Fundamento: Shape+Direction=Flow with Kelley Knickerbocker

Mosaic Arts Online is thrilled to present Kelley Knickerbocker and her unique spin on andamento, titled FUNdamento. Kelley began her mosaic explorations by reassembling random shards of broken materials and found objects. And that’s a good thing, because fitting those come-as-they-are shapes together honed her sense of visual/spatial unity. In other words, the ability to match up sides and angles of disparate shapes to reveal their unique harmony.

In FUNdamento, Kelley takes you to the next level and explores using wheeled nippers to cut specific shapes with specific intentions of direction and flow. This intentional expressiveness is what in classical Italian mosaic vocabulary is called andamento. Exploring this process together and learning from each other is what Kelley calls FUNdamento!

Kelley teaches this course by building a simple three-section mosaic seascape while analyzing three different types of andamento (circles, squares/rectangles, and classic linear) and you will learn how to construct them, how to combine them, and how to decide which is most useful when.

By using the direct setting method into thinset mortar, you will get a bit of an education on how height differentials work with no grouting! Kelley will discuss a little about design (simplicity vs complexity, hard edges vs organic, transferring to substrate), a fair bit about process (preprocessing materials, order of construction, adding unplanned elements), and address a few color issues (variety in a single-color field, boosting the vividness of colors) as they arise.

The main focus of this course will be on shaping: coaxing circles from squares, a foolproof trick for perfect keystoning angles, keeping randomness random, consistent inconsistency, creating/reinforcing directionality when you want it, diverging a line with a piece shaped like a pair of underpants (yes, really!), and more.

When you’ve completed this course you’ll be conversant in three andamenti, you’ll be a better cutter of materials, and you’ll have gained the confidence and skill to be intentionally expressive with both directionality and randomness in your mosaics.