The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-04
MAKING MOsAICs.
Beautiful Pictures Mado of Differ
ent Colored Glnsses.
HntcrestfnS Information CONCERNING On
Art of Which But IIttlo Is Known
X important improvements
Recently NIldc.

mosaic, says the Pail Mall Gazette, as
they have reproduced in this method
Holman Hunts picture of Christ
Among the Doctors" which many
people may remember in the old Water
Color eocicty's exhibition in 1887. The
I10aio, about eight feet wide and four
feet high, was made for the rcrct.os of
lClifton college chapel. Few people
haze the slightest idea of how a mosaic
as snade.
The art of working in mosaic, the
most i-nperishablc of wall decorations,
was known to the Eomans," said Mr..
Powell. superintendent Of the manu-
,fcctory, 'and has been revived and
tprLCttccd at various times. Thus there
was revival in Raphacls time, and
..Titianaiso made designs for mosaic. In
Jour own day it has been revived by
lSalriatL In Venice, and it has been
'prsctscSNl in the vatican and Mt st.
Peters in Rome under the present and
former pope for tho purpose Of repro
,duci1g the works OF the old masters in
ian imperishablc form. Most of the work
tlone in this country and on the con-
tiiicnt for the last quarter of 4 century
1as been by Salviuti
/ For instance, the designs Of Alfred
Stevens for the spandrcls in the dome
sof St Paul's arc carried out by him and
were executed in Venice. We have
been working at mosaic for about ten
Iyears and have introduced some very
important improvements. We have,
moreover, trained all our own
Icrafislnen, and every part of the work,
from the making of the glass to the
t0cr1111tCsfin ~ hn ,srA, &c. ~
thighly skilled English craftsmen
s'You must begin at the beginning
and sec the glass made" said Mr..
Powell. leading the way into the work.
shop. "But first let nc show you
what the old method was. This" show
ling nac piece of Opaque colored glass,
for all the world like biscuit, els
piece OF glass such as is used in Venice
1T is raadc by taking big drop of
.molten glass and pressing it out flat
ITO about a quarter of al inch in thick
hess These are made in every color
They are cut into little cubes and ar
ranged TO form the design, and it is the
lcut face which forms the picture sur
face The disadvantages arc the dis
Iagrceable glitter of the glass and tho
difficulty of shaping the pieces"
And the new method?" wns shown
the nnl1rr of the glass at work. The
workman has q shallow mold into
(which he Sits from the perforated bot
tom of a tin jug Il colored powder
from another jug he Sits another thick
ness Of white powder and then IL con-
siderable thickness of coarscr powder
making altogether about IL quarter of
an inch These powders nrc ground
,glass and are fused by the heat of the
fire into % solid tile. The first powder
lis of the color the glass is intended TO
be, the second is white, to give quality
ito the surfacc color end TO resist damp,
ianh the third is simply backing of
coarSDr glass to give strength ard thick
mess
The THE is then cut UP into little
pieces with q steel American wheel into
the shapes required Tho advantage"
continued Mr.. Powell. besides the SUI
Iperior color is that we use The surface
instead OF the cut edge of the tile for
the picture, and so we can cut any
shape VIC require. 1.Aus, as in Holman
Hunts picture, VIC can cut pieces into
the shape OF q thurlb-nail. or of nos
;tiil, Or OF parts Of an eye, or Of any of
the little bits CT drawing which 80 to
make up n picture. lii the cid way
these things would have TO be made up
of little cubes, and of cou.sc the shapes
wUIld not have been nearly SO accurate
by our method We arc enabled! to APP
.proach much nearer TO pictorial effect
quite Us near as is desirable in this
class uf f,ecoration.'
'And the putting Of the pieces to-
gcther?"
There arc several ways The most
piece upon the stone,vorlk Eut that
makes very uneven work and it is diff
cult to usllc altcr1 tions. The methods
we ACTUALLY practice are two namely,
face down aud face up The former
is USED for decorative panels and the
latter For important work like pictures.
The method is this We have tracing
made Of. say, head, which tracing is
pasted DOWN on IL plate OF glass The
little pieces of mosaic are Then, after
much carofnl selection and c,:tt;rt-, put
dowh upon their places ON the tracing
and liked with weak cement, and so, biz
10y bit. the whole is made up
.S.s.sI1ie advantage is that we see what
I'VE Gsse doing as VIC so OH and Chat al
'tcrations a-e easily made When the
work is finished in this way it is, ready
for transferring permanently to the
STONE wall or to - slab of slate. This
is easily done. We take a piece of linen.
such as architects use for tracing. and
ccZncnt it all over the face of the pieces
Of glass. When this is hard The linen
with oil the pieces Of mosaic is stripped
of the glass plate. The slab of slate or
the wthl is then prepared with cement,
upon which the mosaic. held together