Pelicans mosaic by artists Carl and Sandra Bryant.

Alternatives to Marble Mosaic

Many people are drawn to the idea of making mosaics from marble and stone, mostly because that was the material used by the ancient Romans but also because they would like to make a mosaic from natural materials in subdued colors.

Nevertheless, as soon as these people start trying to source materials, they quickly become frustrated with how limited the color palette is in marble mosaic, and they usually end up mixing the stone with smalti or ceramic or porcelain tiles, or they use dyed stone or synthetic stone for certain colors.

In either case, the mosaic usually doesn’t have the look and feel that was desired, which is really a tragedy because superior results could have been more easily and cheaply accomplished had the artist used all glass and merely restricted the color palette to more subtle hues.

Before you convince yourself you need to work in stone, spend some time looking at glass mosaics made from subdued color pallets.

Apollo and Daphne

Apollo and Daphne mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant after sculpture by Bernini.
Apollo and Daphne mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant after sculpture by Bernini. 37 in x 24 in stained glass.

Apollo and Daphne was executed in a painterly style of irregular pieces and does not have the “tile-in-rows” classic andamento of an ancient Roman mosaic, but it definitely illustrates the point that you can use glass without using intense colors.

Notice the stained glass in the border. Could you find marble tile that beautifully marbled? If you did, could you cut it without it breaking along the seams of color?

This example is a picture of a white marble sculpture. Don’t let it give you the impression that you are limited to neutral-hue grays as the only alternative to intense colors.

If you can’t find a light version of a hue in molded glass tile, you can cut pieces from the swirls of stained glass and find all sorts of umbers and mosses and browns and ochers and mustards and other muted hues, and in a variety of shades too.

In Praise of Glass

Instead of struggling just to cut and shape the materials, which is what I mostly remember from my time using stone, you spend more time on the design itself if you go with glass.

Glass is much easier to cut, more affordable, and comes in more colors, including a larger selection of colors in the muted hues.

In addition to a fairly broad range of molded glass tile, there is also stained glass, which has swirled and variegated colors, and I am fairly sure that recycled glass tile is more ecologically sustainable than the amount of energy that is used to produce stone tile, which requires a large amount of machining.

Then there is the cutting waste. In some colors (types) of stone, there is a lot of waste generated when cutting with compression tools such as a compound tile nipper because some types of stone are simply more crumbly than we would like and do not have high tensile strength.

With stone, you have to sacrifice some properties to get the color you would like. Not so much with glass.

Lastly, glass tile is frost proof and can be used outside without issues, while stone tile is vulnerable to penetration by moisture and freeze cracking.

Color When You Need It

At the end of this article, I include a picture of one of my mosaics that was made explicitly to have the look and feel of a classical Greek mosaic, and so you should look at that one if that is what you are after, but first I wanted to talk about what is possible by using a restricted color palette enhanced by one or two more intense colors.

After all, people might say they want the muted colors of natural marble for their mosaic, but they sure do send us a lot of emails looking for natural stone tile in a “true blue” or “more intense green” or some other color that only occurs in semiprecious stone.

For Life mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant.
For Life mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant. 22 in x 31 in stained glass.

Showcase Mosaics

Artists Sandra and Carl Bryant have and impressive body of work at their website Showcase Mosaics, and I recommend that anyone needing inspiration take a look there.

There is much to admire in Sandra and Carl’s work, but what really caught my eye were their mosaics that use a limited color palette to showcase a more intense color.

In their mosaic For Life (shown above), notice how the small flourishes of purple and blue in the wings enhance the white-gray bodies of the geese. Notice how the dark clouds around the periphery and the grayish bodies of the geese make the yellow-orange clouds explode with intensity.

The power comes from the contrast. There is the contrast of the cool blues versus the yellow oranges and the contrast of light and dark.

Central Park in Snow mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant.
Central Park in Snow mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant. 30 in x 36 in stained glass.

The above mosaic is a good example of how less is more in terms of color and creating visual interest. I love looking at snowy landscape impressionism (oil or stained glass or torn paper) and looking for the small flourishes of color and how the overall painting captures the light of the day. This is a favorite.

And yes, it is another good example of a mosaic with a mosaic with a muted color palette.

Pieta mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant after sculpture by Michelangelo
Pieta mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant after sculpture by Michelangelo. 30 in x 30 in stained glass.

The mosaic above is another example that illustrates how glass can be used to mimic stone, even to make a naturalistic picture of a polished white marble statue.

More Inspiration

Here is some more inspiration from Sandra and Carl. See even more at ShowcaseMosaics.com.

Egret in Swamp mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant
Egret in Swamp mosaic by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant. 24 in x 30 in stained glass.
Quiet Forest mosaic by Sandra and Carl Bryant.
Quiet Forest mosaic by Sandra and Carl Bryant. 7 ft x 10 ft stained glass.

Ancient Greek Vitreous

Vitreous Glass Mosaic Tile is generally regarded as the most generic and lackluster modern material you can use, but it is routinely used in fine art mosaic. I figured, why not use it for a classical reproduction or a mosaic in a classical style? I used thinset to mount it to an irregularly-shaped piece of flagstone for further “authenticity” as a fragmentary relic. Art goes out of the frame sometime.

Lethe mosaic by Joe Moorman
Lethe mosaic by Joe Moorman in vitreous glass mosaic tile.

Acknowledgements

The featured image for this article is Pelicans by artists Sandra and Carl Bryant.


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Comments

10 responses to “Alternatives to Marble Mosaic”

  1. Maggie Avatar
    Maggie

    I love the idea of using glass and colour in mosaics…. but I find starting the project is overwhelming ….. where to get the patterns….. how to figure out how much material is needed…. because if you order in small amounts the postage becomes astronomical!
    I would LOVE to do a “big” piece….just don’t know where to start!

    1. Joe Moorman Avatar
      Joe Moorman

      Hi Maggie,

      Yes, it doesn’t make sense to order a tiny amount at a time because the cost of postage is high relative to the cost of materials.

      The best value is to order enough to fill a medium Flat-Rate Priority Mail box.

      We have a tile estimator tool.

      Here is how you find, enlarge, and transfer patterns.

      Thanks!

  2. Amy Knarr Avatar
    Amy Knarr

    Absolutely breathtaking!

  3. Edward Colón Avatar
    Edward Colón

    Do you sell a stone/glass chopping machine

    1. Joe Moorman Avatar
      Joe Moorman

      Hi Edward,

      Glass and stone are cut with different hand tools that can be mounted to make an affordable version of a chopping machine.

      For stone and hard porcelain, we recommend the Compound Tile Nipper.

      The tool for cutting glass is the Wheeled Mosaic Glass Cutter.

  4. Lyn Richards Avatar

    Can you please point me to an article or video that will show me how to cut stained glass more precisely? Thanks!
    And thanks for the article. I like incorporating glass with my glass tile, but have trouble using my tile nippers to get my shapes. 🥴

    1. Joe Moorman Avatar
      Joe Moorman

      Hi Lyn,

      I think you are referring to the Wheeled Mosaic Glass Cutters because Tile Nippers are only for ceramic materials, but I understand what you mean.

      The Wheeled Mosaic Glass Cutters are great for nipping off small chips of tile and stained glass, but if you need to cut special shapes and curves from stained glass, it is best to use a Pistol-Grip Cutter, which is a scoring tool. You use that tool to score the glass, and then the glass is snapped apart.

      There are tons of videos on Youtube showing how to score and snap glass if you have never done it before.

      If you are asking how to use the Wheeled Mosaic Glass Cutters in a more controlled way, then that is a little more complicated because it really depends on the individual sheet of glass. Some sheets of stained glass have cold-seams at the swirls where the glass isn’t thoroughly fused together, and that can cause the glass to break in places and in ways that you didn’t intend.

      This problem is why we were excited to start carrying the Youghiogheny brand of stained glass, which is American-made and seems to be variegated in a way that results in fewer cold seams.

      One last thought that applies to glass tile and stained glass: Don’t let the glass rotate parallel with the blades when you squeeze. Hold the glass and keep it perpendicular to the blades so they are cutting straight up and down. Tighten the blades periodically to help prevent this problem.

      Please email me and describe the specific shapes you are trying to cut and the specific problems you are seeing.

      Thanks!

  5. Aureleo Rosano Avatar

    Splendid writeup, Mr. Moorman. Enjoyable and informative. Can’t beat that combination. I’ll pass this on to my mosaic students.

    1. Joe Moorman Avatar
      Joe Moorman

      Thanks Aureleo! We need all the help we can get, especially with the tariffs and all the economic uncertainty it is creating!

  6. Janet P Sacks Avatar

    Joe Moorman, your article, as always was a pure delight to read. I have followed Carl and Sandra Bryant for years and am astonished at their work. You actually picked out my favorites to display. Thank-you for your expertise, time and effort to provide all of us with this information.

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