Month: October 2013

  • How To Make A Home Mosaic Art Studio

    Avoid Studio Obsession Setting up and organizing your studio or corner workspace can become an end unto itself and just one more thing that keeps you from working on your art. Keep in mind that great works of art have been created under terrible working conditions and with minimal tools and equipment. The most important…

  • Architectural Mosaic Safety Issues

    An architectural mosaic can cut someone if sharp edges are left exposed or crush someone if it’s not mounted securely. Even a small mosaic plaque is significantly heavier than a painting or photograph of the same size and should not be hung with light gauge wire or fasteners. Preventing Cuts Would You Glue Razor Blades…

  • How To Lay Out A Home Art Studio

    You have to build the factory before you can make the product, and that includes when you work sitting on the floor of a hotel room while on business travel like I did for years. Your factory can be as simple as a small plastic tote or gym bag with all your materials and tools…

  • How To Make Reclaimed Wooden Frames And Mount Indoor Mosaics

    Frames That Match The Art If the mosaic is a mixed-media mosaic with rounded and irregular sculptural elements, a frame in the style of a generic photo frame or document frame may look out of place with its uniformity and minimalism and linear perfection. The Merits Of Reclaimed Wood I think reclaimed wood with some…

  • Mosaic Holiday Ornament Kit

    I have designed a base kit that people can use to make a mosaic holiday ornament, and I plan to sell the base kit at the website. I designed the ornament base relatively quickly due to business demands, but I have spent at least 10 years thinking of how I would design mosaic kits or…

  • The Importance Of Repurposed Downcycling In Art Studios

    In my previous article about how to cut cement board for use as a mosaic backer, I explained how I didn’t buy carbide-grit jigsaw blades for this because I re-used my worn-out wood blades for this once they became to dull for wood, and that it didn’t matter that cutting the cement board destroyed them…

  • How To Cut Cement Board

    Two Types Of Cement Board There are two types of cement board: The first type contains wood fibers or wood particles mixed in with the cement. The second type is portland cement between two sheets of fiberglass mesh. The second type is completely water resistant, and that is what we use in our mosaics when…

  • How To Store And Reuse Dust Masks

    Mixing up grout and thinset require that mosaic artists wear dust masks on an occasional basis. I wear an N95 particulate mask, which is the same one I wear for sawing wood with power tools and many other shop and studio tasks that involve non-oily dust. An N-95 captures 95% of the particles of a…

  • How To Color Grout

    This article is about coloring grout for mosaic art before the grout is applied. This article isn’t about staining grout for bathroom backsplashes. From what I’ve read, staining bathroom grout doesn’t tend to last but has to be refreshed within a year or two. If I wanted to change gout color, I would remove the…

  • How To Build Up Low Areas With Thinset Mortar

    Low areas on a surface can be built up with thinset mortar mixed with an additional aggregate of very coarse sand a few days before tile is laid. This should be be done if you want to put a mosaic insert of thin glass tile (1/8 inch) between thicker architectural tiles like 3/8 inch stone…