The Mosaics Project at Newcastle
Arts
Centre 1983 - 88
The project was originally set up to run alongside the Tile project
with David Fry as the team leader, however it soon developed into an
independent team
of artists with its own leader(s) . David Fry established all the
making and firing techniques and continued with this side of it for the
5 years the project ran.
The making, firing and fixing techniques were all worked out and
developed on the project, and resulted in a unique and original way of
producing wall mosaics.
The designs were created by individual members of the team.
Many techniques were used in making the mosaic pieces; some pieces were
from broken or cut ceramics and pottery ready fired with colour or
pattern, similar to the Gaudy method in Spain.
Other pieces were pre shaped in clay and 'Raku' or 'Earthenware' fired
on site. By far the most common used method was
however was to enamel and re-fire
commercial white glazed
tiles and cut them after firing to specific shapes. The end
results were spectacular , and we produced among other things, the most
famous Loos in Newcastle.