The Face of the Saint Takes Shape

Blessing of the Iconographer Tools for the Mosaic

Today, at the Church of St. Demetrios in St Marys, following the Divine Liturgy, Fr. Nektarios, Parish Priest of St Demetrios Church, blessed the Iconographer and the tools and first set of smalti tiles which will be used on the Mosaic. Pictured below are the tile cutters, the flesh tone smalti tiles which will be used on the face and hands of the Saint, and they are resting on the fibreglass mesh to which the tiles will be adhered to form the mosaic, which will then be adhered to the wall.

Work Begins on the Church for the Mosaic. Fr. Nektarios Interviews the Iconographer.

Today, the front wall of the Church was cement rendered in preparation for the mosaic. The render has to cure for over a month before it can hold the mosaic, which is why it needs to be done early in the project. In this video, Fr. Nektarios, the Parish Priest of the Church, speaks with the Iconographer and updates us on the project.

The painted icon on which the mosaic will be based.

Ancient Art Meets Modern Technology and Some First World Problems.

Mosaic courtyard from Uruk, Mesopotamia, 3000 BC

 A Photo-journal Entry on the commencement of work on the mosaic.

Mosaic is an ancient art form, and we have surviving examples of it dating to 3000 years BC. In other words, you are a thousand years closer in time to the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, than the Incarnate Christ was to the earliest mosaics which we can still see today. Think about that. The period of time between the oldest surviving mosaics to the time of Christ is 3000 years. The period of time between the Birth of Christ to where you are now is 2000 years.



This ancient art form has continued to our time today. After the birth of Christ, it was adopted and sanctified by the Church in the depiction of Christ, the Saints, and the symbols of the Christian Faith. Today we are working on turning a painted icon of St. Demetrios measuring 0.3m x 0.425m into a mosaic measuring 1m x 2.5m.  To do this, we need an enlarged copy of the icon on one sheet of sturdy paper the size of our planned mosaic which will form the pattern on which we will build the mosaic.

How to do this enlargement? This is where modern technology meets ancient art. We decided to use the ingenuous method employed in most modern kindergartens of tracing a projected image to produce a mural for children to paint! 
So, we just needed two things: a blank section of flat wall as large as our mosaic and a computer projector placed at an adequate distance from the wall to project a large enough image of our Icon to fill the section of wall. So the hunt was on for a space which met these criteria. Unfortunately, experimentation showed that the projector had to be at least five metres from the screen to produce a large enough image of the icon, and the studio is only 3.5m long. So the hunt for the ideal section of wall to act as screen shifted to the house. After much surveying of rooms, unfortunately, the only section of wall large enough to act as a screen at this distance was the section of wall which was at floor level under the dining area window, which was behind a clothes airer, which was behind the dining table, which was behind a sofa which was behind a coffee table which was behind another sofa which sat over the section of floor where the projector had to sit in order to project the image onto the wall.

There was only one thing for it. All the furniture had to go:

 

We then placed a borrowed projector at one end of the room connected to a laptop with an image of  our icon:

And projected the image onto the "ideal" wall section:

 

 All this furniture moving took us through to morning tea time. As you can see, a poor iconographer can only afford generic instant coffee, generic Tim Tams and condensed milk for morning tea:

The next step was to tape a large piece of art paper to our screen, project the image onto it, and trace it with pencil:

Using this method, we had to be sure that we were indeed tracing the projection of the icon and not something else!

In the end, we had a feint tracing which we could then add details to:

The Finished Icon.

Glory to God! The Icon is completed!
If an iconographer was paid Australian minimum wage for their work, this icon which measures 30cm x 42cm would cost $3000 including materials.

Painting the Icon (Part Two) - Gilding the Icon

The gilded Icon

 Gilding is the application of pure gold leaf to an Icon.

A sheet of gold leaf.

Gold leaf is gold which has been beaten into tissue thinness. It comes in squares of 80 x 80 mm (3.15 x 3.15 inches), and to give you an idea of how thin it is, 1000 sheets of gold leaf weigh approximately 14 grams (less than half an ounce!)

Contrary to popular belief, an Icon is usually gilded before it is painted. The reason for this is because the gold can be painted over if need be, whereas it's well near impossible to remove gold leaf accidentally applied to a painted surface without damaging the paint.

To gild the icon, the surface to be gilded is prepared by applying a layer of "Armenian bole" (pronounced "bowl"), which is a very fine clay and which actually does come from Armenia. This is mixed with rabbit skin glue or gelatine and applied to the parts of the icon to be gilded and then sanded and polished. The bole provides a much smother surface for the gold leaf which is highly reflective and therefore will show any lumps or depressions on the surface of the icon board. It also allows for the gold to be burnished (polished).






 Once the bole has been applied, it is sanded and polished, and a layer of "gold size" is applied. Gold size is an adhesive which remains "tacky" for a long time after drying, and causes the gold leaf to adhere to the surface of the icon. It takes about half an hour for the gold size to be ready after it's applied, and if any dust particles or anything else settles on it, it will show up as a lump when the highly reflective gold leaf is later applied. For this reason, prior to applying the gold size, the air in the icon studio is thoroughly sprayed with a fine mist of water to moisten any airborne dust and cause it to fall to the ground.

Burnishing the gold leaf with an agate burnisher.

Once the size is ready, the gold leaf is applied, and then burnished using an "agate burnisher" - a tool with a very smooth piece of agate stone on the end. 

The symbolism of the gilding is significant. We start with Earth (bole) and finish with Gold. The Earth is what God made us from, and therefore represents our humanity. The Gold reflects the Sun and therefore represents Heaven and Divinity. As we progress through the process of "theosis" or "deification", or humanity becomes united through Grace with the Divine Energies and shines with Uncreated Light. This is what the Haloes of the Saints in the Icons remind us of and represent.

Prayer Ropes For St Demetrios Available Online!

As stated earlier, we are making prayer ropes to sell to raise funds for the St. Demetrios Mosaic Project. 

You can now purchase your Prayer Rope online using PayPal to help contribute towards the purchase of materials for the St Demetrios Mosaic Project. 100% of the money raised goes towards the project. The prayer ropes are available via Byzantia Icons