At the end of every year, all participants, staff, instructors, and volunteers gather to envision the new year, choosing the skills artists want to hone and projects they want to create. Mosaic shoes was one of the most requested workshops.

As we reflect on the July workshop, let us be reminded that art is not solely about the end result but also the journey – a journey that Julie Williams masterfully guided us through, helping us break free from self-imposed limitations and inspiring us to create fearlessly, piece by piece.

In June, Piece by Piece participants studied micromosaics, a style of mosaic using small rods of glass to create tiny figurative images. While traditional Italian micromosaics are extremely intricate, in this workshop, instructor Ellen Dinerman guided artists to create more simple designs. By starting simple, artists were able to focus on the process for their first pieces.

We started refreshing our color wisdom by creating color wheels and learning primary, secondary and tertiary colors as well as touching on value, hue and saturation. Like many mediums, the importance of contrasting colors, complementary colors and the vibrancy of color are all important factors in creating a mosaic.

In April, Program & Artistic Director Dawn Mendelson led a series of workshops focused on pique assiette, a form of mosaic making use of a myriad of rejected materials that have found their ultimate purpose in the hands of artists.

In March we were thrilled to have not one but three highly-skilled instructors share their talents and knowledge in a series of classes focusing on stained glass in mosaic. Piece by Piece receives hundreds of pounds of scrap glass, and it is a primary type of material used in our projects.