By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — Artist Leyla Spencer has always loved mosaics, but she waited awhile to try working in them herself.
”I’ve been doing mosaics for about 10 years,” she said. “Before that, I worked in pastels for a long time. Now that I’m older, I have the patience for mosaics. It’s very calming, like knitting. You have to go at the pace the work entails. You can’t make it go any faster. And you don’t have to frame mosaics. That keeps the cost down.”
Cost is a key artistic issue for Ms. Spencer, whose work is being shown now at the gallery at J.B. Kline & Sons at 25 Bridge St. The show got under way with a reception at Kline’s on Saturday evening. The reception and opening of Ms. Spencer’s show was delayed a week due to loss of electric power in the city.
”The opening and reception Saturday night went very well,” she said Sunday. “I sold quite a few pieces and am hoping to sell more. I try to keep my prices reasonable. I know the feeling when you go to a show and see a piece you really like, and the price tag on it is $4,000.”
Her work has been well received. Five of her mosaics are in the Johnson and Johnson collection at the firm’s corporate headquarters in New Brunswick. Johnson and Johnson purchased the pieces at the 1860 House in Montgomery where they were being shown.
”Mosaic is one of the oldest forms of art,” Ms. Spencer said. “It’s a painstaking process where each piece must be sized properly for its purpose. The fun part is choosing the colors and materials to be used. I tend to use stained glass and vitreous glass tile in my work, but I also like finding small oddities to put in some pieces. The challenge is working within the limits as well as stretching them.”
Use of a “small oddity” forms the theme of one of her favorite pieces being shown at Kline’s.
”The piece is called ‘Find Me,’” Ms. Spencer said. “A friend gave me some pieces of jewelry, little porcelain pieces with faces on them. ‘Find Me’ has one of those pieces in it, a small pin with a face on it.”
Ms. Spencer has lived in Lambertville for 10 years.
”I grew up in Princeton, then lived in Rocky Hill,” she said. “I’ve always loved Lambertville, and when my daughter started attending the Solebury School 10 years ago, I moved here.”
Recently, she’s begun working mosaics that can be set up permanently in an outdoor setting.
”I put the mosaic on a foam-covered cement board,” she said. “That’s suitable for outdoors, and a lot of people like to put mosaics outdoors. I edge them with copper, which acquires a nice patina and, unlike wood, it won’t rot outdoors.”
Like many artists, she loves to collect art as well as produce it. Some of it she buys.
”But I get a lot of it by trading work with other artists,” she said.
Speaking of being economical, also among her work at Kline’s are small pieces, 4 inches by 6 inches, that sell for $60 apiece.
”Each piece is a part of a series of four pieces and can be used indoors or out,” she said. “They’re simple and jewel-like and, like all my work, brightly colored.”
To find out more and see some of her work, go to www.leylaspencer.net.

