When I received the invitation to submit a piece for the 2010 Synergy2 Exhibition and saw that the theme was exploring connections, I immediately thought about doing a collaborative piece. Being a mixed media artist, I have had many opportunities to participate in collaborative projects. I am currently in the midst of two round robin books projects and have also been involved in ATC and "fat book" projects as well as both charm and tile exchanges. These have all been such fun. I knew I wanted to try and organize a tile collaborative. In addition to being fun, collaborations always stretch and challenge the participating artists in ways that working individually cannot do.

Click the picture, to see a larger version on the contest page.

My first thought was to invite a couple of artists to send me two or three "mosaic" tiles that I would assemble into a mixed media mosaic. By the following week, I dumped that idea and decided instead to do a collaborative "clay quilt". As the list of participants grew to a whopping 38 well-known polymer clay artists, I decided that each artist should focus on just one 2-inch square tile. That way, they could really put their own signature style into it. The only parameters that I established were the 2-inch size limit and sticking to a color palette that would include jewel, metal or vintage color tones. This way I thought I could best create a cohesive piece in the end.

The tiles are from a diverse group of artists, some of whom I knew and others I hope to meet at the Synergy conference. There are so many others I would have liked to have invited but then I had visions of this being like the AIDS quilt, covering acres of land!!! I knew that I would need to ship the completed piece back East, so common sense dictated that I limit the number of participants. Each week as the tiles started arriving in my mailbox, it was like my birthday! I anxiously anticipated the mail delivery everyday! The tiles were amazing and, of course, lived up to my expectations.

After finally assembling the collaborative tile quilt and seeing all of the great tiles, I thought it would be fun to see if others would be able to guess who made each tile. Many tiles are very representative of the artist's style however, there are certainly some surprises in there as well and so, the Collaborative Tile Project Contest was born! Read the message below to learn more about it!

Laurie

Collaborative Tile Project Contest

Laurie and 37 artists created a terrific mosaic. Now we want to share the fun with you. From November 20^th through December 20^th you can enter the contest, with one entry per person.Our intrepid webmaster Barbara created a way for you to submit your match up of tile to artist.

The winner will receive the Synergy2 exhibit catalogue and a 1 year IPCA membership.

So be a part of the fun and send in your picks . We will see who matches them all correctly and announce the winner in December. If we have several with the right answers, we will resort to the random drawing from a hat to be fair.(one entry per person, please!)

Good luck!!

The contributing artists are:

Laurie Mika is a mixed media artist living in California. Laurie's work has been published in numerous magazines including: Expressions, Somerset Studio, Haute Handbags, Altered Couture, Somerset Gallery 5, Somerset Wedding and Somerset Home. Her work also appears in books: 400 Polymer Clay Designs, Mosaic Art and Style, New Techniques for Wearable Art, Beyond Paper Dolls, Taking Flight, Interactive Art Workshop and Mixed Mania. Her own book, Mixed Media Mosaics, published by North Light Books (F&W Publications) was released in 2007.

Laurie is a 2008 Progress & Possibilities finalist and 2007 Progress & Possibilties winner. She will be presenting The Altered Clay at the Synergy2 Conference.