Ideas come to life

Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 19, 2026

Carole Miller has been creating mosaic glass pieces on stone, river rock, wood and tile since 2022. The newest artist to join the Ptarmigan Arts gallery family, she is displaying her work publicly for the first time.

While traditional mosaic art is the process of creating images or patterns by arranging small pieces of colored stone, glass, ceramic or other materials onto a surface and securing them with adhesive or grout, Miller’s work is more non-traditional.

“The main thing is that I don’t fill in the entire surface of the stone,” she said. “And for the most part, the pieces are larger and I always grind them and shape them, while some of the traditional mosaics use non-ground pieces of glass.”

A longtime Alaskan, Miller’s work is inspired by the landscape and wildlife around her.

“What inspires me the most is the beauty of the Alaskan mountains and coastline,” she said. “All of my mosaics are created from something I have seen myself, or from pictures, photographs or books.”

Using flat stones, like flagstones and river rocks in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes that she has gathered in Alaska and while traveling in Arizona and Washington state, once Miller has an idea in mind, she creates a sketch, works out the mosaic pieces and then draws the image on the stone. She then cuts and grinds the glass, glues the glass onto the stone and finally, grouts and seals the piece.

Working on one mosaic at a time, each takes anywhere from eight to 12 hours over the course of up to four days to complete, depending on its size.

“Raven with Berry” is Miller’s mosaic on stone that depicts the bird with a red berry in its beak. Made from black and a black/white glass, she created this piece last November, inspired by the love she and her mother shared for the bird.

“My mom and I enjoyed how smart the raven is and how beautiful their black, almost blue-hued, feathers are,” Miller said.

Her “Bear Fishing” piece measures 12-inches by 10-inches and shows a brown bear with a salmon in its mouth. The bear is made from variegated brown glass, and the salmon from red glass. This piece was created a few years after a trip to Katmai where Miller and her husband Sonny watched the bears fishing for salmon.

Miller created “Lovely Loon” at the request of her sister who enjoyed hearing them at her cabin on a lake. Measuring 10-inches by 6-inches, the loon is made from black and white glass as well as a glass called “the loon” glass.

After Miller and her husband retired from their careers in Anchorage, they spent three-and-a-half months in Gold Canyon, Arizona, living in their fifth wheel at the Canyon Vista/Superstition Views RV Resort. They enjoyed their time so much that they returned to spend the following two winters there. It was at this RV resort that Miller was first introduced to the art of mosaics.

“The resort has a wonderful glass room and very talented individuals who loved teaching stained glass and mosaics,” she said. “The first time I went to the glass room, the artists were teaching mosaics and I loved the process. I spent a lot of time in there making different projects on river rocks.”

Her first mosaic was a lizard on a river rock that took about six hours to make and turned out exactly as she had wanted it to. That piece sits on her front porch today. A year later she created her first mosaic on stone, a Great Blue Heron that took her about 14 hours to complete and was inspired by the herons she saw in Washington state and created from both her memory and photos.

After learning the basics during that time and the subsequent two winters they returned to the resort, Miller began developing her own style. She continued creating work on her own and learning as she went, and eventually started teaching other residents who ventured into the glass room.

“It’s fun to see how my work has changed since I started doing mosaics,” Miller said. “I love the creativity of my style of mosaics.”

Raised in a family of quilters, knitters, crocheters and seamstresses, Miller has long enjoyed working with her hands, knitting, crocheting and, for a time, making beaded wrap bracelets. She also painted on rocks for several years, including the large river rocks she found in Arizona, which she then incorporated into her mosaic work, and eventually led her to use bigger flat flagstones.

Having been Alaska residents for more than 60 years, the couple moved to Homer last year to be close to the water. Miller’s art studio is in their garage and includes a table for her grinder and ring saw, an area for cutting glass and a workbench cabinet where she puts her pieces together, does the grout work and stores her tools.

Other supplies are stored on wire shelving units, and her glass is in a wooden cabinet. Her greatest joy is seeing her ideas come to life and her greatest challenge is finding flat stones and good sanded grout.

Specializing in non-traditional mosaic work, Miller has created commissioned work in Arizona, including a loon and a flamingo. She is open to new local commissions and is currently working on more Alaskan-inspired designs that will feature, among others, whales, octopus and puffins.

Her exhibit at Ptarmigan Arts marks her public debut, as she shares her work beyond her inner circle for the first time. While she doesn’t maintain an online presence, you can reach her through the gallery.