Mountain Spring

Here is my latest, largest and loudest landscape mosaic yet! During the month of May I've decided to direct my energy and focus into mainly large scale mosaics. Over the last five years I've made numerous pieces mostly on smaller scale due to limited resources. Each and everyone of those pieces is unique, has its own story and is filled with the discovery and the play that has shaped me into the creator that I am today. Every once in a while I've made sure to take the time to go wild and create something with no boundaries. That is where the biggest magic happens! I live and breath each one of those pieces for months before they come to life. When I finally get to work on one - it owns me. As I work it takes on a life of its own (all my does this) pulls me in and demands that I search and dig deep within myself and give everything I got and more ... during this time I always find something new, something I wasn't aware of. I work, work, work and then I look and think and often go blank, stop and wait ... eventually I get it and I am able to keep going till the final, finished piece unveils itself to me. I am simply along for the ride and as I get closer and closer my curiosity grows exponentially. When it is all over I can sit and breath and wonder how this came to be - I love this feeling!

Mountain Spring, stained glass mosaic on 36" x 36", 2012    ~SOLD

Through my work, I explore many aspects of my interests.  I love nature, landscapes, patterns and colors.  I've been drawn to mountains ever since I was a child and am still fascinated by them in particular by the mountainous landscape after the snow melt when everything slowly comes to life in vibrant colors.  I am fascinated by flower fields that spring up in these environments, away from most people, hidden in beautiful secluded places.  While I lived on a remote farm in the beautiful Vermont, I got to see the fields change every week - it was spectacular.  One week a field was a green blanket of grass, the next week yellow dandelions covered fifty percent of it - I've never seen anything so beautiful and undisturbed.  The flowers took turns.  Another week the field was pink with clover and so on.

Here is a close up of the mosaic field and trees taken in bright light outside; it shows how colorful the glass really is and how its intensity changes in different light.  You can also see the nice, raised texture that the glass pieces create. 

I feel that purple flowers in particular are a sign of the arrival of Spring. I often see them shooting up through the snow letting us know that its that time of the year. It is my dream to find myself in a purple field like the one that I've created in this mosaic. I want there to be a variety of flowers some more pink some more blue but all in harmony with each other existing in that magical moment when its their turn to come out from the earth for that brief moment and to breath in the pure mountain air.

Below are some of my process shots.  For more photos and process visit Kasia Mosaics on facebook.

Left: glass choices for mosaic      
Right:  shards of glass after snipping and shaping the glass into circles

Left: mosaic in process     
Right: my glass scoring tool finally called it quits

Left:  divided mosaic sections ready for gluing     
Right:  me gluing the last section of the mosaic

Left: applying grout      
Right: making sure to cover the whole surface and fill all the crevices

Left:  whipping away the grout to reveal the mosaic      
Right: polishing off any remaining cloudiness

This is a good size comparison of the mosaic next to me while I am finishing polishing the piece after grouting.

Here I am holding the mosaic prior to it being framed - its a big one!