The Studio Journal · Process
Andamento is the directional flow of the tesserae — the individual pieces — in a mosaic: the lines they follow as they are laid. It is the single biggest difference between a mosaic that feels alive and one that reads like bathroom tiling. Pieces laid in flowing lines that follow the form — around a beak, down a mountainside, along a wave — carry the eye and the light with them. The same glass laid in a plain grid says nothing, however good the colours are.
If you are planning around a date — a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas — work backwards from it. The Christmas order book closes on November 15 precisely because of the 30-day minimum: an order placed on the last day still needs its month at the bench, plus crating and shipping time, to be under a tree on December 25.
In a painting, the brushstroke carries expression. In a mosaic, the andamento does that job. Each row of pieces is a drawn line made of glass or stone, and where those lines bend, tighten, spread or swirl is where the picture gets its movement. A hummingbird's wing feathers fan because the pieces fan. Water runs downhill because the pieces run downhill. Get the andamento wrong — run a mountain's lines vertically, say — and no amount of expensive glass rescues it.
Opus regulatum — the regular grid. Honest and calm; right for backgrounds that should sit quietly and for genuinely geometric designs. Opus vermiculatum — fine, worm-like lines that trace the outline of a subject and hug its form; the classic choice for faces, birds and anything with a contour that matters. Opus tessellatum — rows that follow the form in broader sweeps, the workhorse for landscapes and skies. Most real pieces mix all three: vermiculatum around the subject, tessellatum through the middle ground, regulatum where the background should shut up and let the subject talk.
Glass is not flat paint. Every tessera catches light at a slightly different angle, so a flowing andamento makes a piece shimmer and shift as you walk past it — the surface moves even though nothing is moving. That is why andamento is planned at the drawing stage, before a single piece is cut: it decides the cut shapes, the piece sizes and the order of laying, not just the look at the end.
When you commission a piece, the drawing you approve already carries the andamento — look for the flow lines, not just the colours. Every Lion & Crown piece is made to order with a minimum of 30 days in the studio: small framed pieces from $650, medium panels from $1,200, murals and shower features $180–$250 per square foot. The Christmas order book closes November 15.
Andamento is the direction the pieces flow — and in a mosaic, the flow is the drawing, the movement and half the light. To talk through a piece for your space, call or text Lion & Crown Mosaics at 719-521-8312 or use the contact form. Shipping is available anywhere in the US at the buyer’s cost.
