Story Behind the Artist - Jennifer Strohm
Mosaic art dates back far into the BC era with the oldest piece dating back to the second half of 3rd millennium BC. Small, broken pieces of pottery, glass, and stones are used to create patterns, and pictures that inspire. It truly is taking trash to treasure and making the world a little more beautiful. It takes an artistic eye, however, to determine where to put each piece in order to create just the right design and Jennifer Strohm has found the right recipe for it.
Born and raised in a suburb of New York City and living in Pennsylvania for many years, this East coast native now lives in northern New York along the Hudson River. Jennifer is a registered nurse but loves creating mosaic pieces in her spare time. While she has studied drawing and painting (2 years at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Ars in Philadelphia) and ceramics in her past as well, mosaic work is by far her favorite artistic medium. Jennifer first discovered mosaics after buying a book about how to make “Crazy Mosaics”. Her first project was a mosaic on a wooden picture frame that one of her neighbors was going to throw away. Since then, her passion was ignited and she went on to teach herself more and more by using broken china from pieces she found at garage sales or ones that were donated to her by friends and family.
After practicing her skill and learning the different techniques from books and simply creating her own pieces, she finally decided to start selling her work. She started by selling at craft fairs and local shops where she lives then ultimately expanded to the online space where she can share her work as far as the internet will reach.
Her inspiration comes from the vintage plates, teacups, and stained glass pieces she uses and one day, when she was browsing a yard sale, she found a box of old vases and decided to create an entirely new design to add to her portfolio. Jennifer sells both her bud vases with mosaic backgrounds and other home décor mosaic pieces in her online booth with us, each with a romantic garden feel that adds a dash of whimsy to whatever space it’s in.
Jennifer does all of her work at home in a large room that has become her studio where she can spread out, unwind, and therapeutically indulge in her love of the craft. “Once I retire from nursing, I intend to delve full-time into making mosaics,” Jennifer told us.
Artists come from all over; all different employments (or non-employments for that matter), all different backgrounds, and all with a different medium to share with the world, and when they come together, they create a mosaic themselves. Made By Her is proud to have Jennifer as part of the mosaic of female artisans in our online marketplace and look forward to seeing more of her new pieces as she brings them to life.
**Editor’s note: This article was composed as a joint effort between the Made By Her staff and Jennifer herself.