Mosaic musings

Student turns teacher with novel workshop for children

An avid mosaic lover, Jenjira Prasertsin will conduct mosaic classes for children above the age of 10 at the Dubai International Arts Centre from November 8. After two years of dedicated work under her teacher Suzanne Spahi, who was then teaching at the Arts Centre, Jenjira has made a remarkable transition from being a student to a teacher after Spahi left for Canada.

Mosaic creations involve detailed work, beginning with a novel idea, selecting tiles and other raw material, pasting it, grouting and finally polishing the work. Jenjira's interest in mosaic took her to Italy along with her teacher. Narrating her experience, she says: "Mosaic essentially must be looked at from a distance.

"Ancient mosaic done the Byzantine way includes different material like rabbit glue, lime mixture and marble dust and does not require grouting. It is a long procedure.

"Again, the tools used in Italy are different. People do not use tile nippers which need more effort. Everybody uses hammer to break tiles because it is good for the hand and you hardly use your strength. Some colours, like the red tiles, are difficult to cut because they have a certain composition and is very hard to break. It becomes very difficult to break it with a tile nipper."

"I use Styrofoam to put the tiles on unless I am working on something big, like a mirror or a table," explains Jenjira. "I try and do new projects like the seashell mosaic piece with a tea light in the centre, a plant holder base made from broken china bought at an outlet that sells defective china pieces.

The basic idea is that you can use anything with any colour. People think mosaic is about working only with tiles. Whatever you see, wherever you go, pick up whatever you can and try it out. You don't have to buy anything expensive.

"I travel a lot. Whenever I go back to Bangkok I buy things and bring it back here. Everywhere I go I pick up a little something and use it to make a mosaic piece. My husband often remarks that because of my obsession for mosaic, he will make me a mosaic coffin when I die."

Jenjira has displayed some of her work at the bazaar along with Spahi. According to her: "The response has been very mixed. People like the work immensely but say it is too expensive and tend to see it only as broken tiles.

Very often I have to tell them that this is original work and just the one piece. Most people want to learn how to do it themselves and don't want to buy it. I think people must learn to appreciate creative work. There is a table outside in my garden which took me 10 days and 100 hours to finish. I have seen some shops sell mosaic pieces for as much as Dhs 5,000."