Murals and artwork
Day at the Beach
San Diego International Airport · 38-ft mural
Dolphins of Knossos
After the Minoan fresco · bathroom panel
Afternoon Rest
After Van Gogh · framed smalti panel
Mary Magdalene
Figurative smalti panel
A Walk in the Orchard
Kitchen backsplash mural
Gulf of Mexico Bird Sanctuary
7-ft smalti mural · Texas
Louis XV Marble Rug
Hand-cut marble floor mosaic
Mosaic artwork projects
Every mural below is one we built, photographed finished and in the room it was made for. They are here so you have something to point at. Each one links to a fuller account of the piece — what it was drawn from, what it was cut in, and how it was installed.
Almost all of this work is hand-cut, where every tessera is shaped to the drawing rather than laid as a whole tile. That is what makes a face, a fold of cloth or a bird’s wing possible at all.
Public commission
“Day at the Beach” San Diego Airport
A thirty-eight foot panorama of a Southern California beach — swimmers, surfers, sunbathers, a lifeguard tower, pelicans over the water — running the length of the Terminal 1 holding room. It is built in glass and marble, and it is the largest single piece the studio has made.
38 ft × 6 ft 6 in · Glass and marble · San Diego International Airport, Terminal 1 · 2005
Wall mural
Gulf of Mexico Bird Sanctuary Mosaic
Herons, egrets, pelicans and roseate spoonbills in a Gulf of Mexico marshland. The client supplied an original nature painting; we scaled it to seven feet and cut the whole thing in Mexican smalti, which is what makes the water and the sky shift the way they do.
7 ft wide · Hand-cut Mexican smalti · Drawn from the client’s own painting
Afternoon Rest (after Millet)
Van Gogh’s 1890 painting, recreated in hand-cut smalti and framed. The difficulty is not the composition, it is the brushwork: every stroke of the original had to be read as a direction and then cut, piece by piece, so the wheat and the sky still move.
Hand-cut Mexican smalti · After Van Gogh, 1890 · Framed panel
Kitchen backsplash
A Walk in the Orchard
A woman carrying a basket of fruit through an apple orchard, built as a single image rather than a repeating pattern, and set into a carved wood surround above the range. A backsplash is among the hardest work we do, because it sits at eye level and every detail is read at arm’s length.
Hand-cut · Southern California residence · Set into a carved wood surround
Figurative panel
Mary Magdalene — John 8:7
Mary Magdalene in the scene described in John 8:7. It is here as an example of figurative work: faces, drapery and tonal blending at close range, which are the hardest things to do in glass. The figures are outlined in opus vermiculatum and the halos are cut from gold leaf tesserae.
Hand-cut Mexican smalti · Opus vermiculatum outlining · Gold leaf halos
Bathroom backsplash
Dolphins — Queen’s Megaron, Knossos
The dolphin frieze from the Queen’s Megaron at Knossos — dolphins, fish and sea urchins, one of the most recognizable images to survive from Minoan Crete. We recreated it as a ninety-inch backsplash above a bathtub. It is a recreation of the fresco, not a reconstruction of the palace.
90 in. wide · Glass · After the Minoan fresco, c. 1600 BC
Explore our custom pool mosaic projects
From a stunning mosaic medallion to a magnificent all-tile pool, we can help you bring your vision to life. Let us assist you in creating your dream outdoor oasis.
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.