 Mary Kanda began making mosaic jewelry shortly after moving from New Mexico to New England in the early 1990's. Her early designs of plant and leaf motifs colored with glass beads imbedded in grout were a synchronistic fusion of many interests; gardening, tribal arts, the profusion and variety of trees in New England, a life long preoccupation with glass and ceramics, and, not least, cooking and sewing, the arts of the home. Currently she lives and works in Los Luceros, New Mexico.
Mary Kanda's work has been highlighted in a number of books and periodicals. Below are excerpts from two of them:
From "Color on Metal", written by Tim McCreight and Nicole Bsullak, published by Guild Publishing, 2001.
Mary Kanda's jewelry consists of constructed silver forms inlaid with glass beads. The beads are fixed in place with wood glue, then the spaces between the beads are filled with tile grout. The claylike grout cement is pressed gently between the beads, which are then wiped clean with a sponge.
"The grout color has an enormous impact on the overall color and mood of the piece," Kanda says." The aspect of my work that most fascinates and frustrates me is exploring various color combinations. Because it was difficult to anticipate how the grout would affect the piece. I worked with only black grout for the first couple of years. When I eventually began experimenting with other grout colors, some of the results were astoundingly ugly, but I decided they were just 'unusual', so I sent them out into the world. For the most part, I really wish I hadn't. Seeing some of those pieces again after time had passed, I wanted them all smote from the earth."
It has been several years since those experiments, and Kanda feels she is beginning to grasp the concepts of color. She has developed an inventory of grouted colors and is exploring "visual mixing", a process in which two colors, side by side, are blended in the eye of the viewer to create a third color. For example, when she surrounds an opaque yellow bead with blue grout, the effect is a green cast. Kanda's most recent work, which incorporates torch-fired glass elements and glass shards along with the beads, has emboldened the artist and re-ignited her urge to experiment.
From "The Art of Jewelry Design", written by Deborah Krupenia, Published by Quarry Books,1997.
In Mary Kanda's mosaic jewelry, purity of color glows in simplicity of form. Her innovative mosaic technique cunningly combines color, texture, and pattern framed by organic shapes of silver. Her signature jewelry represents a lifetime creative journey. From her father, she learned woodworking skills; she studied ceramics at the San Francisco Art Institute. A custom glass etching studio was Kanda's foray into the world of art and commerce.
In the mid-1970's, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sharing her studio with a jeweler, she became fascinated by the jeweler's tools and processes. She taught herself to enamel, which became her first production jewelry line.
It was the artistic world beyond the jeweler's bench, however, that impressed and nourished Kanda. Santa Fe's galleries, museums, and Indian and ethnographic markets inspired her with their Navajo blankets and jewelry, Inuit ivory, African masks and ironwork, Kuba cloth, Tibetan prayer beads, Plains Indian bead and quillwork, Hopi baskets, and Mimbres pottery.
If New Mexico was the crucible, then her move to New England in 1991 has been the catalyst for Kanda to test and refine her work. Her jewelry, which brings together bright silver, colorful seed beads, and matte cement, speaks simply and directly. She combines color in unexpected ways and with a control of contrasting materials. Each piece vibrates with quiet energy.
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