Domi Medusa is my second Medusa mosaic portrait.
I built the first one back in 20211, when I was living in Alabama, and mounted it as a table.
For this one, it all started when my client visited Sophie Goldaniga’s Gallery Verre de Sable in St Valery sur Somme.
He saw there another of my Greek mythology related mosaic table.
The guy called me, we discussed Greek mythology; I sent him pictures of my first Medusa table and he decided he liked it better than Leda. And I started to work on a project.
I sent him several designs, based on my original Medusa table, on several Roman mosaics, and one Greek temple antefix.
And he decided he liked the first one better.
I first created the model.
…then started to lay the tesserae…
Half the work had been done…
On January 4, 2026, all tesserae had been laid. I still had to mount Medusa on her support, and get her finished for my client. I splattered Medusa’s face with thinset cement.
Discovery
on January 5, I flipped the mosaic and began to carefully remove the fiberglass mesh I had laid my tesserae on.
I was going to see Medusa for the first time…
She was quite dirty ! The thinset I had used had leaked through the tesserae, which is not a problem. Actually it rather is a good thing. Thinset is mechanically much stronger than grout. It would just take a little longer to clean up the surface.
At this stage of completion, I had spend 30 hours just laying Medusa’s tesserae.
I still had a lot of work ahead of me to complete her…
No need to get into too many details, it is just a long process. I use a water grinder with diamond grinding wheels of various grains. After a while, I filled up small gaps between the tesserae with black grout, then reverted to polishing all the way up to a 600 grit.
Finally, after I had waxed and buffed her, She was ready to mount in her frame. My friend and favoured blacksmith Abel Brunet had rolled and welded a beautiful steel frame for me.
On February 28, 2026, Medusa was ready to fly ! I took advantage of one of the first sunny afternoon of the year to take a picture of her on my wall !
I delivered Medusa on March 8, 2026. She is my second Medusa, I am considering building an other one this summer in my New workshop. I will soon tell you about this.
If you’d like to discuss a personal Medusa (someone to petrify in at the office ? in your family ?), let me know, I’ll be happy to build you one !
En route vers de nouvelles aventures…
