Ornamental Brickwork

Ornament is the oldest form of human artistic activity. Its tracery once covered not only the walls of the house but all household utensils and clothing as well, for the intricate play of lines and figures was believed to have a protective power. Of course, few people today believe in the magic of symbols, but hardly any homeowner would refuse to decorate the brick walls of their country house with a geometric Celtic, an ornate Aztec, or a "primitive" African pattern, once they picture how the family nest might look.

The purpose of ornament is to decorate, but nothing stops you from laying out a heraldic emblem or an ancient runic blessing in colored stone on the facade. Ancient people expressed their ideas about the world in the simplest signs (the circle for the sun, the square for the earth, the triangle for the mountains, the swastika for the movement of the sun, the spiral for motion), and many of these sacred meanings remain in our culture. This means ornament can become a kind of message to one's descendants, a means of nonverbal communication with the world.

What purposes does ornament serve? Some very important ones:

• structural — it supports the architectonics of the object, shaping how its space is perceived;
• representational — it heightens the sense of the object's value;
• functional — it makes the object easier to use;
• psychological — it affects a person through its symbolism.

Columns and pilasters decorated with a simple geometric tracery, and sandriks and sill niches picked out in color, become expressive even when faced with the plainest smooth brick. You can come up with the pattern yourself or borrow it from folk crafts; sources of inspiration are abundant today.

Ornaments can be made up of elements of very different kinds (floral, zoomorphic, heraldic), although masonry positively calls for a geometric pattern. Designs suited to such masonry are easy to find among Celtic ribbon patterns or the traditional motifs of folk embroidery.

Geometric

an ornament made up of the simplest geometric elements: dots, straight lines, broken lines, intersecting lines and zigzags, circles, rhombuses, polygons, stars, crosses (single and double), and spirals; a more complex ornamental motif is the meander. Geometric ornament is marked by a strict alternation of elements and their color combinations.

The basis of any ornament is rhythm. Rhythms permeate all of nature: the daily and yearly cycles, the path of the sun, the rhythm of the surf and of the sand dunes in the desert. Artists of antiquity tried to capture it in the repetition and alternation of figures and lines; ribbons of recurring motifs embodied the idea of the infinity of the universe. In a border or frieze, the one-directional movement of the ornament bounded the space, lending the world a sense of stability.

Key symbols can still be seen in folk ornaments, ones that let a person build a relationship with the world. The eight-pointed rosette stands for the Sun, and the sign of Water resembles a coiled snake. According to ancient Slavic belief, rhombuses embodied the Earth goddess and served as a protective symbol that watches over fertility and brings happiness. Stars, scattered across a surface or assembled into regular ornaments, represent the Universe — no longer chaotic, but ordered and full of harmony. Patterns with stylized roses denote the endless movement of the sun with its eternal rebirth, and where roses are set within a geometric pattern they are not just flowers — they are flower-stars, embodying that same idea of an ordered universe. The cross often served as a talisman against the forces of evil.

Frieze

an ornamental composition meant to decorate the upper part of a wall, inside or outside a building.

Border

a patterned band framing a surface.

What can you lay out with colored brick?

Practically anything your heart desires. There are three basic ways of constructing an ornament: the rosette, the border, and the rapport.

The rosette pattern

a closed composition built around a plane or axis of symmetry, based on a rosette ornament set within a circle.

The rapport pattern

a rhythmically repeated element (motif), or several elements, that make up an ornament.

The border pattern

a band that emphasizes the edges of a flat or three-dimensional shape — a closed composition with a rhythmic repetition of elements in two opposite directions, forming an ornamental band.

From repeating dots and lines and simple shapes you can assemble a great variety of ornaments — highly expressive and able to enliven even the dullest walls. And the result can exceed your boldest expectations.

Examples of brick ornaments.