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Colin Hazlehurst

@colinhazlehurst.bsky.social
49 followers 67 following 188 posts

Amateur polymath = interested in everything, not very good at anything.

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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Looking around for a mosaic pattern to copy, I landed on the post from @drjeball.bsky.social from last week's #MosaicMonday which shows the entrance to a house in #Pompeii. I got to wondering how to lay out the 4-petalled pattern (bottom right) and fit it into a square of predetermined size.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Last #MosaicMonday, @wittspat.bsky.social invited us to speculate on the subject of the panel below the ‘leopard and gazelle’ fragment from Dewlish Villa (bsky.app/profile/witt...), in particular, the three objects resembling feathers or leaves.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🎶 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴... ...and neither do I, so I'm posting this for #MosaicMonday It's a stop-motion video showing the construction of a copy of the Villaquejida octopus. It's the archaeological equivalent of a cat video. youtu.be/rYSF3eb2160?...
youtu.be
Villaquejida octopus
YouTube video by Colin Hazlehurst
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Work In Progress on the Villaquejida octopus. It's advancing slowly; each tessera lining the arms (not tentacles) has to be shaped individually. #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Work In Progress: the Villaquejida octopus. #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The eyes have it. The eyes have it. This pair of peepers will be watching me closely as I recreate around them this 2nd to 3rd century CE octopus mosaic found in a villa near Villaquejida in the Léon province of northern Spain (currently in the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid). #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
An electric dishwasher might use less water but one key advantage of hand-washing is the ability to collect the water used for rinsing. In an otherwise brown desert of a parched garden, these Impatiens 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘢 have thrived with a liberal application of 'grey' water. #FloralFriday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
It's the day after #MosaicMonday I don't know if my video teaches us anything about how the Romans created this panel at the centre of the Chedworth Villa dining room. Rather, the sequence of laying down the tesserae was governed by the aesthetics of video production. youtu.be/VmJb554Fq-8
youtu.be
Chedworth Villa dining room panel
YouTube video by Colin Hazlehurst
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Just in time for #MosaicMonday The glue is still drying on this replica of a pelta-swastika in Chedworth Villa. The design comprises a Solomon's knot and four peltae on a white field with a simple black and white border. A stop-motion video of the construction will follow tomorrow (#MosaicMardi?)
A mosaic panel found in the dining room of Chedworth Villa near Cirencester. The panel is at the centre of a floor area comprising twenty guilloche mats surrounded by a swastika meander design. The pelta-swastika, as this design is called comprises a Solomon's knot and four peltae.A replica of the Chedworth pelta-swastika using 5mm tesserae.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
It's twins! But how to name them? Romulus and Remus Castor and Pollux Apollo and Artemis Mary-Kate and Ashley ... #SourdoughSunday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
My workshop for #bookbinding, #Roman #mosaic making, and #stop-motion video production. On the cutting mat just now is the #Chedworth villa dining room pelta-swastika centrepiece (what a lot of adjectives!).
A desk set up for arts and crafts comprising: cutting mat, toolbox, LED panel light, and mobile phone for stop-motion video production. All the tools needed for bookbinding, kirigami, mosaic making, and paracord projects are within easy reach.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I'm making a replica of this panel which can be seen in the centre of the dining room at #Chedworth Villa. The design comprises a Solomon's knot with four surrounding peltae with its overall appearance earning it the name: pelta-swastika. #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Following up my #MosaicMonday post with this divertissement - a stop-motion video of making a guilloche mat. youtu.be/JMATy4vUAAk?...
youtu.be
Guilloche Mat
YouTube video by Colin Hazlehurst
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿) This is a recently completed, small replica of one of the guilloche mats which can be seen in the dining room floor at Chedworth Villa near Cheltenham, England. 1/6 #MosaicMonday
I made this mosaic by laying out a grid, using a straight edge, a 45ᵒ set square, and a compass. This fixed the location of the white tiles, the loci around which the strands of the guilloche are wrapped. 


Next, I laid down all the straight black lines of tesserae. This created channels which were filled by the red and yellow strands. 

The final step was to lay down the curved sections of tesserae that complete the strands of the Solomon's knot and its interwoven square.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Progress making a Solomon's knot with interwoven square (there must be a more succinct name for this design). For the benefit of the upcoming stop-motion video, I painted the base white so the yellow tiles would stand out better against the otherwise very similar background. #MosaicMonday
This Solomon's knot pattern features heavily in the Chedworth Villa dining room floor.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This is how to start a Solomon's knot with an interwoven square. The plan is to reproduce one of the panels in the floor of the dining room at Chedworth. To aid the spacing of the white tesserae I made a tool four tesserae wide. #Roman ingenuity rubbing off on me, I wish. #MosaicMonday
The white tesserae are the loci around which the strands of the Solomon's knot are wrapped.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Nothing new from me on this fine #MosaicMonday so here's a photo of Medusa protecting a collection of the mosaic patterns I've made over the last year.
Left to right, top to bottom;

Lotus band
Imbrication 
Wave band
Solomon's knot 
Guilloche
Greek meander
Medusa (Bignor Villa)
Rhombille tiling 
Pelta
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
#MosaicMonday Inspired by a post from @wittspat.bsky.social back in April, I've finished a rhombille tiling mosaic. Alas, the video is too large for BlueSky but you can see it on YouTube here: youtu.be/4t2f-QgO1qY?... in a playlist of all the stop-motion mosaics I've made youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtu.be
Tumbling Blocks
YouTube video by Colin Hazlehurst
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I'm on schedule to complete the stop-motion video of making this tumbling block #mosaic by next #MosaicMonday Each rhombus uses 30 tesserae, each block uses 90, so there are about 930 tesserae in this image.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
My contribution to Es Devlin's A National Portrait artsandculture.google.com/experiment/y...
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Working at the pace of one tumbling block per day, it will take another two weeks to complete this mosaic demonstration of rhombille tiling. #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I can't wait for #MosaicMonday to show you this #Roman #mosaic border pattern. It's a wave band design which I traced onto a board then used 5mm black and white ceramic tesserae as the basic building blocks.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
#MosaicMonday Tessera-by-tessera construction of a lotus band border.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
The next time I make a pelta I will infill the body of the shield differently, splitting it down the middle vertically and filling in outwards from that line. #MosaicMonday #Roman #mosaic
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Tessera-by-tessera construction of an imbricated border pattern as seen in Roman mosaics. First, a warning: be prepared to mute the music 😄. #MosaicMonday #Roman #mosaic
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
If I were a character in a Dickens novel, a baker by trade, he would name me: Mr Tightcrumb. #SaturdaySourdough #bread #baking # sourdough
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Every day is #MosaicMonday when I have something to share. Continuing my exploration of #Roman #mosaic border patterns, here's the start of an imbricated border. Imbrication is the arrangement of something in an overlapping pattern. The imbrex was a semi-circular tile that overlapped the...1/2
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
If I had been a Roman mosaicist I would have specialised in mass producing Greek meander units. These are repeated as required until a corner is reached when a transition pattern is used to change direction. "Yes sir, we make Greek meanders, any colour as long as it's black and white." #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
I wonder if this is how the Romans constructed a Solomon's knot for inclusion in their mosaic designs (with or without musical accompaniment). This one was completed just in time for #MosaicMonday Comments, hints. and tips from 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 mosaicists will be warmly received. 🙂
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
This is my initial setup for the creation of a Solomon's Knot mosaic. The first task is to position the white tesserae around which the loops will turn. #MosaicMonday or thereabouts. 🙂
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
A selection of windows in #Neoclassical #Liverpool, designs influenced by The Baths of Diocletian in #Rome (circa 300 CE). #WindowsWednesday
The Port of Liverpool building, one of my favourites and one of the so-called Three Graces making up the iconic waterfront of the empire's second city.The Liver Building, more famous perhaps for its Liver Birds.Liver BuildingPrinces Building, Dale Street/Cheapside
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Here's Vladimir, or maybe it's Estragon, still 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘵. I really don't think he's coming. #Halloween
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
I feel like I've delayed the heat death of the universe by lowering the entropy of these tesserae. #Roman #mosaic #design
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
OMG - Oh My Guilloche! I have a powerful sense of following in the steps of Roman mosaicists as I learn how to build a guilloche. The main lesson today was switching from wheeled pincers to straight-edged pincers for making keystone tesserae. #MosaicMonday
A partially constructed two-strand three-colour guilloche. The tesserae are 10mm unglazed ceramic squares.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
#SaturdaySwans on the Leeds-Liverpool canal.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Not so much the 𝘉 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘨, more like the 𝘎 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘦. This is the starting layout for creating a two-strand three-colour guilloche (courtesy of a YouTube video I watched - credits to follow) #MosaicMonday /Thursday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
My task on #MosaicMonday, as mosaicist's apprentice, was to build these mounds of tesserae, in preparation for creating a two-strand, three-colour guilloche. It will be the ceramic equivalent of a Victorian embroidery sampler.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
#decoupage Moena, Trentino Alto Adige, Italia
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
#MosaicMonday A mosaic inspired by an arm of the Aberlemno Cross. I imagine a Pictish psychologist asking an experimental subject, "Which pattern did you see first, the black or the white?" 1/n 🔗
The tesserae of this mosaic are 1 cm squares. The edge pieces are tiles cut across the diagonal. By Pythagoras, the  length of the diagonal is √2 cm. There is no multiple of √2 that is a whole number. That's one of the reasons the border is so ragged. The other reason is that I found it difficult to cut the small glass tiles accurately, on account of the relatively deep grooves on their undersides.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
#Thursgate The Stanley Steps take the Leeds-Liverpool canal down to the level of the River Mersey.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
#ReliefWednesday A royal procession as Queen Victoria arrives at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
The final image of the completed Bignor Villa Medusa copy before I bury it, causing future archaeologists to speculate whether the Romans created a model village in my back garden. #MosaicMonday
A small-scale copy of the Medusa mosaic at Bignor Villa
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Only the grouting remains in order to complete this reproduction of the Bignor Villa mosaic. #MosaicMonday
The Medusa mosaic at Bignor Villa.A small (40cm diameter) reproduction of the Medusa mosaic.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
These before and after images show the Medusa mosaic as it appears at Bignor Villa along with my small-scale imitation. I feel the makeover has added extra bounce and writhiness to her hair. (1/2) #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Four sourdough loaves fresh from the oven this morning. This size of loaf, based on 350g of very strong bread flour, fits the toaster perfectly. Not for me the burnt ear and the large holes where I want there to be bread which are so favoured by the YouTube bakers. #sourdough #bread #baking
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
All snakes finished. I'm using two shades of grey for their undersides. This has allowed me to sign the mosaic by translating COLIN HOC FECIT into Morse code and applying the pattern to the longest snake. I've also encoded the What 3 Words location of the mosaic at Bignor Villa. #MosaicMonday
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Bonsai at the Southport Flower Show this last weekend. #bonsai
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
#MosaicMonday well, it's Monday already, somewhere to the East. So many snakes and not a ladder to climb.
Construction of a small-scale copy of the Medusa mosaic at Bignor Villa.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Too late for #TesseraeThursday I want to believe I'm halfway through the construction of this mosaic. I can feel myself climbing the experience curve - to the extent I'm wondering if I should start again and improve the face. #Roman #mosaic #Medusa
A small-scale copy of the Medusa mosaic at Bignor Villa under construction.
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Colin Hazlehurst @colinhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
#MidweekMosaic #MidweekMedusa #mosaic Finished "work" for today. Snake number 4 has a spine but no belly yet.
Small-scale copy of the Medusa mosaic at Bignor Villa undergoing construction.
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