Mixing Traditions: Stained Glass and Mosaic

Way back in 2001, I was working in a half-time position at my alma mater while also making arts and crafts. I worked in many different media, unable to settle on anything in particular. On a limited income, my approach was to transform discarded things into new things and I was always experimenting, using old books, fabric, magazines, housepaint... whatever I could get my hands on. I had been selling my work through sporadic shows at cafes and festivals, and even at little shops and galleries here and there.

When my landlord, who is also my friend, repaired the floor around the toilet in my rental, they gave me a box of mixed tiles and urged me to mosaic over it. They suspected I was going to enjoy mosaic, and they couldn't be more on target. I LOVED the process of breaking pieces, then gluing them into a new configuration. I was hooked!

I don't even know how this photo is in my computer. We only had film cameras back then, and I don't have the original.

From this point on, my favorite thing has been to bust hard material into smaller pieces and rearrange them to make a design. For me, there is nothing more cathartic than turning something broken into something beautiful. 

The internet was brand new back then and very few of us had computers. I used the library to find some basic how-to books and I joined a Yahoo-group and met some other people who were also exploring a passion for gluing things to other things. I'm sure I came across information about traditional mosaic technique, but it really didn't interest me. I was just having fun, chopping tile and glass and sticking it back together, willy-nilly.

This is early work, after learning how to make basic cuts with stained glass, but before gaining skills with placement.

In 2009, I attended my first American Mosaic Summit. My mind was blown. The level of artistry in the work I saw was unlike anything I had seen before. All around me, fellow mosaic artists were discussing materials, tools, approaches and techniques. They spoke about "andamento" and "sdoppiomento"; concepts that were elusive to me. They discussed "rules" and "mosaic grammar." Honestly, my gut reaction was to reject much of it. I did not like the term "rules." I was having fun chopping things up and sticking them to things and all of this new information didn't sound fun at all.

What I was excited about was the functionality of mosaic. I knew what I wanted to pursue was mosaic that would be integrated into living spaces; backsplashes, floors, surfaces, windows, murals. The idea that I could create art that could be WALKED ON inspired me. That it could be a privacy screen for a medical clinic was enthralling. So, what I worked toward was proficiency with installations. I learned about adhesives, substrates, grout, moisture-barriers, freeze-thaw cycles. In time, I was installing commissions in homes, businesses and public spaces.

Swing Wine Bar: My first commercial commission in 2007

However, those "rules" had surreptitiously crept into my style. In 2013, I reworked that "Blue Moon" mosaic:

Ten years later, I would change a few things, but I think the contrast between this one and the earlier version illustrates my point.

Over two decades after discovering mosaic, I have narrowed my style. It is characterized by bold colors and use of grout lines as a design element, often interconnecting different symbols within the image. I also work in a photorealistic style, depicting light and shadow using the values in the pieces in a more organic, painterly way. My favorite material is stained glass, and I have become really adept at cutting precise shapes and using them to make certain visual elements "pop." 

Stained glass mosaic mural for private home inspired by kelp and octopus imagery.

I am not trained in a traditional approach. I am still not using "andamento" the way classically trained mosaic artists do. I'm self-taught, and I've incorporated some of those ancient principles, but I also pull from some leaded glass practices, along with incorporating folk art, Art Nouveau, and any other concepts that are interesting to me, including tile design.

This past year, I started thinking about a new course/class that addresses ways of setting stained glass mosaic to create a sense of flow and direction. I'll be exploring how traditional mosaic grammar can be used to inform this type of patterning, and how stained glass offers a departure into different territory because of the malleability of scoring and cutting larger pieces in precise shapes. There are some methods for placement that help determine how the viewer's eye follows contours, or creates dynamic energy, or a peaceful calm.

Notice how pieces follow the contours of the wings, expanding and contracting. And how the radiating pattern conveys a strong energy emanating from the central point of the bird.

There are also some really fun ways to make patterns using precision-cut stained glass into familiar patterns like herringbone, basketweave, chevrons, and into MidCentury designs that I'll address.

I'll be teaching a one-day class about this topic at the Glass Craft & Bead Expo in Las Vegas at the end of March. The link is HERE, if you are considering attending. This will be my first time at the event, and I'm very excited to find out what all the fuss is about. My friend Carrie Strope has been teaching and vending at the Expo for over 13 years, and she says it's amazing.

Another opportunity to learn about Patterning in Stained Glass Mosaic is coming soon, so stay posted!

UPDATED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:

Pattern and Flow in Stained Glass Mosaic is now an online course through Mosaic Arts Online! This is a 30-minute version, where I demonstrate the concepts through lecture, sketching and demo, and you can practice each step on your own before moving to the next step, returning as many times as you need to (forever). This link is to the single course, but there's also a bundle available with the Precision Cutting Stained Glass course, which pairs well.

And if you are heading to the SAMA/SGAA conference in Buffalo, NY this September (2023) you have the option of taking the Pattern and Flow in Stained Glass Mosaic workshop as a live, full-day class. Find that info HERE.