Robin Brett Scholarship

One year since receiving the good news that I have been awarded the Robin Brett Scholarship from SAMA, I travelled from Cape Town, South Africa to England to attend Martin Cheek’s 7 day Master Mosaic Class.
During the previous year, my career as a professional mosaic artist took off. I trained groups of people from disadvantaged communities, worked on largescale public commissions and it was an exhausted me arriving in Broadstairs on a hot English summer’s day. Martin’s house and studio was built in 1720 and is a stone’s throw away from the beach…the perfect setting for a tired mosaic artist and teacher.

Martin’s background as a lecturer, animator, art critic, mosaic tour guide and practising mosaic artist, makes him a truly great teacher of mosaics. He shares his knowledge freely and is a walking encyclopedia – having won The Weakest Link on British TV explains it of course!

I was especially interested and keen to learn about glass fusions. Since winning The Weakest Link, Martin bought a glass kiln and uses glass opus sectile in his quirky mosaics. The richness of fused glass next to plain riverglass tiles adds a luxurious touch to his mosaics. We learnt how to cut glass, how to fuse dichroic glass with bulls eye glass and experimented with glass which usually are incompatible. Eager to experiment, we made lots of glass fusions and the kiln was fired every night. It was with much anticipation that we opened the kiln in the mornings and we were never disappointed with the outcome. It is quite easy to make glass fusions and very specific shapes and colours can be made to fit into your mosaic art work as required. This encounter with glass has resulted in me adding a small glass kiln to my Christmas wish list….

The morning lectures covered topics such as millefiori, the indirect method, history and manufacturing process of Italian smalti, andamento, etc. Being a ceramic artist and using clay to make mosaic tessarae, the ceramic part of the course was well known territory but I did pick up a few valuable tricks of the trade. In the course of 5 days, we made clay pieces, plaster of paris molds and then bisque and glaze fired them! This process usually takes up to 2 weeks in my own studio, but I now I know that (if needed) I can speed up the drying process.

The highlight of the week was our London mosaic tour. With Martin as our guide, we visited several mosaic sites – the Boris Anrep mosaics in the National Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock mosaics at Leytonstone tube station and the Eduard Paolozi mosaics at Tottenham Court tube station (my favourite!). At the end of an exciting mosaic tour, we had drinks at the posh, exclusive Chelsea Art Club where Martin is a member. We had “special permission” to visit the Club that night and coming from the United States and South Africa, we had preconceived ideas about British Member’s Clubs. And indeed, it was er….different!

Before leaving South Africa, I googled “Master class” and the free web dictionary defined it as “a class (especially in music) given to talented students by an expert”. This course was a “Master class” in the sense that it was presented by an expert – a man with 20 years experience whose daily bread is earned through the medium of mosaics. If you like a more formal approach or a structured programme, this isn’t the course for you. I look at this course as one would look at a “holiday package” – for 7 days you are part of Martin’s household and working studio which is situated a stone’s throw away from a beautiful beach. Sumptious lunches were prepared by Margaret, his equally talented wife, in their 1720’s house, where discussions around the table varied from politics to Roman mosaics. This is what makes this course so unique - you experience and gain so much more than what you would when you attend a course at a college in a city.

The day after I arrived back in South Africa, I started working on a public commission with a group of 4 women from a disadvantaged community who have been trained by me during the past year. As much as it was for my own benefit, it was also with them in mind that I applied for the Scholarship. They enjoy working with clay and mosaic tiles very much and take pride in their work. I firmly believe that there is little use in teaching people skills if there aren’t opportunities for them to earn a living with their newly acquired skills. We are therefore constantly looking for new opportunities. We finished the commission within 3 weeks and have been asked to do a major restoration work of mosaics on the Cape Town station!

I would like to thank SAMA from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity given to me. My horizons expanded, I made wonderful new friends from different countries and I have so much to share with others in my own community, who are less fortunate than me. I would like to extend an invitation to all SAMA members to contact me when they visit South Africa. It would be a great privilege to show you our mosaics and our beautiful country. On request from my fellow course participants, I will be running courses from my studio in 2010. Please look at my website www.desireemalan.co.za for more information.

Dankie! Enkosi! Thank you – in 3 of our 11 official languages!