I am Julie Kaplan and I have been learning and working in the mosaic arts for 20 years. 

In the summer of 2018, having outgrown a small studio space in Michigan City, I opted to relocate to Union Pier in a storefront on Red Arrow Hwy.  My husband, recognizing the amount of available square footage, opened an antique and vintage goods retail space in conjunction with my studio.  Hence, Piece by Piece was born.

Fast forwarding through the ensuing six years, having suffered through two summers of road constructions/road closures, the seasonal nature of the local area and then the Covid outbreak, I came to realize that I was spending a lot of time hunting down and procuring pieces for the retail portion of Piece by Piece and my actual “studio” space was getting smaller and smaller.  I found I was working less and less on my mosaic projects. 

In the summer of 2024 I decided to close the vintage/antique aspect of the shop and refocus on mosaics.  During the retail years, I was often asked if I taught mosaics or held classes. I started collecting contact information of those interested.  I really hadn’t thought of teaching before, but because I enjoyed the social aspect of visitors to the shop and had met a world of people I wouldn’t have otherwise known, an inkling started to develop to start offering classes to see if it would “fit”.

In July of 2024 I initiated my first class using just the walk-in contacts I had accumulated.  I found that I enjoyed very much the camaraderie and sharing that goes hand-in-hand with teaching.  Over the winter of 2024 I decided to expand and branch out with more options and here we are!!!!