Kate Rattray

I make mosaic art works using a variety of materials including glass, ceramic, stone, rubber, plastic, and my own hand gilded glass.

I make bespoke work for clients that include large wall mosaic murals for indoor and outdoor spaces. 

Exhibition pieces include mosaic wall sculptures made with wire, cement mixes and boards, plaster and polystyrene which are then decorated with a mosaic skin. These pieces often take the form of birds or moths in flight. 

I like to incorporate my gilded glass in the mosaic decoration. In my outdoor pieces the imitation metal leaf under the glass will tarnish and form a patina which changes colour over time. I find a fascination in the relationship between the permanence of the structure and the transient and evolving colours of the metal leaf. 

I’m inspired by religion, nature, animals and birds, magic, mythology, metamorphosis and the apocalypse! 

For the past 20 years I’ve been living in Somerset, making and teaching mosaic art from various studios. Last year I returned to my home county of Devon where I began my mosaic practice in 1994.