As Mojo Nixon once claimed, Elvis truly is everywhere. At Broken by Design, the city’s first studio dedicated to mosaics, Presley’s portrait sits on a worktable, fashioned from black and white hexagonal tiles.
He’s not the first king to be immortalized in ceramic pieces: for thousands of years, artists have used ornate mosaics to decorate Byzantine chapels, Moorish alcazars, and Etruscan villas. That the art form is thriving today is a testament to its durability—and its democracy.
Although in ancient times it might have been a technique reserved for grand landmarks, the craft has an accessible quality that immediately attracted Erin Frizzell, owner-director of Broken by Design (219 East 16th Avenue, 604-871-0900). She had dabbled in painting and drawing, but it wasn’t till she came to Vancouver 10 years ago, and saw all the mosaic
community-art projects going on here, that she found her true creative outlet. “I was seeing them everywhere. I loved the intense colours, the durability, the lack of pretension—this was a people’s art and it was so tactile,” she says, surrounded by shiny, multihued mosaic mirrors and wall art. “You can touch them, walk on them, and that’s why they lasted so long in art history. You can get broken tile from anywhere: once a big tile has a crack or split in it, it’s useless. So it’s great because you can get into it really affordably.
“And what I found was the learning curve was amazingly quick. It’s so approachable that kids can do it, but after that, the sky’s the limit. It’s a 5,000-year-old art form and people have made masterpieces out of it. Some now are replicating Byzantine mosaics and ones like there were at Pompeii, up to pop culture,” she adds, pointing to the monumental depiction of Elvis that one of her studio regulars is in the process of completing.
Her new studio just off funky Main Street emphasizes the same inclusive approach that drew her to the art form—and away from a career in sociology. Set up with back-friendly, high worktables, it’s a site where established mosaic artists and beginners alike can come in and piece together projects or take classes. They can bring in their own materials, but everything they need is on-site. Along the back wall’s shelves is what Frizzell jokingly refers to as “the candy”: more than 80 colours of small glass tiles, organized by hue into Mason jars. (Shades range from Bordeaux to Mango to Fern; they sell for about 20 cents apiece.) Nearby, she has boxes of bigger ceramic tiles in a range of sizes (in bright cobalt, cherry red, and dozens of other tones), plus tiny, smooth-edged porcelain tiles for children to try their hand at. “If you wanted to buy these tiles, you’d have to buy a sheet of 225 of the Venetian glass ones or an entire boxful of ceramic tiles,” Frizzell points out.
Grouts go beyond your usual white and grey, to lipstick red and jet black, and lots in between. And then there are the bases to stick it all on. Some of the most attractive mosaics are set on simple plywood squares and hang as art on the wall: Mondrian-like abstracts can look every bit as effective as a more elaborate tile rendition of Tom Thomson’s The West Wind that Frizzell has displayed at Broken by Design. Simple, square wood mirrors are a good starter project at the beginners’ workshops; there are also square cement garden steppingstones. But there is little limit to what people can bring in to work on: jewellery boxes, birdhouses, birdbaths, door signs, and coaster sets are all possible “blank canvases”. Says Frizzell: “As long as it doesn’t move and it’s made of concrete, wood, or Gyprock, you can put tiles on it.”
Aspiring Antonio Gaudís can learn all this in one of the studio’s courses—and in enough time to pick up the skill and pump out a few creations before Christmas-gift-giving season. Basic workshops include the Mosaic Mini-Class, a four-hour lesson on how to make a piece that Broken by Design will grout and finish for you ($80). Parents and kids can combine forces for the three-hour Family Mosaic Class ($60 for two), and more serious students can indulge in the multilesson, 12-hour Introduction to Mosaics, brushing up on everything from history to materials, with all the supplies and tools provided ($275). Check the studio’s Web site for specialty courses, from stained-glass mosaics to tiling furniture.
For those who would rather mortar-and-grout away the hours at home, Frizzell is putting together kits with safety glasses, grout, tiles, and bases that should be ready by mid-November.
And in a nod to the growing popularity of the art form as décor, the studio also offers a range of custom work, from backsplashes to countertops to garden features.
At Frizzell’s own house, tiles bedeck everything from wall art to an antique end table from Value Village that she stripped and stained. Mosaic work, it appears, can become highly addictive. For anyone who enters the program at Broken by Design, she has this warning: “You’ll be surprised: every surface in your house gets covered.”
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