Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mosaic Murals - Ken Pirtle

Ken Pirtle is a genius! He created his own system to take an image and turn it into a mosaic. Not just any mosaic though...his are huge! His last one covered an exterior wall at Amarillo College.


Ken takes a scenic image and uses 3/4" vitreous glass tile to pixelate the image. He then hand selects the best color matches for the glass tile. He uses the 3/4" tiles since there are so many color options available. Using tile grids and mounting paper, he then meticulously lays out the mosaic by his computer diagram.

You can see his work in progress here. He shows the steps they took to install it. This is fascinating. The cool thing about this type of mosaic installation is that it doesn't look like much when you are right up on it but from afar the image is clear.

His latest project is another scenic landscape that will soon be installed at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens. It will be 9ft x 22ft. This equals over 38,700 vitreous tiles! I can't wait to see finished pictures!

http://web.me.com/kenneth.pirtle/Ken_Pirtles_site/Welcome.html

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