We met outside the block of flats. ‘Hello’ I said. ‘Hello’ said Toby. ‘This is Tim. This is George, and this is Ilaria.’ ‘Hello’ I said. We worked all day making mosaics. George, a beautiful English girl, told us about her boyfriend. ‘We met on the plane to LA’ she said. ‘It was amazing. I [...]
When Milano Mosaics closed down, in the 90s, I bought their jigs. Jigs are setting trays, in which you lay out mosaic tile patterns face up. When you use one to design a tile pattern, you see it as it will be seen when fixed to the wall. Jigs ensure all the tiles are at [...]
I’m not really a moulder of men, I’m more of a fellow traveller. I think it comes from having brothers and sisters – you just have to share, or there’s big trouble from the siblings. I don’t make much of an impression on people either – they always forget they’ve ever met me, and at [...]
In the eighties, when I started working in mosaic, there were two suppliers of glass – Udny and Milano. Milano was somewhere in the outer reaches of North London. It might have been High Barnet — those depressing leafy conservative places all look the same to me. I did enjoy the occasional trip into this [...]
I’ve been teaching in the US. The course went well. I flew back yesterday. I’m walking to an appointment at the fracture clinic. At the entrance to Whittington Park a dirty, smelly, skinny, absolutely wild looking man is attempting to conduct a public prayer meeting. He has buttonholed a passer-by who is nodding tolerantly. Further [...]
I am teaching. The students are hard at work. ‘OK. So it’s three coffees and a tea — then I’ll show the slides.’ I go into the kitchen. It is almost lunchtime. I have prepared some salads. The potatoes are ready too, they just need to be dressed. While the kettle boils, I lay the [...]
It is Monday, and it is hot. I am at the Apple store in Regent Street. I’ve been at work on my book ‘Mosaic Masterclass’ but something is wrong with the computer. It has almost no available memory. I am trying to ditch folders to free up space but they will not delete. I have [...]
Sandra and I sped down the Holloway Road. We were on our way to the Charlie Dutton Gallery – formerly Mosaic Workshop – for a meeting with Charlie about a show in October. ‘Normally you come in and he gets you in a headlock and all that’ a young woman said to her friend as [...]
What will I miss when I move to the country? Everything. On Sunday afternoon I went mudlarking on the Thames foreshore with Catherine Mayer. There was still no government. Exhausted from nights spent sleeplessly covering and commenting on the election, Catherine filled me in on the intricacies of various potential power alliances while we walked [...]
Frankly, we are nervous about our move. I love London. I walk down the road and feel a sense of joy at the variety and excitement around me. It’s full of contradictions and amusing absurdities, like the ‘Vote Conservative’ poster in the window of the house in Royal College Street boasting a ‘Rimbaud lived here’ [...]