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| We are cutting a foot off the top row so that we can install it separately. It is easier to work with smaller pieces when cutting them to fit the space. |
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| Our pieces down below, reflected by the glass railing. |
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| We`ve reached the height of the landing. |
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| End of day 12! |
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| We always back butter glass smalti, which has mesh on the back. |
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| With mortar on the back it makes it even heavier to lift which is why we don`t make the pieces any bigger than 2 feet by 3 feet. |
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| End of day 11! |
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| We are now starting on the second lobby piece by Rupert Garcia. We'll continue on the first one once we have our scaffolding installed. We have a slight issue with this wall though. We normally start on the bottom left but that happens to be above the fire control center and they work all the time so we have to think up a solution. |
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| Luckily the mosaic has a straight line going up the left side, 6 feet in, enough space to be out of the doors way |
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| Our guidelines are very important here since we are not starting along a straight wall like we normally do. |
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| They're challenging chalk lines since we had to put the scissor lift as close to the wall as we could without blocking the door in order to get an accurate measurement six feet in. |
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| We were able to make a back buttering table on the scissor lift. |
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| Our first piece, the back buttering is for the lines of black smalti that goes through the ceramic pieces. |
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| This piece has a large flower in it that is all glass smalti, surrounded by hand glazed ceramic tile with black smalti lines throughout. |
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| End of day 10! |
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| Today we are starting on one of the two lobby pieces by contemporary artist Rupert Garcia. |
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| We always start by laying the mosaic pieces on the floor. |
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| And by protecting the area where we will be working. |
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| This piece is a bit tricky as it goes up a set of stairs. |
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| We are actually going to start installing the piece a 1/4 of a way up because it is our longest straight line. |
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| We have hi-spec anti-sag mortar that will do what gravity normally does and keep this in place before it sets. |
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| The first piece is the most important. Since all the others will lock into this one it needs to go on the wall straight. |
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| Rupert's signature is an inlay of glass smalti |
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| End of day 8! |
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| We will continue to make sure the pieces are going in straight throughout the whole installation. |
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| We leave extra tile on the mosaic at the studio for the staircase so we can cut to fit onsite. |
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| Day 8! |
