Megan Mehan Mosaicist {Shopping in Rome}

Rome has been a place for artists for centuries. It is easy to see why. The light is like a movie set, the architecture ranges from ancient to baroque to modern. Beauty is easy to find. A few sunny Sundays ago I spent the afternoon watching micro mosaicist Megan Mahan work. 

Megan, a New England native who has lived in Rome long enough to be a local, creates beautiful jewelry and art out of impossibly tiny pieces of glass. She learned her techniques from a master mosaicist at the Vatican Mosaic Studio and in addition to micro mosaic jewelry she has also done restoration work and created large scale original works for interiors. But I was here for the jewelry.


I watched as Megan broke off and then melted chunks of colored glass that she sources in Venice, to create a unique color. She then pulled the molten glass into strands the size of capellini pasta. The next step is breaking these into tinier pieces and placing them into a sterling silver frame using a sketched design as a guide. 

Megan uses this old world technique in which every step of the process from making the mosaic pieces, the jewelry frames and the material used to set the glass into the piece is done my hand, to create refreshingly modern pieces with bold colors and clean lines. 

You can buy a piece of this intricate, colorful jewelry from Megan's Easy shop or if you are here in Rome contact her directly. 

Megan Mahan Mosaicist