Connecting Nature, Line and Form - Redefining Mosaic

 By MARTINE, "Les Eucalyptus" 1912 

 I spent the early years of my career as a ceramic artist trying to get every mosaic commission I could - not only to make a living but also to practice and improve my skills, my eye, my expression. In the late 1990s I became interested in design and specifically in repeating designs. Antique wallpapers and vintage textiles from around the world had inspired me for years and I wanted to capture and translate the natural repeating movement inherent in both forms of decoration into ceramic tile. 

 William Morris, "Willow Leaf" early 1900s 

 I focused primarily on leaves, plants and nature inspired imagery - which is in keeping with most of my work - to explore making tile “wall paper”. 

 Perennial "Samos"

 I worked on this as a side project teaching myself to design these kinds of forms and practicing making them in clay. I learned that there were reasons people didn’t generally make these kinds of designs in tile - there are a million and one ways that the chemical changes that occur during firing makes clay a very difficult medium for this kind of precise mosaic. 

 Perennial "Climbing Leaf"