busy at the moment, I am very, very happy to finally be working as an artist, but sometimes I don’t know how I’m going to squash everything in!ĭetail from Lohan’s Pharmacy Shop sign, 2000ĭid you start with mosaic or did you work in other mediums before working in mosaic? In addition to the mosaic work, I teach art part time to early school leavers and visit schools to talk to children about built heritage, on a scheme run by the Heritage Council here in Ireland. I then began to research different materials online, found Mexican smalti, and decided it was the new medium for me. A friend who I knew since the 90s (when I was last working with mosaic) suggested making mosaic signs instead. In 2019 I was completing a commission which included some signage. In 2017 I began to apply for County Council and Arts Council Awards, for educational arts projects. I then had a big gap away from doing mosaic and other art, as I was bringing up my family and going back to college, although I did work intermittently as an illustrator. I discovered Wincklemans in the boxes of scrap tiles bought for the classes, and in 2000 I made a shop sign for a local pharmacy which thankfully still looks good today. I made a few mosaics to commission and taught mosaic classes at that time. I kept all the left over scraps of opaque glass, and laboriously cut them into 1 cm squared pieces. In the mid 1990s in Ireland I worked in a stained glass studio. How long have you been creating mosaic, art, etc? From then on I took an interest in looking at mosaics and loved figuring out how the pieces were layed down and the images built up. As I didn’t have any snips or hammer and hardie, all I could do was place them in straight rows, so it wasn’t very satisfying or successful. When I was at Edinburgh College of Art I found some Italian smalti at the back of a cupboard. This was a fantastic course, investigating how we humans interact with the vast array of stuff in our everyday world. In more recent times I completed a Teaching Certificate, plus a Masters in Design History and Materials Culture in the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin, Ireland. I am from Scotland but now live in Ireland. I studied Architectural Glass (stained glass) at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland way back in the 1990s. ![]() Once I’ve figured it out and completed a few projects I’m ready to move onto the next one!ĭo you have any professional art training? I really like to know how things are made, and also to understand the nature, or essence, of the art medium. I’m one of those people that has tried loads of different art forms, from sewing to stained glass. Tell us a little about your artistic background: Town (or area) & State/Country you reside in: County Galway, Irelandīusiness Name: Alison Mac Cormaic Mosaics ![]()
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