SAMA 2014 ~ Mixing It Up & Making It Great!

Mixing it Up & Making it Great!
Expanding Your Creativity with New Products and Technology

Steve's thorough demonstration on using the Morton
Portable Glass Shop to cut a variety of shapes and tiles

The Society of American Mosaic Artists just hosted the annual American Mosaic Summit in Houston, Texas. For the second year, instructors Susan Gamble, Steve Shupper, and Carrie Strope Sohyda have taught the "Mixing It Up & Making It Great" workshop, in which student's learn about free-form compositions, exact cutting of glass and ceramic tiles and working quickly and spontaneously to finish a mosaic in under four hours.

Arranging Santa Theresa Tileworks theme packs
to guide mosaic composition.

The session began with students getting a walk through overview of the Morton Portable Glass Shop. Steve Shupper demonstrated the basics of glass cutting, followed by using the Morton system to make strips, squares, triangles and diamonds.

Heat setting No Days Groutless to finish off the mosaic without grouting.

Carrie Strope Sohayda demonstrated how she frames her mosaic with geometric shapes and sets everything in place using No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive. After heat setting the border pieces, Susan and Carrie talked about different ways to compose mosaics.

The border is set in place, and then Santa Theresa tiles are
moved around until the composition looks great.

After cutting glass and ceramic tiles and arranging the pieces, students were able to heat set their mosaics. The great thing about using No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive is that as soon as the mosaics cool down, students can be finished. Toni chose not to grout her quilt mosaic (below).

Not only did we skip grouting, we attached a hanger
to the back of the mosaic using No Days Groutless.

Students were given the option of grouting their mosaics to finish, as well. As soon as her tiles were heat set and then cooled for 5-10 minutes, Jennifer finished her mosaic by grouting. We attached hangers to the back of the pieces using the No Days Groutless, as well. That means that they are ready to hang instantly!

Jennifer decided to grout her mosaic, which she was able to do
as soon as the piece cooled.

Below are pictures of the sample mosaics that No Days Artist & Instructor Carrie Strope Sohayda made while demonstrating No Days mosaic adhesives in the vendor marketplace.

Carrie created a No Days Groutless mosaic in a free-form
style, adding and taking away pieces until the composition worked.

The border pieces were repositioned to straighten them out.
Repositioning or removing pieces is as easy as reheating with the heat gun.

See more pictures of the SAMA workshop on Facebook or Google+...

Post by No Days Adhesives.

2013 American Mosaic Summit ~ Tacoma, WA

 The 2013 American Mosaic Summit has come to a close. We had a blast meeting new people, greeting old friends, finding new materials, sharing new techniques, and above all seeing the multitude of gorgeous mosaics!

Streuter Technologies' No Days Instructor Carrie Strope was able to team up with Susan Gamble of Santa Theresa Tileworks and Steve Shupper of Glass Accessories International to offer 2 four hour workshops titled, "Mixing It Up and Making It Great: Expanding Your Creativity with New Products and Technology." 

The workshops were open to all skill levels and focused on expanding the creative approach and mosaic materials palette, trying new tools and increasing knowledge of mounting methods and products for small and large scale, indoors and out-of-door projects.

 Students designed impromptu mosaics using Spectrum glass, Van Gogh glass, and thin, high fired, frost-resistant Skinny Tiles made by Santa Theresa Tile Works on wedi board with No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive, No Days Q Stik, or No Days Mesh.

Susan Gamble offered inspiration for design with a colorful presentation featuring various installations using Santa Theresa tiles and No Days adhesives. Steve Shupper gave a thorough overview of cutting glass and tiles using Toyo cutters and the Morton Portable Glass Shop to make strips, squares, triangles, diamonds and more. Carrie Strope finished by giving a quick demo of using Streuter's heat set adhesives and how to choose the proper adhesive for the job.

Not only did students leave with a nearly completed mosaic (we didn't grout in class), they received a special treat, as well! Steve handed each student the new Toyo pistol grip cutters with tap wheel (or vibrational) heads. Each student also went home with a roll of No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive, and samples of No Days Q Stik and Mesh.

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did and can't wait to see pictures of finished projects! Thanks to everyone that took the class or stopped by the booth in the vendor marketplace. We can't wait for next year!

No Days at SAMA 2012 - Lexington, Kentucky

Carrie waking up with some coffee

The Society of American Mosaic Artists annual conference took place in Lexington, Kentucky this year, and No Days made an appearance on the marketplace floor in what we called "the glass corner."

No Days Groutless Mosaic Adhesive with "Skinny Tiles" from Santa Theresa Tile Works and
smalti from the Institute of Mosaic Art.