Pique assiette: A style of mosaic art that incorporates pieces of vintage china and found objects. It is an art form that dates back to the Roman Empire, where artisans often incorporated shards of terra cotta and bits from broken bottles into their works. I'm always on the look out for vintage plates and bowls with interesting colours, swirls and patterns. Old buttons and beads, too. These I marry with stained glass, Italian and Mexican glass smalti and ceramic tiles. I cut hundreds and hundreds of small square tesserae from the various materials, assembling them into soulful, brightly-coloured mosaics - my contemporary tribute to the mosaicists of ancient Rome.