We’re keeping the night heron for our crazy kitchen – but we can create any kind of custom mosaic work for you.
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Black-crowned Night Heron
When the alewives came into shallow water to spawn over at Sam Smith Park, the black-crowned night herons showed up to enjoy the bounty. Standing on the bridge on the west side of the yacht club, looking north, some evenings we could spot 4 or 5 of these chunky birds.
We decided to do a night heron mosaic. We did this one with Italian Smalti (glass) tiles on a birch plywood ground, and unlike the mosaics we do with broken crockery, we grouted this one.
This mosaic is about 3 feet tall.
We love butterfly season!
This one has a 19 inch wingspan. It’s made from broken crockery, ceramic tiles, a wooden bead (on the head) and two plastic animals (can you find them?).
The Owl and the Butterfly
Shell-bodied butterfly
This butterfly has a wingspan of about 19 inches. It’s made with shells, broken crockery, ceramic tiles, smalti tiles, pennies, plastic flowers.
Giant Monarch
This one is for our place on Twenty Seventh Street here in Toronto.
Two new butterflies
These two new butterflies each have a wingspan of about 19 inches. They’re made with broken crockery, ceramic and smalti tiles and a few surprises.
Six Penny butterfly
Some of our butterfly mosaics imitate actual butterfly species, but others like this “6-penny” butterfly made by Tuffy P as a gift, are completely improvised.
Butterflies on the Brain
Please visit our page at the Brain Project website to learn all about this project. If you like you can vote for us for “people’s choice” brain. This mosaic is in support of Baycrest Health Sciences. They do great work. If you would like to make a donation to Baycrest you can do so online here.
Our brain is sponsored by Cineplex.
The Brain Project – in process
We’re currently working on a piece for The Brain Project in support of The Baycrest Foundation. They have provided a cast over-sized brain and we’re transforming it with smalti tile mosaic. This work includes 5 giant monarch butterflies. Watch this site for updates.
Sheila Gregory and Eugene Knapik
Sheila Gregory and Eugene Knapik have been active in the Toronto art scene since the mid-1980s. They have organized numerous large-scale group art exhibitions and are featured in the Collective City short film The Un-Collective.
Sheila Gregory has published her ongoing series of photographs: The Left Overs online.
Eugene Knapik is represented (for his paintings and drawings) at Yumart Gallery. His suite of short-short stories, The Lazy Allen Stories is available online, and he writes a personal blog called 27th Street.
Custom Mosaic Work
Long Branch Mosaics – we are Eugene Knapik and Sheila Gregory. We’re two artists living in Long Branch (SW corner of Toronto) who began creating mosaics to enhance our own home. We now create mosaics to order in all sizes, complexities and themes.
Call Eugene at 647-518-2570 or email: longbranchmosaics@gmail.com to discuss a custom mosaic for your home or garden.
We make all kinds of indoor or outdoor work in all sizes and themes, including birds, butterflies and bears as well as large granite benches. Materials range from broken crockery and found objects to Italian smalti (glass) tiles. Prices vary depending on size, complexity and materials. Each project is a one of a kind work of art. We would love to make something special for your home.
The Paris Bear
This large-scale exterior grizzly bear project is about 5 feet all and 4 feet wide. It has recently been installed at a home in Paris Ontario. It lives along the back wall of a house, in a garden area, overlooking a pool. This mosaic was installed in the fall and sits above the ground to accommodate garden growth.
The grizzly is made from a combination of broken crockery, smalti tiles and a few surprises such as the white LEGO pieces on the head. This mosaic is on a sturdy treated plywood ground, installed using a French cleat.
From a distance you can see the bear as a whole, but as you get closer, the detail reveals itself. 
This is one of our larger, more complex projects, and it is our second grizzly. In 2013, we did one in a different pose for our own garden. We primarily do custom work. The Paris Bear was designed with the specific site in mind. After making a site visit, we created this bear in our mosaic workshop in Long Branch.
We enjoy doing the larger mosaic work and we’re always happy to discuss possibilities to fit any home or garden.
Butterflies, butterflies, butterflies!
The Long Branch Robin
Robins nesting in a spruce tree in our backyard were the inspiration for the Long Branch Robin.
Details of the Long Branch Robin
Robin Mosaic in progress
This photo shows the Long Branch Robin in process. This mosaic is made from broken crockery, ceramic tiles and a few surprise items on a birch plywood ground.
The Flowerpot Butterfly
We make butterfly mosaics from all kinds of unusual materials. This one has flowerpots and poker chips. If you have special materials you would like to transform into a mosaic, we can do it for you.
Two Snowy Owls
In recent winters, snowy owls have been spotted in Colonel Sam Smith Park and even closer to us on Twenty Third Street in Long Branch. These beautiful large birds were the inspiration for these two owls.
The Sinclair Blue Jay
The Candlestick Moth
Blue Butterfly
This butterfly features saucers and lids!
Fridge Mosaic 27th Street Kitchen
Grouting the bench
The Magnolia Bench is a traditional smalti tile mosaic. We grouted this mosaic with a fortified polimer grout called Permacolor. After the grout was spread on, we cleaned it up with damp sponges.
We wanted to be sure there were no sharp edges on the bench so we spent some time identifying sharp spots and cleaning them up with a Dremel tool.
Installing the bench…
With the help of a crane, the guys from HGH Granite installed the granite for the Magnolia Bench on-site in Paris Ontario.
The Magnolia Bench
The Magnolia Bench was a commission consisting of a granite bench, magnolia mosaic bench-top and flower and butterfly carving. The carving was created by Ruth Arnold, a great wood carver we’ve known for many years. For this project we worked with the folks at HGH Granite, who were able to do the stone-work and the bench installation. The mosaics were created in the studio in sections and reassembled on-site, and installed using a specialty polymerized mortar. The tesserae for this mosaic are Italian smalti (glass) tiles.
Brett Goldfinch Mosaic from 2013
The Hilton-Fisher Blackbird
Here is a grackle mosaic at its home in Midland Ontario. For this project we included irridescent glass tiles to imitate the grackle’s feathers. The photo below shows the original wood cut-out and drawing.
The Brett Cardinal
This male cardinal mosaic is playful and rich in detail.
We do mosaic doors in your home
We can transform doors in your home with a mosaic treatment. This dining room door mosaic features some tiles from Sintra, Portugal, a black cat from Nice Old Stuff in Jarvis Ontario, and a cat door so the lions can pass through anytime.
Female Cardinal
Grizzly Bear mosaic – watch the progression
The Cat Door
This full-door mosaic is in our home.
The first big bird
We made this owl for the front of our home on Twenty Seventh Street in Long Branch. It was our first large-scale bird mosaic.
First Blue Jay
This was one of our first commissions and our first jay. This mosaic is close to four feet tall. It’s made with an assortment of tiles, broken crockery, bits of glass and stone.
