2024 Mosaic Travels
Mireille Swinnen
2024 afforded me numerous options for mosaic workshops and I took advantage of all those opportunities. Mireille Swinnen is known for her painterly style, a technique I learned from her during the many times I attended her workshops at her studio in Belgium. It’s my preferred method and it was fun to work with Mireille again, only this time it was in Rochester, MN.
Dugald (Dugie) MacInnes
When June rolled around I was off to Chicago to learn from Dugald (Dugie) MacInnes, a Scottish artist who works with slate and shale from Scotland. I am enamored with these natural materials and have plenty in the studio so I’ll offer a slate and shale workshop in the spring. (PHOTOS) (WEBSITE LINK)
Koko Mosaico
It was off to Italy for 18 days of mosaics in October! I traveled with Karen Sasine, a gifted mosaic artist, founder of the Mosaic Mentoring Facebook page, and a bestie! Our first stop was the town of Ravenna where we took a five-day workshop at Koko Mosaico, home base for the gifted sisters, Arianna & Anita. My project was a sunflower using chunks of smalti, filati and a bit of glass. The most interesting part of the workshop was learning about self-leveling cement, a new-to-me product that is used to fill the background of mosaics. I’m going to try this method for several projects I’m in the process of finishing in my studio and will report back on my, fingers crossed, success! (PHOTOS)
Spilimbergo
From Ravenna, Karen and I drove to the town of Spilimbergo (PHOTO OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL) home of the school of mosaics. Students from all over the world train at the there during a three-year program and graduate as maestros and maestras. The work on display is mind-boggling and amazing. (PHOTOS) Almost every inch of the building is either mosaiced or has art hanging on the walls. We were able to wander throughout the building, study techniques and colors, and be dazzled by the complexity of the students’ the work.
While in Spilimbergo we went to Dona Spilimbergo where there’s a furnace turning out smalti. The colors are pure and the choices are endless! We walked into the warehouse where the smalti pizzas are stacked and I felt like a kid in a candy store because of the vast array of colors and possibilities. I left with pizza quarters and bags of ‘A’ cut bricks for my on-going projects and those in my queue! Another must stop for us was to the Carraro Chabarik studio where we spent time choosing art to purchase, but also chatting with Mohamed Chabarik, another gifted Spilimbergo grad. Did we buy Mohamed’s mosaics…YES!
Venice
Our mosaic odyssey ended in Venice where we went to the Orsoni factory and where we spent hours deciding which ‘A’ cut colors we needed, not an easy task considering Orsoni produces 3,500 colors of glass. I left with a solid amount of smalti + gold smalti for special pieces I’m making. We also visited the Mosaic Workshops by Artefact studio where Spilimbergo grads Romuald Mesdagh & Alessandra Di Gennaro teach and create. I was fortunate to take several workshops with Romuald and Alessandra at Mireille Swinnen’s studio in Belgium when I lived in Europe. While at Artefact studio we learned this dynamic duo offered workshops in their studio and Karen and I have signed up for a one-week class in summer 2025.
Some of my favorite memories of this memorable trip were meeting artists whose works I knew I just had to have. I bought numerous mosaics, all of them unique and they’re now hanging in the Glassy Eyed Mosaic studio. Let me know if you’d like to stop by to see/admire/be amazed by the work of gifted artists!