Mosaic Ideas with Christine Shea

I had mentioned in my bio that I learned a lot about executing mosaic ideas at Mosaic by Christine in Albany NY. I took some time today to visit with Christine. Two of her students that I worked with in the past were there. I took some photos, got some tips, and put together some fun information to share in this post.

My teacher Christine:

Christine is an experienced mosaic artist. She owns and operates a Mosaic store on Delaware Avenue in Albany, NY. Christine has studied at the Chicago Mosaic School, taking the advanced course with Sonia King. This experience heightened Christine’s knowledge of technique and exposed her to the various styles of her fellow classmates. She also plans to take future classes with Laurel Sky. Christine is also very active in local flea markets. This helps increase sales of her creations and builds attendance for her work shops.

The work shop:

A good portion of Mosaic by Christine is dedicated to her spacious work shop. This is where Christine produces all the beautiful mosaic art that she has for sale. She also holds private and group classes in her work shop. Mosaic by Christine is connected to Emack and Bolio’s Ice Cream Parlor. Christine teams up with them to host mosaic work shop birthday parties for children.

With the store and the work shop connected you can buy all the supplies that you need for your mosaic ideas.

The store:

Christine is a very driven highly talented mosaic artist. She produces a multitude of visually stimulating, unique, and original works of mosaic art. These items are for sale at her Delaware Avenue location. Christine is also very active in local farmer’s markets. These include Schenectady, Delmar, and the winter farmers market that will be held in Proctors theater. Here are a few more of her pieces.

You don’t think I was going to make a trip to my teachers shop and leave without a lesson do you…?

Today’s lesson:

I have been thinking of adding some mosaic ideas to my bathroom. The technique needed for putting mosaic on walls is to first create panels of your design and then fix the panels to the wall in order. I asked Christine what I should use for the base of these panels she said “When installing mosaic panels in the bathroom moisture is a big factor. The moisture can get into the base and warp it. This also can cause the tesserae to detach from the base over time. What you want to use as a base is HardieBacker Board. This is a cement based sealed board that wont let the moisture in”. I told Christine how much I have been admiring the mosaic christmas tree she had in the window and asked if it was grout-less. She said. “Yes, technically it is grout-less. Instead of grout, I used mastic tile adhesive. When using this instead of grout, you have the ability to dye the adhesive any color that you wish. In this case, I died it green to give the tree a uniform look”.