Hand-glazed Tiles for Modern Mosaics with Ricardo Ruiz Ruz

Sunday, February 7, 2021, 4:00 pm EST

The main focus of this presentation will be to highlight the versatility and adaptability of hand-glazed ceramic tiles and their role in the creation of modern mosaics. The interpretation of textures, movement, colors, and all their subtleties makes them an ideal medium for creating inspiring and modern mosaics.  From the presentation, the audience will observe and learn that hand-glazed ceramic tiles can adapt to any style of mosaic, from the large public art installation to the small personal work of art. Because of their ease of cutting and shaping, it can be used from large to micro tesserae, from super clean-edged to organic broken style and even pushed into the explorative territory. The medium can go as far as the mosaic artist is willing to take it within its technical range of possibilities.

Another positive aspect of ceramic tile is its ability to blend and play well with some other materials. Mexican smalti from Perdomo is one of the most compatible because of their very similar thicknesses. Some of the audience members will probably be familiar with smalti mosaics, and they will now have an option to incorporate ceramic tiles into their mosaic creations. They will also observe and learn that the most basic of tools, a ceramic tile nipper, is all they need to create. The tools most artists commonly own will probably provide them with what they need to work with ceramic tiles as no special equipment is required to start creating with the material. Audience participation can take place with example materials and tools.

As for the visual presentation, I will be showing the material in pictures and works made with it. I will be showcasing examples created by my wife and me, works from other mosaic artists based in Montreal, and also some works of Italian mosaic artist Luca Barberini, who incorporates my hand-glazed tiles in his works. Pictures, videos of the cutting and manipulation, as well as hand-glazing in my studio, will also be presented. And If given permission, I’ll showcase some of the awesome and inspiring mosaics created by Mosaika, a Montreal-based world-renown mosaic studio, for whom I worked for close to 14 years and helped create the works.  Questions from the audience are welcomed.

I am Ricardo Ruiz Ruz. From November 2004 to May 2018 I worked as a team member for Mosaika Art & Design, a world-renown mosaic studio. At Mosaika, I started out as a mosaic artisan and worked on many mosaic projects from public art to private commissions. I later worked at the ceramic studio where I was the manager for 10 years. I learned very accurate color matching, developed, and polished glazing techniques that were greatly influenced by my previous cooking skills. My work demanded great creativity and precision, to match the artists’ styles and transpose them with great fidelity into mosaic work. I’ve since loved glazing tiles, gathered lots of experience and in August 2018 I started my own studio “Montréal Mosaic Lab” where my curious nature helps me develop new techniques and processes which I use when creating hand-glazed ceramic tiles. Now I want to bring hand-glazed tiles into the modern world of mosaic art.  montrealmosaiclab.com