Mermaid Mosaic part I

Excerpt from Victor Hugo's The Ocean’s Song

O Ocean vast! We heard thy song with wonder,
Whilst waves marked time.
"Appear, O Truth!" thou sang'st with tone of thunder,
"And shine sublime!

Last week I got an excited text from my client saying “it’s happening, come and see!”

Finally after over a year of sitting in boxes, a large swimming pool mosaic that completely consumed our lives during the spring of 2016 was being installed. Due to the technical challenges that arose and incredibly tight timeline, this proved to be one of the more stressful projects Rob and I have made during our 10 years of working together. We worked like dogs with many all-nighters, had some of our worst disagreements ever and very nearly broke up during one particularly long and trying day-night. We've worked under very difficult schedules to solve extraordinary problem after problem over the years, but this project presented a new level of decision fatigue and frustration and pushed us past our already extended limits.

So when this text came, Rob and I gave each other a meaningful look, got into the car and drove over as soon as we could. The tile installers had unpacked the boxes and laid out each section of tile in the adjacent pool house. When we arrived a group of the installers greeted us excitedly talking over each other and shaking our hands. Apparently they had argued over the privilege of unboxing and putting the mosaic together.

Rob and I breathed sighs of relief and soaked up the much needed praise.

Rewind to 2 years ago, when a designer here in Portland contacted me about her client’s idea to do a large outdoor pool mosaic of “a mermaid on the half shell” as she put it. The client loved Botticelli’s birth of venus but wanted a more contemporary feel and story that pertained to her family.

As usual I began sketching out whatever ideas came up. Developing this design took me awhile because I wanted to find a way to create elegant imagery while still in keeping with their concept and my worries about it becoming “cartoony” stalled my confidence and design flow.

Here was the face portion of my sketch which wound up a little too childlike and had to be changed when redrawn:

We enlarged my sketchbook drawing to 1/3 of life-size to develop the details:

Simultaneously I put together the glaze palette and a sample maquette of the water to give the client and designer a sense of what I had in mind.

So far so good! Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of this project coming soon!
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