Millefiori and Rose Windows

I’ve been reading a fair amount about water and color these days, as I continue to work on a small series inspired by the colours and patterns of Millefiori and Rose windows.

It’s quite astonishing how much of art and science interplay within the realm of colour - and this is most especially true during the 17th and 18th centuries when all artists are not just mixing their colours, but in fact creating them using different waxes and oils, and then mixing them with various powdered substances - of different mineral, plant, and animal materials.

I’ve become rather enraptured in my further learning about colour, so much so, as to also begin playing with colour in regard to experiments in colour theory and play and perhaps moving forward by next year, even into the creation of my own colours though these older techniques that are not so often used anymore. Anyhow, here’s a quick peak into almost completed series based on these patterns found within both Millefiori (Italian glasswork beads) and Rose windows (round stained glass windows found in many European cathedrals). I’m really enjoying creating the rhythmical patterns and the resulting imperfect pattern play. ​

Tahira Nusrat Karim
​Tauska