Mosaic summer school in Denmark
Summer School in Kullerup, Denmark
July 31 to Aug 7 2010, 6 course days, 7 nights
Sorry, this course is cancelled this year. It may run next year. Please keep updated here - and please don’t hesitate to inquire and express your interest!
The course
As this mosaic holiday takes place in the oldest monarchy in the world, Denmark, you have a unique opportunity to take inspiration for your mosaics from ancient or modern Danish art and culture.
We will start the workshop with 24 hours of gathering inspiration in Copenhagen before we go to the actual workshop venue of the summer school at Kullerup Kurser (Kullerup Courses) in Funen.
The mosaic techniques taught at the course are the Roman and Byzantine ways of laying the tiles in a manner where the lines of the mosaic follow the form of the motive. Bothering to turn the curves as the old masters did, is a key to bring the hard glass and stone to life. Another key to lively vibrant mosaics is the treatment of colour. We will look further into what the Italian artist and teacher at the renowned mosaic school in Spilimbergo (Italy), Stefano Jus, has to say his book “The use of Colour in Mosaic Art” - not widely available but you can get it from Buckland Books.
Mid course we take a break from the mosaic making with an outing to historic Ribe (celebrating its 1300 anniversary in 2010!) to see mosaics in the apse in Ribe Cathedral.
The course will end with an exhibition and a small private view of the work produced at the course.
Program schedule
Saturday 31 July 2010: arrive in Copenhagen during the day and check in to Comfort Hotel, Oslo Plads 5, København Ø, in a nice neighbourhood just across from the train station Østerport where the trains from Kastrup Airport and to Funen stop. We will all meet in the lobby at 6 pm and go out together for a meal in wonderful Copenhagen. Then we will go to the world famous Tivoli Gardens in the evening and watch the beautiful flowers and lights – we will even find some great mosaics there.
Sunday 1 August: Breakfast at the hotel 8.30 am. We shall see a beautiful public mosaic ceiling on our way to The National Museum that opens at 10 am. You are encouraged to bring your sketch book as the museum houses an outstanding collection of artifacts from the Viking age and so much more to gain inspiration for your mosaics from. There is a free guided tour at 11 in English that you may join if you wish to. After lunch we will go to Christiansborg Palace where we will join the daily English tour at 3 pm of the royal reception rooms housing Queen Margareth II’s modern and very mosaicy tapestries by Bjørn Nørgård (1990). We will be allowed in as a group 1 hour prior to the tour so we can take sketches from the tapestries and/or have time to study them in detail. At around 5 pm we will be on the train to Nyborg, Funen, where the rest of the course will take place.
Monday 2 August to Friday 6: Breakfast at 8.15 am. The workshop run from 9 am to 12.30 pm and will most days start with a lecture of about 1 hour. Lunch is at 12.30 and the workshop will run again from 2-5 pm. Dinner is at 6.30 pm and there is of course coffee and tea breaks during the day. You are welcome to crack on with your mosaic work in the evenings, the studio is open from 7 am till 10 pm.
Wednesday 4 August after a quick lunch at 12 pm we will go to historic Ribe (1300 years this year!) to see the mosaics in the cathedral there by Carl-Henning Pedersen (1987). We will spend the rest of the day in beautiful Ribe and have dinner there before we all go back.
Friday 6: Late afternoon/evening the course will be rounded off by having an exhibition of what has been produced in the week.
Saturday 7: Breakfast at 8.15 am and then leave for Copenhagen at around 9.30 am to be at Copenhagen Central Station for noon.
Materials
On the course we will be working with the ancient mosaic materials natural stone and smalti. The natural stone is what the Romans originally used for making mosaics before they got into the more colourful and more exclusive glass making; this taken to its ultimate stage by the Byzantines by the incapsulating of gold leaf into glass tiles for maximum reflection of the sparse light in ancient churches – and for maximum show off for the greatness of long gone emperors!
Smalti and gold leaf smalti today is still a genuinely handmade product made specially for mosaics the way they did it 1500 years ago. We shall work with the off cuts from the production as they are more interesting than the briquettes the smalti normally come in, and at a much more affordable price. The natural stone we will use is pre cut 1x1 cm tiles about 3 mm thick making it easy to work it with regular mosaic nippers.
A 3 kg pack of materials is included in the price, please allow for this in your suitcase or your airline may punish you bad! The pack contains 1.5 kg of roti and 1.5 kg of natural stone. 1.5 kg of smalti roti should cover about 25x30 cm, 1.5 kg of natural stone 1x1 cm should cover double that which should be plenty of materials for 5 days of mosaicing. Also included in your pack is mosaic mesh and PVA glue. Working on mesh has many advantages to working on board, one is that it is much lighter to take flying. It will be possible to pre order extra materials, there will be extra materials to work from on site and you are of course free to swap between you as much as you like.
What you can expect to produce? It very much depends on your style and your confidence, but if you can finish a piece of 40x50 cm in Roman/Byzantine style in a week you shall be very pleased with yourself. Please remember that it is not necessarily what you produce on the course but what you learn and take home with you for future projects that is the big win.
You and the summer school
Who can attend the summer school then? You can be a beginner who wants to get a head start into mosaic making by really taking some time out and do a thorough course and hence take a number of short cuts; or you can be more advanced with several years of mosaicing and mosaic travel under your belt wanting to get new input and get on with developing your skills and personal style. The summer school is all about that along with absorption, inspiration, creativity and networking with other mosaicists. Whatever your personal purposes and goals there will be plenty of time during the course to get lots of individual attention to bring you forward with your mosaics.
There will be a maximum of 12 participants on the course.
The venue Kullerup Kurser (Kullerup Courses) and our hosts
Kullerup Kurser (Kullerup Courses) is a vegetarian home opening its doors for groups and courses. Hanne and Ingolf have created a non-profit space for alternative thinking, healthy living, personal development, peace and love. There is no society, movement or organisation behind their work.
They live in the small village of Kullerup 6 km west of Nyborg, Funen. The village counts Kullerup Kurser, a village hall, a church, a mail box and a bus stop.
In the large and lovely garden grows bio-dynamic herbs, old fruit trees, shrubs and wonderful forest trees. The property itself, a previous village school, houses a lecture hall, various activity rooms (amongst them a light and spacious art studio), sitting and dining rooms and 12 basic non-ensuite bedrooms.
The near surroundings offer fine walks along local roads or over meadows to Kullerup moor and the Lock along Vindinge creek. There is 6-8 km to beach, town and shops in Nyborg.
Hanne and Ingolf don’t employ any staff, so the house rules are that the course participants take part in the domestic duties by making their own beds and rooms, helping with cleaning up after themselves in general and by cleaning their own room on departure.
The kitchen is certified as 100% vegetarian/vegan using only the best bio-dynamic or organic ingredients. Smoking is not allowed inside the buildings. Apart from that the environment is completely alcohol and drug free within the grounds.
What to bring
Portfolio if you have one, sketch book, camera, books and other visual reference that inspires you, photos of one or two mosaics that you really rate for the group to examine and analyse. Just like Britain, Denmark can be hot in the summer but it can also be wet and chilly and windy if we are not quite so lucky. Therefore do bring sensible walking shoes, sweaters/fleeces (thin ones you can layer if needed), rain gear, wind breaker, socks and indoor foot wear along with your light summer clothing and sandals. You should wear closed shoes and protection goggles (regular glasses will do) when working in the studio, please also bring you own apron, nippers and tweezers.
On a completely different note you may also take along a friend or a partner who does not wish to participate in the actual mosaic workshop but who would like to come on a trip to Denmark chilling out with a book under a tree (weather providing!) most of the time. He or she will join all the groups activities apart from the workshop.
Prices
We have made it possible to join the tour in 3 ways: as a single room occupant, as a double room occupant - you must know the person you want to share with in advance - and as a, in the workshop non-participating, partner in double room.
Per person in single room: DKK 12.500,- (about DKK 8.50 to £1, Feb 20 2010: £1473,-)
Per person in double room: DKK 11.500,- (Feb 20 2010: £1355,-)
Per non-participating partner in double room: DKK 8.000,- (Feb 20 2010: £943,-)
*** 10% off by booking before May 1 2010! ***
Book before May 1 2010 and receive 10% off the regular price hence paying
Per person in single room: DKK 11.250,- (Feb 20 2010: £1325,-)
Per person in double room: DKK 10.350,- (Feb 20 2010: £1219,-)
Per non-participating partner in double room: DKK 7.200,- (Feb 20 2010: £848,-)
Included in the price: 7 nights of accommodation in single room, 1 night on hotel in Copenhagen, 6 nights on Kullerup Kurser (Kullerup Courses). All meals and drinks at Kullerup (no alcohol), transfers from Copenhagen to Kullerup and Kullerup to Ribe, guided tour at Christiansborg Palace, entrance fee to Tivoli Gardens. 3 kg pack of mosaic materials when you are joining the workshop.
Not included in the price: flights to and from Copenhagen, transfer from Kastrup Airport to Central Copenhagen/Comfort Hotel (about DKK 25,- each way), meals and drinks when we are out and about in Copenhagen and Ribe (2 x evening meals, 1 x lunch). Expect to pay about DKK 250,- +/- for a 2 course meal, a drink and a coffee in restaurant in Denmark.
Payment of the course will be in 3 portions. 1st portion is payable on booking, 2nd portion one month before course start and 3rd portion upon arrival in Copenhagen.
Booking
Please book by contacting Arendse by email. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask arendse@VIVAmosaics.com
Please note that we need a minimum of 6 bookings for the course to run and cannot guarantee that it will run at this stage (Feb 20 2010). The cut off date will be July 1 2010. We may know earlier that there are enough bookings and then we will let you know if you have booked. If you have booked and prior to July 1 2010 decide to go ahead and book your plane tickets, please make sure you take out cancellation insurance as VIVA mosaics Ltd will not be liable for any losses with regards to airfares.
Flights
Flights from UK to Copenhagen:
Easyjet.com, Ba.com, Flysas.com, Cimber.com and possibly more.
Easyjet departures London Gatwick/Copenhagen Sat July 31 2010: 11.45/14.40
Easyjet departures Copenhagen/London Gatwick Sat August 7 2010: 15.05/16.00
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