The art of Myanmar Traditional Glass Mosaic is one of the handicrafts, which has flourished for 900 years. You can see the art of glass mosaic at religious edifices, such as pagoda's stairways, monasteries, community halls, ceilings of Buddha images, pillars of monasteries, thrones for Buddha images, beds, ornamental backdrops of thrones, chambers of palaces and ancient utensils.

You can still study the art of glass mosaic today at ancient buildings and ancient utensils.

Among Myanmar's handicrafts, the art of glass mosaic has been flourishing up to the present day. So, let's study this art.

The main necessary raw materials for glass mosaic art are wood, lacquer, gems, glass and gold foils. Lacquer is known as Melanorrhoea Usitata, in botanical terms.
Firstly, the sculptors make a rough wood model of cane, bamboo and wood. When the rough wood model is obtained, the wood has to be patched by using a mixture of lacquer and teak sawdust. That procedure is called Tha Yoe Kaing. And then, we put the rough wood model in the underground vault room for a week to be dried. The nature of lacquer is that it doesn't dry when the sunlight falls on it or when the room is airy.
When the lacquer is dried we take out rough wood model from the underground vault. And then, we sprinkle it with silt water and rub it with a stone to polish the surface. After rubbing it with the stone, the rough wood model is painted again with lacquer and put it in the underground vault again to be dried. We have to paint with lacquer and rubbing with the stone four or five times alternately.

When we are satisfied, we coat rough wood model with lacquer, which is of medium quality and place once more again in the underground vault as the final step. In the final step, we lay strings on the rough wood model. To make these strings, the lacquer and the ash of cow's faeces are mixed and the strings are passed through this mixture and this is called "hitting of lacquer". After passing the strings through the mixture we twist them in order to make it the long and slender about the size of the bicycle's spoke.

The art of laying or twisting of string is the heart of making glass mosaic. The string laying person must have an artistic touch and sense. The strings flower made of lacquer are prominently painted with scenic views. The designs of floral arabesques and motifs are used to make the glass mosaic more beautiful.

After laying the strings, the rough wood model is decorated with glasses. The string laying person must earmark the places to be decorated with glass mosaic while he is laying the strings. The person who decorates glass mosaic must systematically embellish glasses at the necessary places.
After we put down the strings on the unfinished products we gild it. The person who gilds has to stick the gold leaf foils neatly, so there is no gap in between. After sticking the gold leaf foils, we rub and press with a cotton swab to make the gold foil stick more and to smooth it out. After doing so, we will witness, the artistically gilded glass mosaic shinning beautifully in its golden hue.
The artistic art of glass mosaic gilding depicted with glass mosaic flowers, still exists today, a traditional art, which began in the reign of our ancient Myanmar kings. We present this programme so that people will be able to study the art of glass mosaic gilding.