MOSAIC WORK

New Zealand Tablet, 6 October 1910, Page 1637

MOSAIC WORK

There is one branch of industry in which women threaten eventually to oust their male competitors, according to a correspondent. It may come as a surprise to hear that some of the finest mosaic work in the world, which is to he seen in the Catholic Cathedral at "Westminster, has been done by feminine hands. Mr. the contractor for the work in question, employs women mosaic workers almost exclusively. ' I .have found that women generally have a better natural gift for mosaic work than men,' he says. ' They have a more discriminating eye for the finer shades of coloring and a better sense of what the general effect of a finished piece of mosaic work should be. When the mosaic work in the chapels of St. Gregory and the Holy Souls was being done I had about thirty women and girls continually employed for more than three years. Many of them were quite young girls, but seemed to have a decided talent for mosaic, and soon developed into skilled workers.' Down in the depths of the Cathedral crypt a skilled woman mosaic artist could be found at work. This was Miss Martin, whom Mr. Bridge counts the cleverest of all his staff. Indeed, he goes so far as to call her the best mosaic worker in the kingdom. Miss Martin was busy over the early stages of a mosaic over the altar of St. Edmund. Her subject was St. Edmund himself blessing the city of London. By her side was a large colored cartoon of the saint, and with an occasional rapid glance at this for guidance she was, with marvellous fidelity, reproducing the scene in glittering mosaic of a score of different hues. To watch her at work one might think that mosaic work was the easiest thing in the world. Apparently all Miss Martin was doing was to chop off little fragments of colored glass and press each into its place on the cement which formed the bed of the mosaic. There was no measuring or planning out; the artist seemed, despite her rigid material, to work by eye alone, and yet there was the face of St. Edmund, with a glorious gold halo, growing, with a startling fidelity to the original, under her rapidly working fingers.