It has been long since I wrote a blog post. I have created a whole new web site since and added so many new products to the Craft Company family. My aim to produce more items that are personal, handmade and a constant pleasure to my customer has me trying to fashion that perfect product all the time.
I have lived in a few different countries and seem to love them all often with great nostalgia. I seem to tear up every time I hear a national anthem although I have no affinity to any single country and abhor wars and conflict based on politics and borders. I have had this idea that all of us identify with some place geographically, whether we live there, visit it or spend some happy moments there. Isn't this why people buy souvenirs?
On a recent trip to Spain I made it a point to visit their gift stores and felt a little sad that I couldn't find more personal items to take back home with me. I bought a lot of their marzipan, cheese and edible goodies but not much more. But I was surrounded by Gaudi's mosaic and it inspired me to come back home and create wall art that was lively and yet must mean something to the residents of all those lovely villas he designed.
Mosaic art lovers like me love to see pattern and form take shape from the careful construct of laying tile and building a mosaic piece by piece. I thought of flags people could identify with and the ancient mosaics of Pompeii. They might be versions of replicas but sometimes an image can lead to a labyrinth of happy memories. Meandering through and witnessing the grand mosaics of Alhambra and Seville and the cheerful art of the new of the majestic Gaudi seems to have inspired me in this direction! What do you think?
