The first half of 2026 was a busy and focused time for me. Once the studio in Paris was set up at the end of January, I began work on the lion’s head mosaic. Inspired by a lion depicted in a floor mosaic in Piazza Armenina in Sicily and an exhibition by M.C. Escher in Paris that I had seen in January, I set to work.

Fortunately, I have a close friendship with graphic designer Kersten von Sohlern, with whom I have been collaborating since my time in China. She resized the lion’s head so that it would fit four times on my space, and I can still lay it out using the smallest possible tesserae. When designing mosaic patterns, it is important to visualize the size of the material and then arrange the motifs across the surface.

This was followed by 45 hours of cutting the tesserae to size and arranging them according to the design. This is my favorite part of making mosaics. The often difficult tinkering of the design phase is over; the motif and materials are ready, and you can now devote yourself entirely to shaping the tesserae with a hammer and hardy and to laying out the lines that will form the mosaic.

Unfortunately, this accounts for only about half the time it takes to create a mosaic. In total, this project took me 80 hours.

Here it is:

Dialog, mosaic tabletop, natural stone and glass tesserae on a handmade metal table base. 2026

Dialog, natural stone and Albertini mosaic glass, 400×400 mm, 2026