Port Talbot, Wales, February 25--Mosaici has used computer-aided design to create a series of pattern templates for ancient mosaic tiles which simplifies the usually complex task of recreating 2,000 year-old Roman and Celtic designs, according to the Western Mail and Echo.
The company is now positioning itself to enter retail markets in the U.S., thanks to a pounds 180,000 war chest that includes a loan from Finance Wales and an Assembly Investment Grant from the Welsh Assembly Government.
Using Mosaici's system - which is presented as a series of kits which include high-quality marble and a mosaic template - buyers can make mosaics to provide a feature in conservatories, kitchens, patios and other flooring surfaces.
The company also produces a range of finished mosaic designs and is actively pursuing the huge U.S. market for home improvement and DIY craft-related products.
Its directors are now showcasing the firm's product range at a series of trade fairs attended by U.S. homewares suppliers and craft retailers, the first of which is being held in Atlanta. Both the kits and the finished products will also be available in the UK later this year.
The firm's founding director Geoff Thomas explained that the company used ancient designs to create their kits.
"We use CAD techniques to recreate digital patterns of authentic historical mosaics," he explained. "From those digital patterns, a template is created and using a principle similar to that of colouring by numbers people can insert pre-cut tesserae [stone pieces] and build up the design."
Finance Wales' senior investment executive Lianne Caulfield, who handled the loan from its Objective One Fund, said, "These kits apply technology to attractive and complicated artistic designs to make them more accessible.
"It's a novel approach that deserves to do very well, and we're enthusiastic that'll prove to be the case."
A successful entrepreneur who returned home to the UK in 1997 after spending 23 years in South Africa running his own software consultancy business, Geoff Thomas's latest venture originated from an interest in ancient art and craft that led him to attend mosaic school in Ravenna, Italy.
He was captivated by the Mosaic art forms he discovered there, but was struck by the fact that the techniques used had not changed since the form was invented.
"I felt that the process could be made easier with the aid of modern technology, and gradually came to realise the commercial potential of such a system if it could be brought to market," he said.
Thomas said that the technique is a radical step forward in how such patterns are made. "Our system allows hobbyists to build authentic mosaic patterns in a remarkably short space of time whereas it's previously taken professional mosaicists days to complete a 40 sq cm floor tile, now you can build that same tile to the same professional quality in four hours or less."
"It's a simple process, but it slashes the time it takes to put these patterns together," he said. "But without compromising the quality of the resulting final article in any way."
He added that the Mosaici concept and kits had met with considerable approval among his peers at Ravenna and within the building profession.
"We conducted extensive research within the building and design industry before stepping up production and the quality of tiles produced by the system bears comparison with anything else available on the home-craft market," he said.
