Mosaic Workshop
by Brenda Ross
"I am an example of someone who had an idea and started from nothing," says Emma Biggs of Mosaic Workshop in north London, a thriving business built up over the last 17 years to become what she believes is the largest mosaic workshop in the UK, undertaking prestigious commissions for locations such as Westminster Cathedral - and she started her craft by becoming a cleaner!
Having finished a Fine Art degree at Leeds University in 1980, Emma found that most of her contemporaries seemed to be joining punk bands. After working for a time as an assistant to fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ("an interesting person to work for, with a wonderful eye for colour, interest in textiles, and knowledge of where to get unusual items"), Emma ran a tour management company for rock and roll bands. "Then when I had children I had to find something to do from home.
I saw a television programme about the Italian community in the UK and it said many of them came over in the late 1880s as mosaicists. At that time the style of buildings reflected the idea of 'empire', with classical columns and mosaic floors. The programme said that a lot of Italians still do that type of work, and I thought how marvellous, to feel you were doing something that was continuing a line of history. I said, 'I would love to do that' and my husband said, 'Why don't you?'" So she did. She began by ringing up mosaic companies listed in the Yellow Pages, and found they were mostly doing work like subway cladding, not creative mosaics. "But I was persistent," she says, "and finally found a mosaicist who needed a cleaner.
I took the job so that I could be in a mosaic studio and see how mosaics were done."
She worked there for 9 months and the following year, 1987, set up her own company, Mosaic Workshop, working from home. She made some sample mosaics and took them to tile shops in the London area, telling them she would make the mosaics if any of their customers were interested. "I was lucky," she says, "because almost straight away someone saw the samples in a Fulham shop and thought mosaic would be ideal for the floor of their cactus house. As soon as I had completed that job I sent out information about it, to get publicity and more commissions.
"Then I needed an assistant, and through a friend I knew someone who had been an architect and wanted to go to art college, but couldn't find a suitable course.
So she came to work for me in the late 1980s, and that was Tessa Hunkin, who is a partner in the business.
"We limped along, doing work in schools and for churches. Then we got our big break: we were asked to do mosaics for Terence Conran's restaurants when they opened in the early 1990s, including the crustacean bar at Quaglino's. This gave us more kudos and looked as if we were endorsed by him. From that, things started to happen."
Twelve years ago they moved into their present premises, a deceptively large upstairs workshop and retail shop, down an alleyway off Holloway Road in north London, near Emma's home. Although they were successful, Emma believes there has been a qualitative difference in their work for about the last 5 years, since they became involved in public art projects. "Before that, other people had designed projects and we made them. Now we are doing both the designing and making. You have to decide whether you are going to be the boss, or whether you are going to do others' bidding; now we are executing our own work and it is more satisfying."
One type of work that has had a particular effect on her in recent years is working with schools. "I was involved in a project at Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, with school children," says Emma. "They were so wonderful to work with, so uninhibited, and it led me in new directions. I then approached a school local to the studio in north London, where the pupils are largely newly immigrant, and the children were so receptive and imaginative; it was marvellous."
Many of Mosaic Workshop's projects are commissions in the London area. Among the most recent is a project won through competitive tender, for mosaics in the floor and walls of Jubilee Place, a new shopping centre at Canary Wharf in Docklands, east London. Emma researched the history of the area, and the thirteen floor panels depict in pictures and words some of the goods traded through the docks that once existed on the site; for example, "Three million pounds of feathers were sold annually before the First World War" and "There was a fashion for using shells in nineteenth century furniture". The design of the two wall panels represents the tailoring history of the area - from pattern pieces laid on fabric, reflecting the tailors who used to work there, to the ties and suits of the workers now occupying the office blocks.
This year Mosaic Workshop has also been working on the ceilings of two chapels in Westminster Cathedral, created to someone else's design, and is involved in the redevelopment of Howard Square, in Sheffield, where a mosaic is part of the landscaping. Emma's design relates to the traditional steel industry of the city, reflecting the flowing hot metal and the geology of the area. The mosaics are mostly made in the studio, with the pieces stuck down on strong brown paper (the side against the paper will be the front of the mosaic when installed). The mosaics are transported to site, in sections if they are large. Adhesive is applied to the floor or wall surface and the exposed surface of the mosaic (i.e. the back). The mosaic is then placed on the surface, and when the paper is wetted it peels off the front.
Which materials are used depends on the location, explains Emma. "You can't use glass on a floor; it has to be ceramic or marble. On walls marble would be a bit heavy. Glass smalti is good for ceilings, particularly in religious buildings, because you get the intensity of colour. Ceramic has muted, earthy tones, while vitreous glass is more shiny. When I started, mosaic materials used to be made by British tile companies, but not now. They come from all over the world: Mexico, France, Italy, China, Turkey, Portugal."
A large range of mosaic materials are sold in the shop at the Mosaic Workshop studio and their shop in Holborn, London (at a house owned by Emma's partner Tessa), as well as by mail order. Some finished goods are also sold in the shops - items that are functional as well as decorative, such as mirrors and table tops. "But with the burgeoning interest in mosaics in the last five years," says Emma, "more people want to make their own, so sales of finished goods have dropped."
Both Emma and Tessa design and make mosaics, with complementary styles. "Tessa's style is more figurative," says Emma, "and mine is more abstract." Emma also teaches weekend workshops at the studio, and has written four books. She and Tessa have just written a new one, a definitive guidebook on mosaic design and techniques to be published by Readers Digest later this year. One area that Emma does not get involved in is the day-to-day administration of the business. A studio manager does that, while a third partner in the business, James Postgate, deals with the financial side and is involved in the planning, as well as running the Holborn shop. There are also three full time assistants in the studio, and one person dealing with mail order.
There are big plans for the future. "Mosaic is now burgeoning in America, as it did here five years ago," says Emma. "So we are setting up there. We have someone representing us, to get commissions which will be made in the London studio and taken over to the USA for installation.
I am also beginning to teach in America, and we hope to open a shop there; one of my ex-students is involved. Another ex-student is president of the American Society of Mosaicists. I have a network of ex-students, which gives us an endless resource; we know all these people who are fascinated with mosaics, and it means that when we need extra help in the studio I can call on someone."
It is a long way from the days as a cleaner in a mosaic studio, but shows how far one person can go with the right outlook and development of skill. Looking back she sees one of her biggest learning curves in technique as relating to colour: "When I started I didn't understand colour as much as I do now," she says.
"I could not understand why, when I drew a design one way, it would come out looking completely different. It was because of the weight of the colours and I didn't understand about the tones of colours then." She has also had to learn about business: "University developed my intellectual critical faculty but didn't prepare me for the business world. Working in tour management with rock bands did more of that!"
Seventeen years after setting up the business, Emma is still as enthusiastic about her craft. "Mosaic is a fantastic medium," she says. "The reason I have been able to stick with it for so long is that it has so much scope - so many different surfaces, materials, treatments and environments, from micro to grand scale. I still love it."
Mosaic Workshop
Unit B
443-449 Holloway Road
London N7 6LJ
Tel/Fax 020 7272 2446
