and other custom designs for your Home Spa (continued)
Laura collaborates closely with her clients and speaks here about a recent experience.
"As a designer I love collaborating with clients to come up with something unique for their needs and budgets. For this recent project, the clients had an existing outdoor shower under a porch that they wanted enhanced to include a mosaic shower wall. The space they wanted covered was vertical.
We looked at different designs with a nautical theme and arrived at a mermaid with ship, coral, and sea creatures.
After we had agreed on an initial sketch, I enlarged it proportionally to the size of my "canvas" or design area. The dimensions of this piece were 30" by 72" of stone mosaic to be surrounded with slate columns.
For outdoor mosaic projects, I use marble, travertine, and agate tesserae which are very durable. In studio I cut the tesserae and lay them out on fiberglass mesh with temporary glue. As I go, I update the clients with photos of progress so they can give me their input.
Each project has unique challenges with chances for original solutions concerning attaching mosaics to walls or existing structures. With a background in both painting and sculpture, I think of mosaics as "stone paintings" and I enjoy combining them when possible with more three dimensional stone work."