Early in the seventies, in a small stained glass studio in Virginia, Toby Mason began applying the art he had mastered in a California beach town to the building of transom and sidelight windows, which soon established him in the field. Commissioned pieces destined for Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman became the bulk of his work and, through intermediaries, the artist's clients came to include princes and a king. Yet the art of stained glass was to be eclipsed by his exploration of the use of colored mirror.

It began in France with mirrored boxes Toby made as props while there to record his music for a
friend’s movie. Several portraits (one of himself which he still retains) and his other early works
were experiments in abstract design, developing casting techniques and determining what this
novel palette might allow. The technology took almost twenty years to perfect.
In Toby’s first one man show "The Cosmos Reflected" (1992), works were massive, designed with
large pieces of colored mirror cut as if it were stained glass but assembled in the technique of mosaic.

These found their way into churches, hospitals, corporate offices and gracious homes up and
down the east coast. In time much smaller pieces of mirror were incorporated into the mosaics
and the work changed dramatically. Utilizing tiny pieces (tesserae) that would not ordinarily find
place in stained glass work advanced the artist's skill as a glazier. He began to make generous use
of the slender fragile pieces that have become signature to his work and evolved to a more traditional mosaic technique though in a style uniquely his own.

Toby’s lifelong fascination with the play of light was refined by years of painting and professional
photography. He takes natural delight in the creation of mirror mosaics which seem to always
be in motion simply as a room’s light changes and far more so when the viewer moves. In current
work the colored mirror is surrounded by fine slices of stone or the occasional field of colored
cement. The artist’s penchant for fine detail extends to the hand wrought wood frame he fashions
himself for each piece. His recent private showings are announced by invitation, and a wide array
of his distinctive work may be viewed here.