Category: Material and Tool Information
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Framing and Hanging Exterior Mosaic Plaques
Artist Brad Srebnik’s mosaic street number plaque is worth taking a look at for several reasons. It has a harmonious color scheme with good warm-cool contrast, it’s tightly executed, and the numerals have crisp outlines and subtle curves in a distinct font style. If you are thinking about a project with mosaic numerals or letters…
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Case Study: Non-Sanded Grout for Mosaics with Incidental Gap
For better glass mosaic images, tiny incidental gaps are the way to go. Just forget about grouting and fit the glass as tightly as possible. Or better yet, cut the pieces less precisely and use the slight errors in shapes to form an incidental grout gap. I highly recommend this latter mode of working because…
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Nonstandard Method for Removing Mortar in Gaps
Natalija reminded me that she used her cordless drill with a mesh disc to remove the hardened mortar, and that cordless rechargeable tools exist. Either we didn’t have cordless rechargeable tools on my home planet, or I was having a stress-induced boomer episode yesterday. One of those two things is true, maybe both.
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Entranceway Mosaic: How to Use Grids, Mesh, Tape, and Thinset
Natalija recently created an entranceway mosaic as one of the final projects in the renovation of her new home. She did a great job photo documenting the process step by step, including some serious mistakes/missteps, and that is why I am eager to share it. Also, the mosaic itself looks good and was well executed.
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Tough Outdoor Mosaic Backer
The thinnest, toughest, most water-resistant backer I have been able to make is steel lath plastered with a “concrete” made from Versabond brand thinset mortar (or the equivalent Mapei product) and unsealed aquarium gravel. Regular pea gravel is too large for the lath, and so aquarium gravel is used instead. The aquarium gravel must be…
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Mosaic Planter Grouted in Sections
Artist Donna Stern recently completed a round mosaic planter, which she grouted in sections. I wanted to share that work for several reasons, and not merely because it is solid work with an emphasis on primary colors with a good balance of warm and cool colors. There are several discussion points:
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Mosaic Mural by Stages
Artist Kim Kahrilas’ bunny mosaic mural uses pet portraits and children’s book illustrations for inspiration and demonstrates how you can create a larger project by making it in modules. Kim made the mosaic on sections of tile backer board, with each section or panel having it own composition: four separate stand-alone scenes featuring bunnies plus…
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Mosaic Mural on Tile Backer Board
Artists Patricia Cream and Leah Mitchell recently completed an outdoor mosaic mural mounted on foam-core tile backer board, and they took excellent photos of the work in progress. Each major step in the process is shown, including the french-cleat hanging brackets used to mount the mosaic to the cinder-block wall. The mosaic mural is also…
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Two Mosaic Safety Tips
A stainless-steel ruler and a spray-bottle filled with water are all you need to avoid the most common injury and the most serious risk associated with creating mosaic artwork.
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Making Tiles from Stained Glass
We haven’t been able to keep our Smalti stocked very well over the past year because it has quadrupled in cost after the tariffs and freight gouging and the large factory price increase. I have been fretting about that a lot recently, and so Natalija reminded my how much cheaper and easier it is to…
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Making Mosaic Letters from Beads
Glass Seed Beads in the 3.7mm size can be strung on short pieces of wire to make letters, numerals, and symbols in mosaic artwork. Step #1. Find Wire Any variety of metal wire can be used, but copper taken from stranded electrical wire is the easiest to find and use:
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Mosaic Restoration Video
Natalija made a video of her work with artist Angela Bortone in the restoration of a marble mosaic. The mosaic was a reproduction of a detail of Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus, and it was covered in grime and missing tiles. It also needed to be transferred to a new backer. There was a…