In my dissertation I explored the problem of restoring a modern mosaic from the City Savings Bank of Ljubljana, which was removed in several pieces in 2018 in an effort to preserve the mosaic and during this suffered the loss of a large amount of mosaic tiles or tesserae. In the thesis, I focused on the problem of replacing missing and damaged mosaic tiles and on two selected fragments of the said mosaic.
Before the practical part of the thesis, I focused on the theory of conservation and restoration related to the replacement of lost material, and the principles that must be considered in the procedure so as not to create a historical and aesthetic forgery. I also learned about the history of the development of mosaic art and the technology of its production, which gave me an insight into the art of mosaic and made planning of further procedures easier. I also documented the damage on selected fragments and examined the conservation-restoration procedures that took place in 2018 when the mosaic was detached. With the help of photographs taken before the detachment of the mosaic, I made a digital reconstruction of the two selected fragments. Based on the accumulated knowledge, I then started making new mosaic tiles. I experimented with different epoxy resins, fillers, and pigments to make new mosaic tiles. During the work, I improved and adapted the techniques and recipes used. In the end, I used the best of the tiles to make a copy of a detail of the selected mosaic, which I had previously digitally reconstructed with the help of photographs and the tiles' imprints on the facinge of the mosaic. A copy of the mosaic detail helped me to assess the success and quality of the newly made mosaic tiles.
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