One of the most memorable bonding experiences I've shared with three of my four sisters was taking a mosaic making course in historic Ravenna, where mosaic making is THE art form. Ravenna is in Northern Italy, located just above what looks like the calf muscle above the high-heeled boot.
Ravenna has a very interesting history, having been exposed to both eastern and western influences through conquest and occupation. It is a historic and quaint Italian city which we would only be able to explore after our mosaic making course.
The four sisters, (as we came to be called by the waiters, ice cream vendors and our teachers at the mosaic school) coming as we were from different parts of the world, met in London and took a flight together to Bologna. From Bologna, we took a train to Ravenna, which was a rather difficult undertaking as we had to pull or carry heavy and over-sized suitcases down or up flights of steps (no escalators anywhere to be seen!) to get to the train platform. With determination and muscle power and ok, some help from good Samaritans we were able to make it to the train.
In Ravenna we stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast, a converted chateau still retaining remnants of it's past, including a small chapel with a magnificent mosaic cross adorning the altar. It was walking distance to the school. Actually everything is walking distance to everything else (more or less), as Ravenna is a small town, charming as only Italian small towns can be! The school was the Mosaic Art School of Luciana Notturni, a world renowned mosaic master.
Our class was composed of 6 people, the four sisters, a Russian and an Australian who was in Ravenna for her honeymoon.
We were all enrolled in a 5 day beginners course in traditional mosaic making, which meant using tools and techniques of the Roman/Byzantine mosaic artists.
Our first lesson, the morning of the first day was conducted in Lucianna's studio cum shop. In essence, mosaic is a picture or pattern created by putting together small pieces of stone, glass or tile. We were expected to complete two mosaics each, the first would be a copy of a detail of a masterpiece, the second one, of our own creation.
After a welcoming, familiarization and introductory address by Lucianna (translated for us by one of her staff members), we were made to choose a design for the first of our two projects. There were many to choose from, all of them details from the mosaics of Ravenna. Among the designs were pigeons from the mosaics of San Vitale, flowers from St. Apolanaire en Classe, stars from the ceiling mosaic of the Mausoleum of Galla Placida.
We then traced our design, tesserae (small glass, stone or tile that forms the mosaic) by tesserae onto a piece of tracing paper and then turned it over to trace it again. This was a time consuming exercise.
By the time we had completed this task, it was time for lunch, a 2 1/2 hour Italian style lunch break, which made time for the mandatory mid-day nap. For us, having grown up in a country influenced greatly by Spain, the "siesta" was familiar and appreciated. As we walked out of the studio, we noticed that most of the shutters in most of the houses had been shut down and there were very few people and almost no cars on the road. Being on vacation, we decided that taking a siesta would be a waste of time. We decided to eat a leisurely lunch in whatever restaurant remained opened to accommodate tourists, who did not understand the pleasures of the siesta.
We dined on delicious spaghetti, tagliatelle, penne and fusilli, accompanied by a "small" glass of local red wine! A glass of wine for lunch? Well, we were in Italy, and "when in Italy...." And by-the-way, it became our lunchtime norm! After such a lunch, a siesta was alluring, but we had to get back to work.
We proceeded to Lucianna's workshop where all the lessons would be held from then on. The first order of business that afternoon was to practice how to produce the tesserae. To do this we had to cut, smalti (or colored glass), and tiles of marble using the hammer and hardie.
The hardie is mounted onto a thick log. To cut, one balances the tile on top of the fine edge of the hardie and hits it at the right spot, with just enough force to cut it cleanely. If you exert too much force, or hit it at the wrong spot, you do not produce a tesserai, what you have are shards of glass or marble!
This was a rather tricky task to master, although it looked easy enough when Lucianna did it. She expertly placed tiles or glass onto the hardie, gave it the lightest of taps and "ecco" there was the tesserai in whatever shape she wanted.
It took much longer for us, but after some time, I could say that I was getting the hang of it, producing more solid tesserai and not "wasting" too much smalti and marble tiles. But then, I began to wonder how I would produce enough tesserae for one mosaic, let alone two!
After Lucianna was satisfied that we had gained some proficiency with the hammer and hardie, we went on to the next stage of the process.
Lucianna spread white lime on boards, and then set our tracings which she called cartoons, onto this lime surface. "Ecco!" as the ink transferred our designs to the lime surface.
When we had all transferred our designs it was already 6:30 in the evening, the end of the first day of class.
We proceeded to look for a place to eat dinner. We ended up in a small family owned restaurant, one of the few restaurants opened before 7:30 in the evening and so became our go-to restaurant for dinner and where we came to be known as the four "seesters". It was a delicious dinner with a ravioli starter and the best veal scallopini I have ever had, as the main dish. We of course had a local house wine, which our waiter told us was made mainly from Sangiovese grapes. Dinner was as lively an affair as one can imagine with four sisters catching up on each others lives! It was a wonderful night filled with laughter, jesting and teeming with affection! After dinner, we stopped at a gelateria. Feeling like kids, enjoying our gelato, we giggled our way back to our rooms!
The next morning when we got to the workshop, we found our workplaces laid out and ready for us to work on our first mosaics. Bowls of tesserae of different colors had miraculously appeared in each of our working areas. Within reach were the hammer and hardie, making it easy to reach out and cut more smalti or tiles when needed.
We had to lay the tesserae, piece by piece on to the soft lime surface. This was an engrossing activity, an artists journey, so to speak, of seeing one's work of art coming slowly to fruition.
As we worked on our mosaics, Lucianna imparted tidbits of mosaic history, for instance producing the millions and millions of tesserae needed for the vast number of mosaics in and around Italy and elsewhere, was actually the work of slaves.
All of us completed our first mosaics on the third day and the next stage was demonstrated to us. Lucianna, using a brush, spread a kind of glue made from rabbit's paw (I think), all over our mosaics. Then very gently she covered it with a very thin mesh like cotton material and used a flat piece of wood to gently flatten and paste the cloth onto the mosaics. This was then left to dry. When dry, the soft lime backing was gently removed and what was left was our mosaics pasted on the cloth.
Then the mosaics were mounted on cement and made to dry. After this, the mesh like material was removed and the mosaic scrubbed clean. If there were some tesserae that had fallen off these were replaced. And "ecco"! There we had it!
While our first mosaics were drying, we were working on our second mosaics. But this would be done in a different way. We would be using the "direct" method. The first thing we had to do was to draw our designs onto tracing paper, then we transferred them on a prepared slow drying cement surface. We then proceeded to place the tesserai directly onto the cement surface. We had to work faster on this mosaic as the cement dried much faster than the lime surface.
We were also introduced to another instrument, which modern mosaicists prefer to use on the glass tiles which are more often used in modern day mosaics. These resemble sheers and are actually easier to use than the hammer and hardie.
It was a little harder working on our own mosaics as we needed to work fast in order to finish the design before the cement hardened. But with a little help from Lucianna and her staff, we were all able to complete our designs. Here they are, nicely framed:
On our last evening in Ravenna, we were invited by Lucianna to be her guests at the opening of the International Mosaic Exhibit where mosaicists from around the world were exhibiting. Lucianna was the guest of honor at this event. We were introduced to the VIPs as the four sisters and plied with canapes and wine. The mosaics on display ranged from the micro mosaics from Japanese artists to mosaics large enough to hang on cathedral walls. Lucianna's workshop exhibited several pieces, unfortunately the pictures do not do them justice.
Now, a little bit about the four sisters, one is a nutritionist by profession, who paints icons and still life in her spare time, now more often as she is retired. The second is the sporty one, a psychologist by profession, who attempts to paint but loves to take pictures. The third is an artificial intelligence specialist, with a passion for baking. The fourth sister, a sped specialist but a more passionate humanitarian, embroiders biblical scenes and personages on stoles and chasubles.
Now, the question, which mosaic belongs to which sister?
The four sisters, (as we came to be called by the waiters, ice cream vendors and our teachers at the mosaic school) coming as we were from different parts of the world, met in London and took a flight together to Bologna. From Bologna, we took a train to Ravenna, which was a rather difficult undertaking as we had to pull or carry heavy and over-sized suitcases down or up flights of steps (no escalators anywhere to be seen!) to get to the train platform. With determination and muscle power and ok, some help from good Samaritans we were able to make it to the train.
In Ravenna we stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast, a converted chateau still retaining remnants of it's past, including a small chapel with a magnificent mosaic cross adorning the altar. It was walking distance to the school. Actually everything is walking distance to everything else (more or less), as Ravenna is a small town, charming as only Italian small towns can be! The school was the Mosaic Art School of Luciana Notturni, a world renowned mosaic master.
 |
| Lucianna Nottturni (on the left) with members of her staff |
Our class was composed of 6 people, the four sisters, a Russian and an Australian who was in Ravenna for her honeymoon.
We were all enrolled in a 5 day beginners course in traditional mosaic making, which meant using tools and techniques of the Roman/Byzantine mosaic artists.
Our first lesson, the morning of the first day was conducted in Lucianna's studio cum shop. In essence, mosaic is a picture or pattern created by putting together small pieces of stone, glass or tile. We were expected to complete two mosaics each, the first would be a copy of a detail of a masterpiece, the second one, of our own creation.
After a welcoming, familiarization and introductory address by Lucianna (translated for us by one of her staff members), we were made to choose a design for the first of our two projects. There were many to choose from, all of them details from the mosaics of Ravenna. Among the designs were pigeons from the mosaics of San Vitale, flowers from St. Apolanaire en Classe, stars from the ceiling mosaic of the Mausoleum of Galla Placida.
 |
| Stars |
We then traced our design, tesserae (small glass, stone or tile that forms the mosaic) by tesserae onto a piece of tracing paper and then turned it over to trace it again. This was a time consuming exercise.
By the time we had completed this task, it was time for lunch, a 2 1/2 hour Italian style lunch break, which made time for the mandatory mid-day nap. For us, having grown up in a country influenced greatly by Spain, the "siesta" was familiar and appreciated. As we walked out of the studio, we noticed that most of the shutters in most of the houses had been shut down and there were very few people and almost no cars on the road. Being on vacation, we decided that taking a siesta would be a waste of time. We decided to eat a leisurely lunch in whatever restaurant remained opened to accommodate tourists, who did not understand the pleasures of the siesta.
We dined on delicious spaghetti, tagliatelle, penne and fusilli, accompanied by a "small" glass of local red wine! A glass of wine for lunch? Well, we were in Italy, and "when in Italy...." And by-the-way, it became our lunchtime norm! After such a lunch, a siesta was alluring, but we had to get back to work.
We proceeded to Lucianna's workshop where all the lessons would be held from then on. The first order of business that afternoon was to practice how to produce the tesserae. To do this we had to cut, smalti (or colored glass), and tiles of marble using the hammer and hardie.
 |
| Hammer |
 |
| Hardie |
This was a rather tricky task to master, although it looked easy enough when Lucianna did it. She expertly placed tiles or glass onto the hardie, gave it the lightest of taps and "ecco" there was the tesserai in whatever shape she wanted.
It took much longer for us, but after some time, I could say that I was getting the hang of it, producing more solid tesserai and not "wasting" too much smalti and marble tiles. But then, I began to wonder how I would produce enough tesserae for one mosaic, let alone two!
 |
| Smalti or Glass tiles |
 |
| Spreading white lime |
Lucianna spread white lime on boards, and then set our tracings which she called cartoons, onto this lime surface. "Ecco!" as the ink transferred our designs to the lime surface.
When we had all transferred our designs it was already 6:30 in the evening, the end of the first day of class.
We proceeded to look for a place to eat dinner. We ended up in a small family owned restaurant, one of the few restaurants opened before 7:30 in the evening and so became our go-to restaurant for dinner and where we came to be known as the four "seesters". It was a delicious dinner with a ravioli starter and the best veal scallopini I have ever had, as the main dish. We of course had a local house wine, which our waiter told us was made mainly from Sangiovese grapes. Dinner was as lively an affair as one can imagine with four sisters catching up on each others lives! It was a wonderful night filled with laughter, jesting and teeming with affection! After dinner, we stopped at a gelateria. Feeling like kids, enjoying our gelato, we giggled our way back to our rooms!
The next morning when we got to the workshop, we found our workplaces laid out and ready for us to work on our first mosaics. Bowls of tesserae of different colors had miraculously appeared in each of our working areas. Within reach were the hammer and hardie, making it easy to reach out and cut more smalti or tiles when needed.
We had to lay the tesserae, piece by piece on to the soft lime surface. This was an engrossing activity, an artists journey, so to speak, of seeing one's work of art coming slowly to fruition.
 |
| One tesserae at a time |
All of us completed our first mosaics on the third day and the next stage was demonstrated to us. Lucianna, using a brush, spread a kind of glue made from rabbit's paw (I think), all over our mosaics. Then very gently she covered it with a very thin mesh like cotton material and used a flat piece of wood to gently flatten and paste the cloth onto the mosaics. This was then left to dry. When dry, the soft lime backing was gently removed and what was left was our mosaics pasted on the cloth.
 |
| a mosaic on mesh like material, (not one of ours) |
Then the mosaics were mounted on cement and made to dry. After this, the mesh like material was removed and the mosaic scrubbed clean. If there were some tesserae that had fallen off these were replaced. And "ecco"! There we had it!
While our first mosaics were drying, we were working on our second mosaics. But this would be done in a different way. We would be using the "direct" method. The first thing we had to do was to draw our designs onto tracing paper, then we transferred them on a prepared slow drying cement surface. We then proceeded to place the tesserai directly onto the cement surface. We had to work faster on this mosaic as the cement dried much faster than the lime surface.
We were also introduced to another instrument, which modern mosaicists prefer to use on the glass tiles which are more often used in modern day mosaics. These resemble sheers and are actually easier to use than the hammer and hardie.
It was a little harder working on our own mosaics as we needed to work fast in order to finish the design before the cement hardened. But with a little help from Lucianna and her staff, we were all able to complete our designs. Here they are, nicely framed:
On our last evening in Ravenna, we were invited by Lucianna to be her guests at the opening of the International Mosaic Exhibit where mosaicists from around the world were exhibiting. Lucianna was the guest of honor at this event. We were introduced to the VIPs as the four sisters and plied with canapes and wine. The mosaics on display ranged from the micro mosaics from Japanese artists to mosaics large enough to hang on cathedral walls. Lucianna's workshop exhibited several pieces, unfortunately the pictures do not do them justice.
Now, a little bit about the four sisters, one is a nutritionist by profession, who paints icons and still life in her spare time, now more often as she is retired. The second is the sporty one, a psychologist by profession, who attempts to paint but loves to take pictures. The third is an artificial intelligence specialist, with a passion for baking. The fourth sister, a sped specialist but a more passionate humanitarian, embroiders biblical scenes and personages on stoles and chasubles.
Now, the question, which mosaic belongs to which sister?
