How a Mosaic is Made: From Stone to Your Wall

Composition

We begin with a sketch — graphite on tracing paper, scaled to the final panel size. The artisan maps the composition by hand, selecting stones from our library of over 400 natural materials. Color and texture are considered together: the weight of a dark Nero Marquina against a pale Carrara, the way tiger-eye shifts under changing light.

No two compositions are alike. Even when we recreate the same subject — a lotus, a lion, a Vermeer — the stone selection varies with what is available from the quarry that season.

Cutting

Each tessera is cut individually using a martellina — the traditional mosaic hammer — and a hardened steel chisel. There are no machines in our atelier. A skilled artisan cuts between 200 and 400 tesserae per hour, depending on the stone and the required precision.

For a medium-sized composition of 10,000 tesserae, this represents 25 to 50 hours of cutting alone.

Setting

Stones are laid into a cement mortar on the canvas backing, working outward from the compositional focal point. The artisan references the original sketch but is free to adapt — sometimes a stone's natural vein suggests a better line than the drawing.

Once set, the surface is grouted, cleaned, and polished over three successive passes. The final polish brings forward the stone's natural depth and colour.

Delivery

Each piece is crated in kiln-dried pine, padded with archival foam, and insured for full replacement value. We ship with white-glove carriers in over 120 countries. Every piece includes a signed letter of provenance, a care guide, and installation hardware.

Your wall does the rest.