BRAIDS OF TIMELESS WISDOM
Where braided paths circle back to ancient wisdom, still alive in stone
iNSPIRATION
In every braid, a whisper from centuries ago flows,
Patterns carry history, the way a river remembers where it rose.
My inspiration for The Braids of Timeless Wisdom reaches back to my early years along the North African Mediterranean coast, where the timeless mosaics of Libya and Tunisia, left behind by the outposts of the great Roman empire, first captured my imagination.
Walking through ancient Roman ruins near Tripoli and Sousse, I felt as though the very shoreline held conversations between cultures—Greek, Roman and Berber—woven into the tesserae beneath my feet. Those encounters became a lifelong tryst with the ancient art of the Roman Empire, a fascination with how patterns can carry history. The Braids of Timeless Wisdom is born from that memory: a homage to the coastal Mediterranean mosaics, that shaped my passion for mosaics, and a continuation of the ancient dialogue they began.
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eXPRESSION
The Braids of Timeless Wisdom is built around the ancient vocabulary of braids, knots, and concentric circles—motifs long associated with eternity, protection, and the layered nature of insight. At its centre is the ancient Solomon’s Knot, a motif deeply rooted in Roman and Byzantine floor pavements. The interlocking plaits surrounding it move like currents of thought.
I have associated these classical motifs with contemporary colours—burnished copper, luminous silver, deep Mediterranean blues— allowing ancient meaning to meet modern materiality. By extending this lineage through a meticulous arrangement of glass and smalti tesserae, I have created a surface that catches light in shifting rhythms. While structurally faithful to historical precedent, the use of contemporary materials introduces a heightened luminosity absent in its ancient counterparts. Each tesserae of glass is placed as an act of remembrance, honouring the wisdom that ancient hands once encoded into pattern.
In this harmony of past and present, The Braids of Timeless Wisdom becomes both a revival and a reimagining of the symbolic geometry that once adorned the floors of ancient Roman villas.
Size: 30 x 24 inches
Medium: Coloured glass on acrylic substrate