Some Recent Mosaics in Ravenna
Gold tesserae have a thin layer of 24-carat gold sandwiched between one thick and one thin layer of glass. Ancient mosaicists used gold to symbolize the light of God and to actually reflect light from those lofty mosaics down to the church-goer at floor level.
Apparently, tourists love lots of gold in their mosaics. But our teacher, Luciana, told us several times that precious materials don’t necessarily make precious mosaics. Good design, good technique, and judicious adherence to the rules of mosaic, add up to a fine mosaic.
Mosaic-making rules include using light, medium, and dark colors; following the line of a design; and outlining design elements with background color before filling in the background. But once you know the rules, you can break them. “If it’s choice,” said Luciana, “it’s not mistake.”
You can make the same general observations about knitting and crocheting. Expensive, fancy yarn doesn’t guarantee a good product. Understanding the commonly accepted rules of design, color use, and garment construction, gives you a firm footing from which to break those rules.
Sorry, the soapbox is a constant temptation to me. Back to mosaic.
This breath-takingly fabulous fountain gives the impression of gold from afar. There are a lot of gold tesserae in the mosaic, but Luciana pointed out that orange, yellow, and brown tesserae, plus iridescent ceramic tiles contribute to the golden appearance of the fountain, without the cost of gold.
Now let’s move in closer. The stylized double-helix shape is covered with multicolored motifs and patterns. It looks interesting from afar, and even more interesting up close. Here’s a really close shot of one of the patterns.
The Peace Park in Ravenna features mosaics by artists from across the world. I loved this one. It is a large crescent-shaped piece that is rich in texture, line, and contrast. In these details, you can see that it is made of stones, bricks, pipes, and stone paving tiles. “You can have a good mosaic with poor [humble] materials,” said Luciana.
Look at the white, gray and dark areas of this next one. Those are made with dark-colored cement and white tesserae. The artist crowded the white bits together for white areas. She spaced them out or turned them up on their corners for gray areas, and she left the cement unadorned for dark areas. I love that. You can achieve a similar effect in knitting by combining knit and purl stitches in certain ways.
Finally, here are some mosaics about town that you probably won’t see these in any art books. This is a strip that replaced a line of bricks in the pavement. Luciana and her students wanted to replace the bricks up the length of the street, but the city of Ravenna couldn’t or wouldn’t stump up the funding.
This pretty strip surrounds the window at the mosaic gallery of Scianna on Via di Roma.
These are in the park in front of the city museum of Ravenna.
Tomorrow, I’ll post the mosaics I made at Luciana’s Mosaic Art School”. Finally!
Some Old Mosaics in Ravenna
Ravenna’s Byzantine and Roman mosaics are famous and beautiful and mostly very difficult to photograph, because they are so high or so large. You can find good pictures of Ravenna’s ancient mosaics and their fascinating history online and in books. Better yet, go there and see for yourself.
When most people couldn’t read, the mosaics at the St. Apollinaire Nuovo church told a story of religion and leadership during the reign of Emperor Theodorico. When the Emperor Justinian conquered the city, he destroyed the mosaic likenesses of Theodorico and turned the mosaics of Theodorico’s court into pictures of saints. Justinian preserved only the mosaics that agreed with his orthodox Christian beliefs. This happened around 1,500 years ago, which goes to show that political spin and manipulation of the media have been around for a long, long time.
The photo shows some of the converted saints at the left, and the three wise men bearing gifts in the middle above the arches. I tried to show the stunning scale of the building and the mosaics, by including the tourists in the photo.
In the 1990s, a development company started construction on a block of flats in the city of Ravenna. The flats had already been sold, and the new owners were probably happy that a parking garage was going to built under the building.
The parking garage excavation stopped when workers struck a very dense layer, which turned out to be seven layers of mosaic floors, dating from Roman times, built one on top of the other! Ten years went by as archaeologists and mosaic restorers excavated the site, ingeniously preserving the layers of floors. The water table is very high in Ravenna, so the site had to be pumped continuously, which caused subsidence problems for the surrounding buildings.
An underground museum took the place of the parking garage, and that’s where these photos are from.
I’ll get back to knitting and crocheting pretty soon. These mosaics are just too good to keep to myself!
A Texan Knits and Crochets in Italy
The Winter Olympic flame has flared and faded, and with it my Olympic dream has come and gone (until next time, anyway). I knew that my trip to Italy and the mosaic workshop would cut seriously into my knitting time. How could I know that my classmates would be so genial? How could I predict that we would spend each evening relaxing over delicious Italian food and talking, talking, talking?
In a serious bid to catch up on the knitting for my Olympic project, I knitted on the train to Venice and back. On my last day in Italy, I knitted on the train back to Bologna, looking up every once in a while to admire the neatly pruned orchards and vineyards, all ready for spring.
I spent all afternoon in my hotel in Bologna knitting and watching, or rather listening, to BBC World on the TV. Some comments by the newscasters made me fear that the Olympic flame was already out! But no, I flipped to an Italian station a little after 8 p.m. and found the closing ceremonies.
I skipped supper and feverishly knitted the last few sections of my poncho. I was grafting the seam, when the Olympic committee president said, “Arrivederci, Torino!” Luckily, he went on to repeat his speech in English and French. And of course there were a few more speeches, and I kept my head down, working away.
Because the TV announcers spoke Italian, I didn’t know the exact moment the flame went out. Piecing together the events from a newspaper account, I realized that I was probably still grafting when the deadline passed.
However, I am a winner even without the fabulous gold knitting Olympics medal. I started the project, and it is finished: a poncho, straight across the front, going down to a point in the back. I used less than 3.5 oz of Habu’s shoshenshi linen paper with viscose, knitted on size 8 needles. To make the neck narrower than the hem, I used short row shaping.
I started crocheting Ella’s international poncho at the Bologna Airport. I put it down to admire miles and miles of rugged Alps: snow-covered crags tinged with the faintest yellow by early morning sunlight, and casting long blue shadows.
I picked up the poncho again at London’s Gatwick Airport, and crocheted between meals and movies, over the northern Atlantic, and across snowy and icy north-eastern Canada. By the time we reached DFW, the poncho was all crocheted. We added fringe and a tie at home.
Aren’t our daffodils pretty? They are a very welcome sight after our cold, dry, brown winter. Here’s another reminder that spring is on its way: a bluebonnet seedling! The bluebonnets are sprouting very late this year, because of the dry weather.
More to come about Ravenna, its mosaics, and my finished mosaics.
Scenes from a Mosaic Studio
Luciana Notturni is the master mosaicist and founder of the Mosaic Art School that I’ve been writing about these last couple of weeks. She teaches workshops like the one I took, about three times a month. She teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts and the School” of Mosaic Restoration in Ravenna. She and her studio staff restore ancient mosaics, as well as reproducing portraits (like the two pictured here) and motifs from ancient mosaics to sell to tourists. Many pieces are for sale in a shop that Luciana keeps near the center of town.
Luciana and the other craftsmen, students, and apprentices of the studio, work on commissions such as interpretations of paintings. A painter joined with Luciana’s studio in proposing this large piece for an art-in-public-places competition. Their proposal won the contract. For reference, a copy of the painting attached at the right edge of the mosaic’s frame.
Here are some of my classmates working at a long table in the studio.
My spot was at the far end, and to my right was this wall of shelves containing bags and boxes of colored glass. What a temptation for a gal who loves color. And to add to the color extravaganza, here are color sample cards of vitreous glass and marble.
To my left, was this collection of hardies. A hardie is a blade sunk into a heavy piece of wood. To cut stone or glass, you hold the piece on the blade and tap it with a hammer. One can cut glass and stone to tiny dimensions, like 1mm pieces, using the hammer and hardie. However, our teacher Annalise told us that it’s much harder to cut larger pieces correctly.
Mosaic college students must spend a specified number of hours working on mosaics. I liked these tulips that a student completed while we were at the studio.
It took all five days to begin to absorb the sights of the studio. This lady and the small landscape hung on the walls. The round reproduction of an ancient Roman piece, the two-way head, was propped behind a door.
A Few Italian Knit, Crochet, and Mosaic Fashions
Chunky knits abounded in the streets of Ravenna and Venice last week. Girls wore mufflers and hats knitted at about 2-1/2 sts per inch. Trim sweaters were done in multicolor yarns at no more than 3 sts per inch. Mostly it was a little too cold for sweaters alone, so I didn’t see a lot of them.
I liked this Alpen-style jacket. It looks hand-knit. In other store windows, I saw several very lacy knit jackets with scalloped edges, obviously meant to be worn for looks rather than warmth!
Crocheters, it looks like we’re rising in the wake of the knitting craze. These granny square scarves brought me back about 35 years, to the time I was crocheting granny square drawstring handbags for sale in junior high. Higher fashion crochet included shawls with flower motifs joined with chains of mohair-looking yarns.
Oh, but I was there to learn about mosaics. Luciana’s studio was a community and family affair, with students, apprentices, English teachers moonlighting as interpreters, professional tour guides working as mosaic teachers, and her daughter, who works at a foundation for the preservation of Ravenna’s mosaics, acting as our tour guide one day. They took us to all the best places, like this mosaic shop, annafietta Mosaico Contemporaneo.
I loved how the artist combined colored glass with Venetian millefiori pieces. The frames, little boxes, and ornaments were beautiful, but I settled for the blue and gold refrigerator magnet. The shop sold supplies, too, including long millefiori stems by the kilo.
The Yarn Tourist in Italy
When you go to Ravenna, which you will surely want to after reading about it here, just remember that most shops are closed on Thursday afternoon. That was when I made my first trek to the yarn store, just across from one of Ravenna’s famous baptisteries. I stood outside in the drizzling rain, and it was all I could do not to press my nose against the windows.
Not easily deterred from seeking out yarn, I went back on Friday evening. “Casa della Lana e del Cotone,” the House of Wool and Cotton, was like a beacon in the gathering dusk. The shelves were stocked with all kinds of great novelty yarns. Most were Italian-made. I even found some corded cottons in pretty colors, to be knitted on about size 3 needles, which I haven’t seen around in the US for a long time.
One wall was devoted to very fine yarns in many shades of color. I assumed they were meant for combining, to achieve even more colors. They could also have been for machine knitting (though they were in hanks), or just for plain old very fine knitting.
One of the three ladies in the store knitted with the yarn around her neck for tension. She manipulated the yarn with her left thumb. The ladies didn’t speak any more English than I did Italian, but we understood each other well enough. I said, “Italiano lana es bella!” “The best!” agreed the boss lady.
I left with two souvenirs: the gray and pink Mondial and the black and rainbow Filatura di Crosa. Both are Italian yarns. Filatura di Crosa is the yarn manufactured under the name of the famous knitting Missoni family. I’d like to visit their design studio, factory, etc., someday.
It could only have been fate and luck, or maybe even divine guidance, that put this pretty little yarn store in my path in Venice. It is just off the Menin Square, before the Cortes bridge on the island of St. Marco. It was small, like most of the shops in Venice. Maybe that is why only one skein of each yarn color is displayed on the shelves.
Three masked men and women entered the train to Venice. No one on the crowded train even took a second look. Do people normally ride trains with masks on? Is it an Italian thing?
Wait a minute…the masks were golden. It’s February–Mardi Gras time. Imagine the cogs in my brain grinding slowly into position. Aha! It was Carneval day in Venice.
In spite of dire predictions of ankle-high water and missed connections, Dean, one of my mosaic classmates, and I took the train to Venice for the day. We arrived on time to find the station crowded with people wearing silly hats and masks.
Our destination was St. Mark’s Plaza, with the fabulous basilica, where the stolen remains of St. Mark are entombed. Having left our hotel too early for the wonderful breakfast, we stopped at a good-sized park plaza to have a coffee and a bite to eat.
“If we head off to the left, we can cross at this bridge,” said Dean, pointing to one of the three spots where a person can walk across the Grand Canal. We headed off to the left, and made our way through the narrow streets and across the tiny bridges of Venice.
Ages later, we crossed the Grand Canal. According to the map, we managed to go across town to the other major bridge, which would have originally been far off to our right. The city is like a maze with high walls and unexpected dead ends.
The crowds got denser and more beautifully dressed. Many wore 18th century costumes with elaborate headdresses and masks.
Sort of by accident we found St. Mark’s Basilica. We photographed it from afar, because the square was thick with people, performers, noise, people, hats, people, people, people.
Realizing that the crowds would only get worse as the evening approached, we headed back to the train station, stopping for lunch and souvenirs for our families on the way.
Long train rides, hundreds of thousands of people on a wintery day, primitive bathrooms, and a great, great time.
Chopping Marble and Glass
We finished our first mosaic samples today! Each student chose a color photocopy of an ancient mosaic. We traced the pieces onto wax paper with water soluble pen, then transferred the design to a moist hydrated lime base.
But back to the beginning. Monday morning we had a talk about tools and techniques of mosaic, and after a great lunch at a church cafeteria, we spent the afternoon chopping marble into small cubes. Practice, you know.
I felt pretty confident in my ability to chop mosaic materials, until we started our copies on Tuesday morning. Mine was mostly made with colored glass pieces (vitreous glass made especially for mosaic). To chop glass is different than to chop marble. I had a fine layer of tiny glass slivers all around me, and lots of waste. “This is part of the job,” said Annaliese, who is one of our instructors.
We made lots of progress on Tuesday, with another nice lunch at the same cafeteria. Today we hurried to finish, because our mosaics were to be transferred to a wooden frame. The cement and surrounding slurry of cement and sand, would have time to dry, before we go home on Friday afternoon.
We all had help from the mosaicists at the studio. It’s impossible to put into words all the little movements and adjustments you make, when you do mosaic (or knitting and crochet, for that matter). So it helps to be able to watch an expert at work.
Luciana Notturni, the master mosaicist at the studio, told us our class is exceptional. “You are calm, you are quiet, you do the work,” she said. The most exceptional thing about this class, is that we all get along very well! The group comprises two British sisters, a British friend of theirs, a Bostonian, and a Texan. All our lunches and suppers are spent together, enjoying delicious food and talking. Here, we can linger over supper for a couple of hours in a restaurant, and the staff consider it normal.
Tomorrow we make a small mosaic, directly onto cement. Then we have a tour of the mosaics of Ravenna, which are many and amazing.
Lots of pictures to be added when I get home!
First Moments in Ravenna
When I walked to my hotel in Ravenna today, I ran across a parade! Kids in costume were everywhere. Confetti and streamers and silly string were everywhere, too. Different schools had floats, which some kids rode on and more kids followed. All were wearing costumes. It was loud and colorful and fun.
I checked in and then went back out to see the parade and take pictures. The floats went around and around two big blocks, and then everyone went into a big park nearby.
My knitting eye saw lots of multi-color stranded caps on the kids, some with flaps (caps, not kids). Couldn’t tell if they were hand-knitted. Saw a couple of knitted shawls, and one was handmade for sure. And a pretty crocheted scarf. I will be on the lookout for a yarn store.
My workshop starts tomorrow! Ravenna is definitely a mosaic town. The hotel has one at the entry and a little park near the train station has a colorful mosaic column. The little signs on the trashcans have a picture of tesserae plus the name of the town.
Off to Italy
My girls are looking forward to ten days of canned ravioli suppers, movies, and fun with Dad, while I am off in Italy, attending the Mosaic Art School. They’ll have a good time. So will I.
My serious packing time has been devoted to deciding what projects to carry on the plane. The red paper poncho will go. See the white shett of paper in the photo? Those are my shawl instructions. I hope I can remember what these notes mean.
Just in case my circular needle doesn’t pass through security, I’m bringing natural dyed wool, which was a gift from my friend Helen Neale. If I can’t knit, I’ll do a little chopstick spinning.
For back up entertainment, Charles gave me part of my birthday present: a stack of Perry Mason novels. “Take several to read on the plane!” he said. I took three. “Take more! You’ll have a lot of time at the airport,” he said. If I have them, I will read them, so I said, “Charles, I don’t want to spend all my time reading.” He probably never thought he would hear those words tumble from my lips.
So off to the land of mosaics, fabulous Italian yarns, and cutting edge knitting design. If I can’t post from my hotel, I’ll see you all at the end of the month. Ciao for now!
Knitting to Enchanted Rock
This is Enchanted Rock. It is an enormous dome of pink granite rising out of the central Texas landscape. We were expecting cold, clear weather today, so we took the girls there for a climb. Believe me, it’s better to do it in the cold rather than the heat! We knew our ten-year-old, Eva, could climb to the top, but we weren’t sure about Ella, who is three. Ella wanted to be with Eva, climb rocks with Eva, hide in rocky tunnels with Eva, sit by the little pools with Eva. In short, she made it to the top—a six-tenths mile walk and a rise of 425 feet!
Here are some views, including lichen on a boulder, cactus, girls at one of the pools, and other plants that have taken over one of the water-gathering depressions, looking out into the distance. The wind was blowing hard at the summit. Down near the parking lot, where we had our picnic lunch, the weather was perfect.
So what does this have to do with knitting? I knitted on my Team Italy project most of the way there and back. It’s looking good!
We visited an antique store in the town of Llano on the way back. This little footstool peeked out from under a table. The top is knitted with crochet around the edge, attached to a padded piece of plywood, and trimmed with pom-pom fringe. The legs are attached to the wood with screws. Twenty-eight dollars.
I covered a stool with knitting, when we lived in England. We used to find nice pieces of furniture in skips, which are low dumpsters. Low, meaning that you can easily see into them, and pick out good stuff. Here it is:
At the same shop, we saw these shelves, with edges trimmed in buttons. Very cute!
