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Marble Mosaic Restoration Project
At the end of 2019 Mosaic Art Supply was e-mailed by a local homeowner about repairing a stone mosaic that was being displayed outdoors. The design of the mosaic is a smaller-scale interpretation of the “Tree of Life” mosaic found in the bath of Hisham’s Palace in eastern Palestine. The palace dates to the 700s…
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Grout Color for Stone Backsplash
Randy Evans emailed me a photo of his stone mosaic backsplash and asked for advice in choosing a grout color. Even though this project isn’t figurative mosaic, and the grout gaps have the width of masonry joints (much larger than the gaps recommended for small glass mosaic tiles), it still makes a good teaching example…
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Owl Mosaics and The Importance of Andamento
Linda Lawton emailed me some pics of her recent owl mosaics, and one of them had an issue that made it a good teaching example about the importance of andamento. That mosaic also became a case study for how to mosaic on top of part of an existing mosaic if you want to rework a…
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Shipping Resumed
We have resumed operations and are now shipping packages normally. Please be decent to people in these hard times. APOLOGY AND CONFESSION My apologies to anyone who I have offended with my criticism of Donald Trump in my previous post Coronavirus Helmets, but you might want to give me a pass on that for several…
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Coronavirus Helmets
My son and I took a short break from planting our native and heirloom vegetable garden and digging a second tadpole pond and made Coronavirus Helmets, which are an essential piece of equipment these days. The Coronavirus Helmet featured in this post is mine. I have more about Henry’s helmet later in this post. As…
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Warning: Marine Plywood Not For Mosaic
Marine plywood cannot be used as a mosaic backer for outdoor and wet mosaic. Yes, marine plywood can withstand the outdoors and wet days for many years, but it is completely unacceptable as a mosaic backer because it swells and contracts with changes in humidity in the outside air. That amount of swelling and contracting…
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Well-Executed First-Time Mosaic
One of the most well-executed mosaics I have ever seen in terms fine details wrought in slivers of glass came to me in photos in an email last week from artist Irene Clifford. As Natalija pointed out, ” Most people would throw away tiny pieces like that as scraps.” The mosaic is excellent work in…
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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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Geometric Architectural Perspectives
Recently I wrote about The Stylistic Range of Mosaic Art and mentioned that I am still being surprised by the different styles that artists are able to execute in the medium, especially those with formal training. I meant formal training in art when I first wrote that, and I was thinking about how technical innovation…
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The Stylistic Range of Mosaic Art
At Mosaic Art Supply, we have always tried to promote contemporary mosaic as a fine art and help people of every skill level create original work instead of selling overpriced craft kits for making cliche designs. This may have hurt us some financially, but I have never regretted taking the high moral ground. After all,…
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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.…