Category: Material and Tool Information
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Mosaic Street Number
Natalija decided to test some materials and methods by putting our street number on the loading dock of the warehouse. Her method was to lay 3/4-inch vitreous tile in a mounting grid, but she put them in upside down and laid a sheet of fiberglass mesh on them and used one drop of silicone adhesive…
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Making Foam-Core Mosaic Backers For Outdoor Projects
Artist Jill Gatwood uses the following method to make water-resistant foam-core mosaic backers for exterior mosaics, such as the Pet Memorial Name Plaques she does for clients who need something that is lighter weight and easier to ship than stone or solid concrete. The method wraps the foam in three or four successive layers of…
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Mosaics on Steel Mailbox Using Silicone Adhesive
Artist Jill Gatwood has emailed me her procedure for using GE Silicone II to mount mosaic tile to steel mailboxes, and it is outlined below. Jill’s instructions have convinced me that there are enough mosaic applications for silicone adhesive that we should sell it. Note that we still recommend thinset mortar or Weldbond for mosaics…
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How To Pry Up Tiles To Modify A Mosaic
I have often used a small screwdriver to pry up tiles when I wanted to change some detail in a mosaic, but in all of those cases, the mosaic had a grout gap, and it was possible to knock an individual tile out or shatter it without damaging its neighbors, at least most of the…
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Mosaic Picture Frame
Angela made a mosaic picture frame using our irregular glazed ceramic tile and left the sides of the frame uncovered. She also nested the angular shapes to created an abstract pattern without cutting any of the tiles to make them fit. The unfinished side edges of Angela’s mosaic look particularly neat because the sides of the…
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How To Efficiently Make Mosaic Christmas Ornaments
Artist Phyllis Kempter emailed me some photos of the ornaments she made using our kits for 3-inch spherical mosaic Christmas ornaments and our 12mm recycled glass tile (plus a few other sizes of tile), and her ornaments caught my eye for two reasons: First, she used green in the patterns for her ornaments, which is good to do…
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Mirror Mosaic Warning
Silver-backed mirror must be glued down using a special mirror adhesive; otherwise the reflective silver will oxidize and turn black. Mirror tile is a different situation. Mirror Vs Mirror Tile Note that this warning is about pieces of broken mirror being used as tile. Mirror tiles such as the colored glass mirror tile we sell…
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Staining Grout With Acrylic Paint
Mosaicists sometimes mix in artist acrylic paint to create custom colors from white grout, but you can also use acrylic paint to “stain” grout after it has hardened (for dry indoor mosaics). Like the process of staining wood, “staining” grout with paint is a process of wiping on and wiping off. The paint sticks to…
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Materials and Methods for Outdoor Mosaic Tables
Artist Risa Puno recently completed her interactive mosaic sculpture Common Ground for Rufus King Park in Jamaica Queens, NYC, and the project is a great example for discussing materials and methods for mosaic table tops. No Plywood Backers Outdoors Plywood is never an acceptable backer for outdoor mosaic table tops. Humidity in outdoor air can…
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Why Did My Tiles Come Loose From Thinset?
Recently, artist Jackye Mills emailed me about a problem she was having with her first mosaic project, and it really caused me a lot of angst because the artwork was a strong design that was otherwise well executed. I hated the thought that a first-time mosaicist could do such a good job on something so ambitious only to…
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How to Cut Diagonal Triangles from Vitreous Glass Tile
Many people report having trouble cutting vitreous glass mosaic tile reliably because of the embossed patterns on the back sides, which can interfere with the blades of the mosaic glass cutter, but if you take simple steps to minimize interference and rotation, it can be done. What I mean by interference is when the blade slips…
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Making Pictures With Colored Mirror Tile
Natalija improvised this picture of a lighthouse using the Colored Mirror Tiles to show that they can be used to render an image. We added these tiles last year, but I haven’t had time to use them in anything. In Praise of Colored Mirror Tiles I can say that the Colored Mirror Tile ranks the…