All posts filed under: Mosaics made for Architectural Surfaces

The miraculous journey of a mosaic

Published by gertrud

In 2015, when I exhibited pieces for the Hamam mosaic in Brazil, visitors asked for a similar mosaic for their house in Washington. Years went by… We have since moved to Washington and I now live in here and in Berlin. In September 2023, I met our friends again and asked them if they were still thinking about the mosaic they had asked me for so many years ago. I met them in their house, we looked for a place and found a suitable niche above the bathtub. One of the fish from the Ayvalik mosaic could swim well there! I presented them with 4 designs for the 45×29″ niche and an estimate, they chose one design and accepted the budget.Design_M&C_Oct_23 In November and December 2023, I produced the mosaic on a temporary support in my studio in Berlin. I glued the tesserae upside down onto craft paper. IMG_1213 When I was finished after 40 hours, I was able to cut the mosaic apart and pack it in pieces between polystyrene sheets for transportation to …

The kitchen Mosaik is ready!

Published by gertrud

The setting of the 350x50cm mosaic in 0,8 cm crystal glass tiles brought my family in Berlin together: first my sister in law Carolin and her lovely daughters Frida and Fanny came and helped setting the blue area above the stove. Frida  (12) and Fanny (9) loved the blue mosaic tiles and Carolin and I mached their lines with green and brown. My initial idea was to bring the colors of the Linde, the tree in front of the kitchen into the kitchen. But when I checked my stock of material I couldn’t leave the very unique collection of blue and red tiles aside.  So the blue tones ended up above the stove to cool me down when I am in my cooking fever and the red tiles ended up above the sink. The reds were set by my son Emil and my husband Martin who had a great session one afternoon listening to music and setting tiles together. The installation on to the backdrop between the existing kitchen cabinets was rather tricky. I secured …

Möckernkiez Community Mosaic

Published by gertrud

The video of the community mosaic “Möckernkiez” is here! A document of the creative work of a house community. ” I would not have thought that my neighbors could produce such beautiful designs. Now I see some of them with a whole new set of eyes.” a resident and participant in the Mosaik project told me during the opening of the first part of the Community Mosaik for House 1 in the Möckernkiez in Berlin Kreuzberg. 32 residents from the 22 apartments that use Staircase A on a daily basis each designed a mosaic tile. On May 5, the mosaic tiles were installed by me and 3 other helpers from the house in the entrance area as a frieze. Saturday, May 6, was scheduled for joint grouting. Unfortunately, no one had signed the list of helpers. We “installers”, still tired from the previous day’s concentration and physical exertion, were worried. Would we manage to grout and clean the mosaic before the inauguration which was scheduled for 3pm? We started to mix the grout. And lo …