Well, maybe not everything, but I am realizing there are a lot of parallels between learning to do mosaics and learning how to go through life.
I have been away these past two days at a mosaics workshop taught by Debra Mager in her studio. She is truly my mosaics mentor and an outstanding teacher. This was my third workshop with Debra and every time I learn more about the art of mosaics plus I have a joyful time working with her and the other students in her studio. Take a moment and check out her work: debramagermosaics.com
As we were wrapping up our projects at the end of today, I had a few moments to jot down some notes and realized that much of what I am learning in the creation of mosaics is also useful as a life lesson.
Here are a few of my thoughts interspersed with my project from the past two days using bits and pieces of glass to create a colorful vase.
Small broken pieces can come together to create something beautiful.
All of us as are a composite of many pieces and not all those pieces delight us. There is joy but there is also sorrow. We each have our own brokenness, our fractured parts, the good, the bad and the ugly that comprise us all. But if we keep going, those broken pieces often come together to create a surprising loveliness. This doesn’t mean that we can rid ourselves of all our sharp edges or that we don’t have to re-group and re-glue our pieces multiple times in the course of a lifetime, but broken pieces often come together and take us by surprise with their unexpected beauty and wholeness.
You gotta have some glue.
Creating mosaics, or creating a good life, takes some glue. Glue comes in many forms—for mosaics it might be DAP Kwik Seal or Tacky Glue or silicone or Well-Bond, but you have to find the glue that works best on a project and holds things in place. So true with life, too. You have to find the right glue. It might be the right person or people, it might be a career choice, it might be taking better care of your health, but to keep it all together, you need some glue.
You also need to discover the right amount of glue needed in different situations. In mosaics I have used too little glue and watched pieces slide off into a small heap; I have used too much glue at times and had to do some scraping and scrubbing to clean up the mess of too much.
This is true in life, too. You need to find the glue that holds your many life pieces together and you need to find the right amount of glue for where you are in life.
There is likely going to be some bleeding involved.
A friend asked me once if I wore gloves when I was working with mosaics. I knew why he asked because after all you are working with a lot of sharp edges of glass. I told him that I did not wear gloves as it would be impossible to effectively place the small pieces wearing bulky gloves. But I admitted that I did keep a good supply of band-aids available.
When working with sharp glass, just like the sharp edges of life, you are going to cut yourself on occasion and yes, there will be blood (though hopefully not too much).
Life is not without some cuts and on occasion, yes, there is some bleeding. You need a handy supply of band-aids so you can keep going with your artistic endeavors and with life itself. Bleeding is messy so be prepared!
Use the best grout to fill in the spaces.
One of the steps in working with mosaics is, once all your pieces are glued in place, you cover the surface with grout to fill in the spaces and give the piece a finished look.
We all experience empty spaces in our lives. The times when we are waiting for the right job, the space left when someone we love dies, waiting to hear the results of a medical test. We have to find ways to wait, to fill in the empty spaces and to come to understand that those empty spaces are part of our lives, too.
Grouting, filling the spaces, is a messy job in mosaic work. It can be pretty messy in life, too. But without that work, the beauty of our work or in our life can’t come through.
Give it a little shine.
One of the final steps when you complete a mosaic is to wet your shop towel with a small amount of vinegar and go over the entire surface. This makes your piece shine and shows off its true beauty.
Life needs a little shining up at times, too. I think it is the small moments of joy that give our lives the shine. A small act of kindness—given or received--can make any day a little better, a little brighter.
So those are the five life lessons I pondered as I worked on my mosaic project this weekend. There were five of us in the class. Five very different women from very different backgrounds and living very different lives. We all had the same materials to choose from but we each created a completely different finished mosaic. I found each one of the created pieces and each one of the people creating absolutely beautiful.
One other life lesson I want to add: I think it is vital to find the best teachers we can as we create our lives and our art. Good teachers are such a gift. They inspire us to keep creating, to keep working at learning, even when the learning seems slow or impossible. Good teachers never give up on us and that in itself is amazing.
Like life, we just need to keep at it.
I love this. . . I love your vase. . . I love that you are still "mosaic-ing" (though I must admit I'm a little jealous not to be there with you!). . . and I LOVE having a good friend who is a prophet and who shares such beautiful wisdom with me on the regular. You are a treasure!
I love your using mosaics as a metaphor for life and your five lessons. So true. Your vase is lovely as are you and your life.