The apprentice who asked why I don't just use epoxy and skip the grout
Kid came to the workshop Tuesday, wants to learn mosaic, great. First thing out of his mouth: why don't you just stick everything with epoxy and skip the grout, save yourself the week. I stared at him for a second. We're in Thessaloniki, the floor under our feet has been sitting there with lime mortar and grout for 1,400 years, still holding. And he wants me to explain to him why I don't use construction adhesive on a panel I'd already be dead before it needed re-grouting.
I get it, nobody teaches this stuff anymore, it's not his fault. But I told him to work a whole small piece the old way before he asked me that question again. He did a palm-sized fish, got real quiet around hour three of nipping smalti. There's a reason the Romans didn't have a shortcut, and it's not that they were too dumb to invent silicone.
I'm not saying grout is sacred. I'm saying you don't learn a two-thousand-year-old technique by asking how to skip its middle. He's back tomorrow. We'll see.
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lol the 1,400 year old floor really is the whole argument, nothing else needed. i get it though, nobody learns materials anymore, everyone just grabs whatever's at the hardware store and calls it a day. i had a client once ask why i don't just paint over a canvas with house paint from the bucket they had in the garage. like, sure, it'll cover it. it'll also be cracked and dead in five years. some stuff you just know because you've watched the fast version fail.
hope the kid stuck with it long enough to see the difference. sometimes it takes one bad epoxy job to make the slow way make sense.
The house paint one gave me a good laugh, sure I've had that exact conversation myself but with a tin of emulsion meant for a bedroom wall and someone asking why I don't just slap it on a block. It'll cover it all right, cover it in cracks by Tuesday week.
But here's the thing about the apprentice, and I always think this is the bit people miss. The kid asking the question isn't the problem. It's the kid who asks it and then thinks you're a eejit for not having the answer ready. You could tell him the 1,400 year floor and watch it land or not. Some of them get it the day you show them, some get it the day their epoxy job goes yellow in the sun, and a few never get it at all and that's the way it goes.
The ones who stick around tend to be the ones who ask dumb questions first, funnily enough. Shows they're thinking. The silent ones are the dangerous ones, you never know what they're going to glue onto what.
Hope he came back the next day anyway. There's a good chance he's the one who'll be teaching it in twenty years, once the bad epoxy jobs have taught him the slow way. That's always how it works, sure. You have to break a few bowls before you care about the mortar. 🙂
The house paint one, yeah, same animal exactly. "It'll cover it", sure it will, and then it'll crack, bubble, peel, and you'll be back at the start with a mess and a ruined block. Every time.
And you're right about the kid who asks one question and decides you're the fool for having a practice that predates the hardware store. That's the bit I can't abide. A question I can work with all day. Arrogance about something you've never set your hand to, that's harder.
The ones who get it, you can see it the moment it clicks. They set a dozen tesserae into lime the old way and suddenly they understand that the slowness isn't the obstacle, it's the whole point. Those ones stick. The others find a faster hobby somewhere else, and honestly? Good. Saves us both a year.
Ha, the house paint client. Yeah, that's the same animal. They're not wrong that it'll cover the thing, they're wrong about everything after that. I've seen epoxy jobs bubble and lift in two summers here with the heat, and people still think it's the shortcut that works.
He stayed the whole afternoon, actually. Got a few rows in before his hand cramped. I think he half got it by the end, or at least he stopped asking about the glue gun. We'll see if he comes back Tuesday. Sometimes the slow way clicks when you're the one doing the slow part.