Mosaics in Jordan

We had the opportunity to visit a studio where Jordanian women (many of whom were handicapped) are working to make mosaics.  It is particularly time consuming and looks to be very tedious.  Piece by piece they fit the rocks, cutting them, snipping them as they go, into a design they have drawn on a cloth.  Each tiny stone is glued with a paste made of flour and water onto the cloth and slowly the shapes develop.  The most expensive pieces are made up of the tiniest pieces of stone imaginable!   Some smaller pieces (8x10) may take weeks or even months to assemble due to the extremely small snippets of stone used, while some quite large pieces can be finished in hours - if they used larger pieces of stone in that particular mosaic.

Madaba is particularly known for the art of making mosaics by hand according to the century old method.

- From the School of Mosaics of Madaba:

'The first year, students learn how to make mosaics, and exercise in copying the details of well known ones.  The Tree of Life is a popular design as is the map of Jerusalem found in St. George's Church.

All the mosaics are produced in the same way. It is impossible to do this work other than by hand, so do not be surprised when it is expensive to buy - and I do mean expensive!  A small cross I considered purchasing for my mother was 75 dollars! 

The tesserae are chipped from a larger piece, and than painstakingly inserted into a pre-prepared drawing as you see on the left.

The basic technique has not changed for centuries. There is no way to do this by machinery, and all mosaics have to be made by hand.

Draw up the design, choose your colours, and source your materials.

Cut your mosaic pieces from ceramic, glass or stone and arrange them according to your design. You can use a hammer, tile cutters and tile "nippers" to cut your pieces.

Once you are satisfied with your picture, use an appropriate adhesive to glue the pieces down, leaving gaps between each piece. The pattern that the gaps make becomes a strong design feature.

When the adhesive is dry and the pieces firmly stuck down, fill the gaps between the tile pieces with grout, a quick-setting coloured cement. Smear the grout over the picture and spread with a rubber squeegee to fill the cracks.

Clean the grout off the tiles with a damp sponge. When the grout is set, wipe off any grout residue and your mosaic is finished." 

Beautiful Mosaic of St. George and the Dragon

This piece was over five feet tall and several feet wide.  It was a magnificent work of art!