Mosaics: Patterns from a secret ingredient
MULDERSDRIFT - Mosaic artist, Kim Green, shares her story with mosaic art.
From experimenting in her garage to expanding her own business, local mosaic artist Kim Green, creates her own path, one mosaic at a time.
Green potted around with the mosaic art left behind by the previous owner of a concrete business behind Ngwenya Glass Village that Green and her husband had bought. Having studied interior design and even started her own design business, Green could not express her creativity fully in concrete and turned to the mosaics, which she found much more fulfilling.
In 2008 and 2009, Green started seriously experimenting with mosaics in her garage and once it started to take over her house, she knew it was time to branch out and open a shop.
What makes Green’s mosaics unique is that the artwork is not fired in a kiln. Green used her knowledge in the concrete industry and worked on her mosaic recipe for about a year before she concocted a way to create artwork without heating it. This way Green’s mosaics are left with a more subtle and earthly appearance, hence the name of the shop, Earthly Mosaics.
“We do not use the traditional way of breaking tiles but rather use the whole tile to form patterns. The tiles can be stuck to any surface with adhesive and then grouted to fill in the gaps between tiles. Once dry the artwork is sealed. This process works because of the secret business recipe,” Green added.
In the beginning the mosaic tile range was very limited but now Green and her assistant churn out tiles, and have recently moved to a larger premises in the Ngwenya Glass Village for more space to display their wares. From letters, animals, flowers and inspirational messages all the mosaic tiles are handmade from home-crafted molds. The newest range of tiles is the South African and Afrikaans sayings range.
Green’s most popular products are the personalised mirror frames, inspirational messages on tiles and photo tiles, which is when photographs are ‘printed’ onto tiles.
Details: Earthly Mosaics, 072 602 3021.
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