In this age of instant pictures, of Blackberries and digicams, the ages-old art of making pictures from bits of stone is Lazarus-like, coming back to life.

Mosaics of pebbles, marble, glass and other stones are being installed in homes and offices, on sidewalks and in shower stalls, on backsplashes, countertops, as door frames, ceiling borders, fireplace wrap-arounds - the list is growing and the demand is increasing. Lucia Schito of Bisazza, North America, an Italian company with a warehouse and production center in Miami, says the demand for mosaics is growing "tremendously.''

Bisazza manufactures 200 colors of tile for mosaics, says Schito. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Miami are cities where demand is on the rise. In 2004, Bisazza, is introducing a new line of mosaic jewelry as well as mosaic furniture.

Designers may turn to Bisazza, not just for tiles, but also for mosaics made from computer-generated designs, Schito said. Using the designed pattern, hand-cut mosaics can run $200 a square foot, while 225 ready-to-use tile pieces on a 12-by-12-inch net can cost from $8 to $45, with $25 the average.

Mosaic subjects, which once depicted ancient gods, then became bound to religious figures in the Middle Ages, have wandered down from church walls. Now mosaic pieces find themselves on South Pacific islands, beaches, tropical jungles, the Maine woods and the Arctic ice flows. If you can picture it, you usually can picture it in mosaic form.

Bisazza created the parrot mosaic at Parrot Jungle on Watson Island as well as the peacock in a three-story stairwell of Merrick
Park in Coral Gables .

Miami Shores artist George Fishman has made mosaic scenes of Venice for Royal Caribbean cruise line for use on the Voyager of the Seas. Fishman says he had an epiphany that inspired him to start working on mosaics nearly two decades ago. The colors he used for ceramic glazes weren't working out to his satisfaction. When vacationing in southern France and looking at ancient mosaics, "something clicked'' and "I had a flash: I can do this!'' he says.
As co-editor of Grout Line, the newsletter of the Society of American Mosaic Artists, Fishman says, "The number of people making mosaics has skyrocketed in the past few years. In the last three years, the number of SAMA members has gone from 200 to 1,000.'' In South Florida, beach scenes and marine life are natural subjects for mosaics that are showing up in new and renovated homes.


Helene Hollub has a Key West scene spreading behind her counters and stove backsplash. She and her brother
Harry run the home-building Hollub Construction Group, started 47 years ago by their father. Mosaics help sell their homes, she says, especially to women. She and her daughter worked together adding shells to a mosaic on their outdoor bar. A mosaic coral reef decorates one end of her swimming pool. The man behind her interior palm tree mosaic is Ray Corral, who designs mosaics on computer and has them made in Mexico by the company The Mosaicist, in which he is a partner.
A full-scale drawing is spread out in a Mexico workshop and artisans place individual tiles on them, one by one and upside down. Then, when the pieces are in place, a backing is put over the tiles using water soluble paste, and the scene is cut apart and shipped. After the mosaic is transferred into place, the paper backing is washed or peeled off.
Corral created serene and curling waves for Marsha Rappaport's outdoor barbecue, cabana and a bathroom on the second floor of her Sunset Island home. Corral brings installers from Mexico to get the tiles applied correctly.

Key Biscayne artist Gina Hubler tiled her condo bathroom first to get the hang of it, and now has 20 projects in the works, from mosaic tables to wall installations. She has a studio in Allentown,
Pa., and another in Spoleto , Italy. The mosaics on the performance stage at The Falls shopping center are Hubler's work.
She recently completed a wall-size mosaic version of a Henri Matisse painting, Still Life With Goldfish, for Sabine Bittel in Coconut Grove. "It is one of my favorite paintings,'' says Bittel, an artist and art teacher. "And it seemed right for the bath, with the water and plants.''

Hubler, who rents a cabana on Crandon Park Beach to use as one of her studios, teaches mosaic classes and takes several students to Italy every year to study traditional works. She has a degree in interior design, and used to buy and renovate houses.
"I had a friend who went to Italy and she came back and shared what she had learned,'' Hubler says. "I thought, `I can do this,' and it was more of a stress release at first. I'd come home and break tiles. I loved it.''
Eventually, Hubler realized she wanted to work in mosaics so she went to
Italy and studied what she saw. Installations intrigued her, and she found they came naturally. Now a gallery represents her and she is doing more fine art mosaics meant to be hung on a wall, as well as teaching.

Jackie Gran, in Snapper Creek, took a course from Hubler and commissioned Hubler to create a mosaic stove splash of bright chickens against a deep blue background. Gran fell so in love with the art that she shut down her party business to take up making mosaics full time.
The art began when ancient people nudged pebbles into patterns for pathways. Greek artisans, by the Fourth Century B.C., took the floor art and put it on walls and ceilings. As they did so, the stones became smaller and smaller. The Romans followed suit. Then, in the Fifth Century A.D., along with the Byzantine Empire came the making in northern Italy of smalti, highly colored pieces of glass cut by hand. Smalti, still cut with nippers or traditional hammers on a carbide or steel blade called a hardie, are meant to be irregular and to catch the light. Larger and regular pieces of vitreous glass, marble or tile are called tesserae.

Pebbles, the original pathway material, are back in the 21st Century. This time, they are lining the edges of swimming pools and shower floors. "They massage the feet,'' says Deborah Cornely, president of Innovative Surfaces in Coral Gables .
Mother of pearl, which was cut into tesserae for Fifth Century mosaics in
Ravenna , Italy , also is being used again, running $500 a square foot. Marble, slate, onyx and even recycled glass are finding their way into the contemporary mosaics.
The gold leaf that brightened the background for saints and emperors centuries ago is sandwiched between glass these days and is often chosen by well-heeled sheiks, says Corral. Sinks at Innovative Surfaces are covered with tiny marble pieces that then are ground to a smooth finish, or even a space-age material called diachronic glass used as mosaic.

Cornely, who worked in the tile industry for two decades, opened her store two years ago because designers and contractors kept saying they were tired of seeing the same old things. But it took eight months of searching to find the artists and artisans she now represents because mosaic artists most often advertise the old fashioned way: by word of mouth.

Bittel, who has the Matisse mosaic in her guest bath, found Hubler when she saw a friend's mosaic table. Rappaport found Ray Corral through her contractor and a pool man who told her about a cool pool he had seen. She has told eight of her friends about him.

Fishman's work appears in Mosaics, Inside & Out, by Doreen Mastandrea (Rockport Publishers, $25) and he works with architects and designers. It is Fishman's dream that one day mosaics will be liberated from the bathroom, kitchen, pool and other wet areas. "Beyond their function as a durable surfacing material, mosaics are dramatic design statements in any part of the house,'' he says. Even hanging on the wall as a piece of fine art.

Illustration: color photo: Gina Hubler (A), Ray Corral (A), A scene of Venice was created by Miami mosaic artist George Fishman (A), A Key West beach scene in Helene Hollub's Pinecrest home was designed by Ray Corral (A), Matisse's Still Life With Goldfish' was translated into a bathroom (A)

DONNA E. NATALE PLANAS/HERALD STAFF MANY MOODS: Gina Hubler, top, created her first whole-room mosaic in her bathroom on Key Biscayne. Ray Corral designed the outdoor wall murals for a barbecue area by a swimming pool. A scene of
Venice was created by Miami mosaic artist George Fishman for a cruise line.


GEORGIA TASKER/HERALD STAFF TEXTURES: Matisse's `Still Life With Goldfish' was translated into a bathroom mosaic, right, by artist Gina Hubler for Sabine Bittel of Coconut Grove. Details at far left show, from top, the use of river stones, Tiffany-style glass and recycled glass made into squares.


DONNA E. NATALE PLANAS/HERALD STAFF HAND WORK: A Key West beach scene in
Helene Hollub's Pinecrest home was designed by Ray Corral. Mexican artisan Jesus Santa Maria applies glass pieces to a wall mosaic in the bathroom of a house in Miami Beach.


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Copyright (c) 2004 The Miami Herald

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