Mosaic tables are great for quick and easy designs: geometric or abstract or loosely executed fun images.
Installing original figurative mosaics on a table is not the best idea for several reasons, especially if your design is very detailed.
Most importantly, using a table as a backer ties original artwork to furniture, which limits the life of the art and its ability to be easily transferred as an heirloom.
The Alternative
I think it makes more sense to make small original mosaics of higher quality and display these on the table surface.
Such mosaics serve as trivets and coasted and placemats, and so they don’t look out of place.
They can also be swapped out as you make more interesting mosaics in the future.
These mosaics can be executed as a series of smalls, which is a much better way to learn a new medium of art compared to investing a lot of time and energy and emotion into one large project, especially if you are a novice.
Smaller projects allow you to learn and grow and progress in skill level as time permits, while large ambitious projects tend to be rushed to completion.
Of course, your mosaic needs to be large enough so that you can easily render the level of detail you desire without being tedious work with tiny pieces.
That is not what I mean when I talk about small mosaics.
For reference, the mosaics shown in this article are very detailed for their size and would be considered tedious to execute by most artists.
My Mosaic Stones
I have been making a series of miniature mosaics on mortar stones, which are custom-shaped backers that I make by plastering Versabond thinset mortar on skeletons of hardware cloth (wire mesh).
My articles for the Horses in Wildflowers and Blue Jay mosaics show some of the details of making a mosaic stone and mounting a mosaic to it.
Displaying Mosaics
These mosaics rest on swatches of terry cloth cut from washcloths. I don’t have felt glued to the bottoms because I love for people to pick these up and inspect them from all angles and see their raw nature, including the bottoms.
It makes a huge difference in how the viewer interacts with the art.
These mosaics are much more than 2-D visual art hanging on a wall. They are small heavy sculptures that can be picked up and handled. The viewer can feel the heft of the mosaic and see it from all sides.
Seeing and handling the edges of these mosaics makes it clear that the image is nothing more than pieces of glass pressed into mortar, which makes the image seem magical, especially if there is a sense of light or depth in the composition.
Another option for displaying small mosaics are the easels used for displaying china plates.
Note my battered coffee table, which I love. The decor theme of my house is Southern Appalachian Distressed. (I have kitties, and they make sure everything is scratched if it wasn’t already when I found it on the curb.)
Materials
All of these mosaics, except for the Skeleton Catacombs Fragment and the large Moses Dreaming on Sinai were made from our American-made stained glass.
Skeleton was made from 12mm Morjo™ Glass Mosaic Tile, and Moses and the two small coasters were made from 8mm Morjo™ Glass Mosaic Tile.
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