LINDSEY KENNEDY - MOSAICS

My style of mosaic work has been heavily influenced by my original training as a jeweller and silversmith at the Birmingham School of Jewellery. As I moved away from metal and into glass, my interest still lay in the surface textures and reflective qualities of materials. Rather than using picassiette, (broken china), I use a variety of gem-like glass material along with hand-cut plate glass. Some of the off-cut glass is donated by other stained glass artists, which appeals to my sense of re-use and recycle. The simple technique of fashioning shapes out of glass with just some tile nippers is very simplistic, but from it I can achieve quite complex designs.

My designs are informed by the work of impressionistic artists such as Gustav Klimt,  using fragmented colours with a rich colour palette. This also links to early Byzantine mosaics with their intense, colourful and metallic enriched patterns. There is also a strong theme of floral still-life in my designs, almost flower arranging, as I work directly with the materials onto backing boards. I love the intense colour of glass set in black grout, which in turn has a graphic feel to it.

I try to use recycled materials where I can and my backing boards often come from the off-cut bin at my local DIY superstore! Sometimes the materials influence the finished design rather than working it all out on paper first. The immediacy is very satisfying.

I’m very fortunate to have a studio in Shrewsbury where I can happily clip away at very small pieces of glass in safety, and space to have several works on the go at the same time. I show my work in several select galleries around the country and my work is included in the Craft Council Directory of Makers. I am also a member of Shropshire Visual Art Network, the Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft and the British Association of Modern Mosaic, with work selected for national and regional exhibitions.