ldakersMaking a Roman mosaic guilloche!
I am an emerging mosaicist, currently training at the London School of Mosaic where I have learnt the history, design, and fabrication of traditional mosaic making, giving me the foundations to pursue my mosaic practice in a contemporary context. Here, I have applied what I’ve learnt by experimenting with the mosaic materials offered by GreatArt in order to give a demo on how you can use them too!
A quick history
It’s believed that mosaic making has existed since the neolithic period, they then reappear in and around temples and sanctuaries in Greece in the 7th and 6th century BCE. Pebble mosaics become an established part of Greek cultural patrimony in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, using pebbles in contrasting colours to create patterns and simple designs. The craft spreads all over the region during the Hellenistic period, and was quickly adopted by the Roman empire. By the 2nd century BCE the craft has almost entirely converted to tessellated mosaics – meaning they’re made of tesserae (stone purposely cut into squares, aka: tiles). This allowed for a much richer and broader scope of design.
The guilloche pattern was used extensively by the Romans to define the borders of mosaics in the same way a frame borders a painting. A guilloche can be defined as a pattern of 2 or more bands woven together over a series of central points, somewhat similar to a plat.
In this blog I will demonstrate how to create a two-strand guilloche, which is remarkably easy to make. Most of the tesserae used in making a guilloche are square shaped, so it’s extremely handy that GreatArt sells precut square marble tiles, only a few need to be trimmed. It was great to make this guilloche using marble, as it’s a traditional material that the Romans used, but the same can be reproduced using ceramic or glass tiles.
List of materials
● 3 colours of marble tiles. I used:
○ Azul Grey (10x10x8mm) code; 76860017
○ Botticino (10x10x8mm) code; 76860006
○ Giallo Reale (10x10x8mm + 15x15x8mm) code; 76860026 + 76861026
● Mosaic flexible tile adhesive. code; 76388
● Hobby Time grout (available in white and grey) code; 76392
● Tile nippers: Mosaic Pliers — for marble, and hard materials. code; 76885
● A substrate of your choice – plywood or MDF board is a great choice. As I wanted to make my guilloche to decorate a pot, I made my own using Das air-dry clay
How to make the guilloche
Select three colours: one for background; one for the outline of the bands, and one for the inside of the bands. You can also have two colours for the two bands.
Map out the size and shape of your guilloche. Is it one line? A square? Or a loop around a 3D object? Lay out your tesserae in a line to see how wide and high each “twist” of the guilloche is [see pic above], make sure to leave small gaps between the tesserae for the grout later. Mark these measurements on some paper, and use them to decide how your guilloche will fit on your substrate. Think about how much background you want as well. As I made my own substrate, I decided my guilloche would have 5 “twists” and so made my pot according to that measurement.
Draw out where you want your center line of the guilloche
Prepare your tile adhesive by mixing some with water, it should be a paste consistency.
To begin, lay out your center line. Apply a small blob of adhesive onto the back of the tesserae with a pallet knife, and press firmly and flatly onto the substrate. As a guide, your tesserae should be roughly one third submerged in adhesive.
Next add the outer band colour around your center points, making sure to trim the top and bottom corner pieces.
Next slowly build up the bands a little at the time, this way you are less likely to make mistakes by confusing which colour goes where.
To make the curves trim the tesserae using the tile nippers to make the squares into keystone (wedge) shapes. You can then do the same to the other side.
If you’re making a square/rectangle guilloche, for the corner “twists” you need to make sure to trim the top and right corners. And then trim the tesserae for the band to curve round the whole corner. Repeat the same pattern until the guilloche is finished.
When done, think about how to fill in your background. I simply added one row of tiles at the top edge of my guilloche and one at the bottom and then fill in the gaps using one whole square, and one square cut into two triangles. I then used the 15x15mm tiles, trimmed into keystones to do the top rim of the pot. When done leave for a day to set.
To grout, mix the grout with water – it will be a much smoother consistency then the adhesive, but should still be a paste. Apply a decent amount to a small section of the mosaic at a time, you can use a grout float, but I like using my fingers to feel that it’s rubbed in evenly. You want the grout to fill in all the gaps fully, not leaving any air bubbles, if your mosaic is on a flat surface, you can lightly drop it onto the table so the grout sinks to the bottom of the gaps. Apply more where necessary. When done, scrape as much grout off the surface as you can, use a squeegee if you have one. Leave to set for about 10 mins.
Using a damp sponge wipe away the excess grout, using a clean side of the sponge on each stroke, and then rinsing out the grout. Repeat until you can’t see any (or minimal) grout left on the tesserae. The grout should set within a day, and you’re done!
Thank you GreatArt for giving me the wonderful materials to experiment on this project!
I hope sharing my experience teaches you something new or helps you to make your own mosaic. For more mosaic content, or if you have any questions about mosaic making visit my Instagram, where I will also be selling my work! Please share with anyone you think will enjoy 🙂
My Instagram handle: @sofiamakesmosaics
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