Mosaics inspirations and 24 original projects

"Those of you who have flipped through my seventh book "Glorious Interiors" will know I have a fatal attraction to kitsch" - thus Kaffe Fassett, introducing his pearls-and-broken-rose-china-covered lamp. Straight, as they say, from the horse's mouth. Dear reader, you have been warned.

He and Candace Bahouth are not frightened of kitsch or colour or indeed visual lusciousness of any kind – this superbly illustrated book is not for minimalists. But for worshippers of pique assiette and objet trouvé mosaics it will undoubtedly become a sacred tome.

The American (you guessed?) authors first introduce themselves and explain their obsession with the medium, then chat entertainingly about some of the extravaganzas which have inspired them, such as Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens in Alabama and mosaiced limos and Niki de Saint Phalle's fantasy garden in Tuscany and Nureyev's amazing mosaic carpet tomb outside Paris. Then comes a useful chapter on materials, tools and techniques, followed by 24 projects, indoor and outdoor, using shells, china, buttons, mirrors, tiles and pebbles, plus normal mosaic tesserae and objets trouvés, for mosaicing vases, a waistcoat, tables, a tapestry chair, bathrooms, walls, a fountain, pillars, a shrine, and so on.

Fassett and Bahouth appear to have unbounded energy and ideas, and as for all that colour… Wow. Different. As the chap said after reviewing the Bible, I await the authors' next book with interest.

PB

Price: £25.00