Category: Improving Your Art
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Centering Mosaic Table Top Designs
Artist Stephanie Potter‘s mosaic table top designs are mandalas that catch and hold the eye with contrast, symmetry, and visual interest. They are centered so that the outer circle of tile is at the edge of the circular table tops. Mosaics made on wooden table tops are for indoor use. Outdoors, the wood swells and…
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When To Use Sanded Grout
This article is about why we recommend “the opposite” of what the tile industry recommends for grouting glass mosaics and mosaics with a standard grout gap. This article also explains how to avoid scratching the glass tile while grouting with sanded grout. Industry Recommendations The tile industry recommends using sanded grout for gaps 1/8 to…
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Public Art and Commissioned Mosaics
Artist Steven “Stevo” Sadvary has a broad mosaic portfolio of pet portraits, cityscapes, signage, educational murals and other public art, all solidly rendered. I like public art that inspires people to make their own art, especially children, and I think there are a few things about Stevo’s art that make it optimal in that way.…
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Mosaic Bowls and Platters
Mosaics cannot be a “food safe” surface as defined by the Food and Drug Administration because grout is porous and cannot be cleaned easily or completely, and it sheds material over time. That being said, you can still make mosaic bowls and platters as centerpieces for holding fruit and other decorative uses. Artist Susan Klug…
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Use of Natural Stone in Landscape Mosaics
I recently saw some stained-glass mosaics by artist Debra D’Souza, and they reaffirmed my belief in the mosaic business and actually cheered me up after a day of work poop. To explain why Debra’s mosaics make me so happy, I first have to explain a problem that really haunts me as a retailer of arts…
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Cartoon Patterns and Mosaic Pet Portraits
The pattern for a mosaic is sometimes referred to as a cartoon because it is just an outline with no attempt at shading or color. The purpose of the cartoon is merely to map out the major work lines and color fields, and so the cartoon is relatively simple, even for photorealistic work. The texture…
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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…
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Skin Tones and Mosaic Portraits
Finding the “Right” Color There is tremendous power in getting the colors right. No matter how loosely executed, an impressionistic landscape painting takes on photorealistic qualities merely by having the correct colors for a scene with its particular light. For that reason, most people wanting to make a mosaic portrait begin by trying to find…
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Using Found Objects in Figurative Mosaics
Found objects can be used as mosaic tesserae based on their color and texture and shape, as another form of tile more or less, but found-objects of symbolic value add a whole new dimension to mosaics, one that is as cerebral as it is visual. You do not have to choose between making a found-object…
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Mosaics and Artistic Collaboration
Artist Cindy Christensen emailed us some pictures of several mosaic projects that she collaborated on with her woodworking husband, and I wanted to share them because they are all well executed and colorful. They are also great examples of how you can improve your mosaic art by partnering with someone who has more power tools…
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Passion Projects
I have written in the past about “passion projects,” which is a term I use to describe first-time projects in a new medium that were executed by people with little or no training, and often executed in an explosive or emotional way after wanting to do something similar for years. Dr. Rolando Jose ‘s Doraemon…
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Color Constraints and Background Colors
Many artists like to choose background colors after the central figures have been tiled. It is best to tile from the middle and work toward the edges to avoid awkward spacing between at key focal points, but you should not leave the color choices for the background as a complete afterthought. Nor should you have…