The Versatile Nature of Mosaic Borders
When choosing an artwork to embellish their home, people usually consider two things: their feelings and the size of their home. If you are reserved and shy, the chances are you won’t go for large-scale flashy street art for your wall, or if your home is small you won’t choose a whole-wall forest oil painting. However, there is one artwork that will fit perfectly with every sentiment and into any space — a mosaic border.
A mosaic border is also known as a mosaic listello which is an Italian word for “small stripes”. It refers to narrow strips of decoration used for various surfaces including walls, floors, and many others, both indoors and outdoors. Mosaic borders usually feature intricate designs that will easily embellish any space without ever looking overbearing or audacious.
Some would argue that the usage of mosaic borders started even before these ancient civilizations when people were using pieces of tiles to frame something, and that would be a valid point. However, mosaic borders usually involve repeating patterns and that should be something to consider.
The traditional mosaic artworks from ancient cultures usually inspire mosaic borders. Repeating patterns were extremely popular in ancient Greece and were considered to be part of their tradition, so it is no wonder we can see Greek Meandros in every art form including mosaic borders. With mosaic borders, there are hundreds of different variations to this mesmerizing pattern, which is still popular to this day.
The same goes for arabesque patterns from the even older Hellenistic culture. Arabesque in general was always a huge part of mosaic art history and it was used and adjusted many times as the mosaic art itself kept developing. Today arabesque motifs are still just as popular with mosaic art, especially with mosaic borders. Repeating linear motifs of birds, leaves, and flowers are still present on mosaic borders around the world.
In Hellenistic culture arabesque usually symbolizes balance and illumination, white the famous Greek “key pattern” represents unity and infinity. These days both patterns have a purely decorative purpose on the walls and floors of homes and public buildings everywhere.
Modern mosaic borders still largely rely on these first-known examples, but they also feature a variety of different themes and styles. Depending on your vision, there is a large variety of patterns to choose from.
Mosaic borders featured here are just a small portion of what we have featured in our mosaic art catalog. Feel free to browse and check out all of our stunning mosaic artwork. If you have some ideas of how you would like your mosaic borders to look, hit us up via email or chat and we will bring your dreams into a reality.
This article was originally published on Mosaics Lab’s website.
