I loved making this mosaic so much! The subtle color changes and wide variety of tessera made this fireplace a work of art.
It was such a pleasure to make this mosaic fireplace for this delightful client in Akron, Ohio. She had a wonderful eye for color, design, and theme, and had planned color palettes evoking the seasons in different areas of her home. It's wonderful to work with someone who knows what she wants but is open to discussion.
When I visited her home to see her aesthetic, I immediately saw that the fireplace had the potential to be something ethereal. She came with images and a concept, and I sketched up a few ideas. I presented her with a couple of approaches to the ombré, including a simpler diagonal following the line of the ceiling, and she chose the diagonal criss-cross pattern you see here. I think it was absolutely the right call.
Diagonal Fireplace Mockup
Criss-Cross Diagonal Fireplace Mockup
The ombré transitions through four color sections: deep brown at the base, warm peach in the middle, taupe, and finally a creamy iridescent glass at the top. I felt strongly that the bottom needed the weight of dark brown to ground the piece and make the upper half feel more ethereal by contrast. The peach tones in the middle evoke the warmth of fire without the harshness that orange or red would have brought to the room. And the iridescent cream at the top creates exactly the luminous, almost otherworldly quality I had envisioned from the start.
One of the palettes of materials I showed the client.
The color palette required some careful negotiation between her original vision and what was technically achievable. Certain materials, like the thicker glass gems and tiles, simply don't come in every color, and excluding them from any section would have made the piece feel inconsistent. Working within the budget also shaped some of the glass choices. She was wonderfully collaborative throughout, willing to discuss adjustments when I felt strongly that a change would serve the piece better.
She came to my studio to choose from a huge variety of glass options and quickly identified what she did and didn't want to use. It was a tough decision to commit to the darker, heavier materials at the bottom, but I really felt it would ground the mosaic and make the design pop. I'm so glad she trusted that instinct.
Installing the fireplace mosaic.
Several different materials are woven throughout the composition including stained glass, vitreous glass, glass gems, and pebbles. The pebbles are concentrated in the darker lower sections where their weight and texture feel most natural. One of the more technically demanding aspects of this piece was keeping the ombré transitions smooth and gradual while also keeping the criss-cross pattern legible. With so many materials of different widths and thicknesses, maintaining consistent spacing across the entire surface required constant attention.
Iridescent stained glass presents a particular challenge: it can look completely different before it's cut and placed against neighboring glass, so color decisions had to be made carefully and sometimes revisited. Some of the more translucent glass required adhering directly with mortar rather than mesh so the backing wouldn't show through. For grouting I used four different grout colors, blending them at the transitions. That sounds complicated, but it came together more smoothly than I anticipated, even with so many different textures and thicknesses to work around.
This is my favorite mosaic I have ever made. The way so many complicated decisions, materials, and techniques came together into something unified, flowing, and elegant is exactly what I hope for in a commission, and rarely get to this degree.
