Handcrafted Mosaics. Since 1998.
Our Work
We made the mural at San Diego International Airport
“Day at the Beach” is a 38-foot hand-cut glass and marble mural in Terminal 1. It answers the question most people are actually asking: can this studio carry something large, permanent and public, and finish it on schedule.
Since 1998 we have made mosaic for luxury pools, architectural murals, powder rooms and entries — for homeowners, pool builders, landscape architects and designers, shipping across the United States and the Caribbean.
25+
Years in Business
1,000+
Smalti Colors
Nationwide
Fabrication & Shipping
Materials
What we work in
We work in whatever the project calls for. Most of our work is smalto, Venetian glass. Smalti — hand-poured opaque glass, over a thousand colors, dense enough to hold color and light underwater for decades — goes where a design needs fine detail and a wide color range.
We also work in tumbled and honed marble, and gold-leaf glass.
If a design comes back too expensive in smalti, ask for it in Venetian. It often makes the difference between a project happening and not.
Meet the Team
The People Behind Every Piece
Creative Director & Founder
Joe Ureña
Creative Director & Founder of Mosaiclegs. With over 25 years of dedication to the craft, Joe brings an unmatched depth of experience to every project. A food enthusiast and devoted family man, he channels the same care and passion into his mosaics as he does into everything in life.
Head Mosaicist & Studio Director
Miguel Ocampo
Our master mosaicist with over 17 years of hands-on experience. Miguel brings old-world mosaic technique to every Mosaiclegs project — hand-cutting and assembling each piece with precision and artistic depth. As a mosaic instructor and world traveler, he has trained mosaicists across the globe.
Production & Studio Management
Our Studio Manager
Our studio manager keeps production moving — coordinating schedules, managing material inventory, and making sure every project ships on time and to spec. Behind every Mosaiclegs commission is someone making sure the details are handled.
How it is made
Two methods, and the choice is a cost decision as much as an aesthetic one.
Hand-cut — every tessera cut to the line. What figurative work, tight curves and fine detail require, and the more expensive of the two.
Grid — built from whole tiles with no cuts. Borders, gradients, geometric patterns and large fields work this way, and it costs considerably less.
Most projects use both: a hand-cut center in a grid field. Everything is mounted paper-faced, the traditional method rather than mesh, so nothing sits between the tile and the setting bed. Work arrives in numbered sections keyed to a setting drawing, ready for your tile setter.
The studio
Mosaiclegs Art Studio is a Southern California mosaic studio founded in 1998 by Joe Ureña, making hand-cut mosaic for luxury pools, architectural murals and interiors. Everything we produce is fabricated by our own mosaicists — no outsourcing.
Fabrication happens in our own studio — our own mosaicists and our own capacity, not work brokered out to whoever has room. That is why the lead times hold: we are not at the back of somebody else’s queue. Smaller pieces run 3–6 weeks from design approval; larger ones 6–16 weeks.
Since 1998 that has produced work at San Diego International Airport, luxury estates in Paradise Valley, Arizona, coastal properties in Southern California, and residential commissions across Texas, Florida, New York and the Caribbean. Explore the project gallery, or send us the dimensions.
Specifying for a client?
The designers and architects page has lead times, mounting method and setting responsibility, plus a spec sheet for your drawing set. Otherwise, send dimensions and a reference image and we will tell you what it costs.
Begin your commission
Send the details of your project, or call (323) 389-5347. Studio hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday, 9am to 1pm, Pacific.