Buried in the garden
The story of this mosaic begins with an unexpected email. Lauren wrote to ask if I could help her and her sister, Steph, make a grave mosaic for their mother.
My curiosity was piqued. Grave stone mosaics are not uncommon but Lauren went on to explain that their mother, Constance, was buried in the garden. Out back with the dogs.
They wanted to make a grave mosaic for the mound where their mother was laid in the yard. The same southern Californian property where Constance had brought up her daughters and tended the flowers.
When I say garden I think of a neat square of grass with herbaceous shrubs bordering the edges. In California a garden is something bigger and more rambling. Nonetheless, it was a curious request and one that immediately caught my interest.
Their mother was clearly an unusual woman who had long talked about being buried on her property. When she was seriously ill in hospice, the family managed to get the permits so when Constance died in 2023, the burial could go ahead without any delays.
Starting from scratch
I loved the fact that sisters chose a mosaic as a memorial for their mother. I loved it even more than neither of them had made a mosaic before. They wanted to meet in Edinburgh, learn the basics of mosaic making, and then dive straight in.
We had two days. Steph still lives in California (in the same house where she was brought up) and Lauren is currently based in Norway. So Scotland wasn’t a bad meeting point. But two days isn’t long, especially when they envisaged a grave mosaic a metre in diameter.
The paper backed method
The obvious approach, indeed the only approach, was to use the paper backed method. In a nutshell, the method entails making the mosaic in reverse on Kraft paper using flour paste glue. The paper template can either be cut into pieces before mosaicking starts or cut up after completion.
Either way, the sections of mosaic are relatively light, easy to stack and transport. That was essential given that the sisters lived on different continents. The original plan was for each of them to take parts of the mosaic back home and complete whatever we hadn’t managed to finish in Edinburgh.
The other reason for using the reverse method on paper is that the mosaic would be on the ground on a flat, pre-prepared concrete bed. The method is the only one recommended for floors because it is guaranteed to give you an even surface.
No time to waste
The only difficulty was that we didn’t have much time. In my view, we needed to work on the design and decide on the colours in advance of our meeting so that no face to face time would be wasted making decisions. We needed to be ready to hit the ground running.
Luckily, Steph and Lauren had plenty of ideas about what they wanted. An early email spelt it out. ‘My mom was quite alternative….so we will probably want to use some symbols that might have been meaningful to her, sun, moon, tree, infinity sign, concentric circles. That kinda thing. She also considered herself to be a mermaid, so that could be a potential (albeit more difficult sounding!) jumping-off point.’
That’s right. Constance didn’t just like mermaids. She was one.
Designing the grave mosaic
A series of emails with designs attached started bouncing back and forth. For me, the important thing was to pare the ideas down so that the grave mosaic wouldn’t be over stimulating. Mosaics work best which are clearly readable. There is enough busy-ness inherent in the medium so the design itself needs to be calm and balanced.
The sisters sent me ideas of mosaics that they had seen and liked and drawings of their ideas. Before long, we had the basic idea (an early design, left). A mermaid would be the central feature with a yin-yang background – one half being the sea and the other the air.
Lauren and Steph were keen to include a sun and moon and we tried various options before putting the moon into the water and sun behind the mermaid’s head. Unfortunately, the moon is lost in the waves. If we’d had more time I would have removed it and used stronger colours to make the moon stand out. That’s the beauty of the paper backed method – mistakes are easy to remedy.
Working together
And then the fun began. The sisters arrived with all the gusto and energy you’d expect from the daughters of a mermaid. They threw themselves into the task. Learned quickly and worked hard. Two days extended to three. The pair worked long after our designated hours and by the end of day three a large portion of the mosaic was done.
Finally, it was decided that Lauren would take the mosaic back to Norway to finish it herself. Steph was starting a new job and they agreed she would have less time and space to continue. A few months later I had an email from Lauren; the mosaic was finished.
Installation
The sisters are planning to instal it this summer. Their mother’s partner will prepare the site so that they have a solid, flat base. I am looking forward to seeing it in place.
