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Black and White Photorealistic Mosaic Art
Black and White Telescope Mosaic. Mark’s grandson gazes at the stars. Stylized or Photorealistic? Mosaic is usually used to make stylized images, meaning images that are simplified in certain ways, and that is done because the constraints of working with tile that only comes in certain colors and can only be cut so small forces the artist…
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Ceramic Tiles with Mottled Glazes
We have an exciting new type of tile that fills a void in our product offering and not just because it is glazed ceramic. The glazes on these tiles are mottled with random splashes of different colors that makes them absolutely beautiful. Mottled Glazed Ceramic Tiles selection A Yes, we have great colors in glass mosaic…
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Shrinking Grout: Fixing Holes In Groutlines
Grout does not shrink, but it is prone to forming voids and bubbles if it is not rubbed thoroughly into the grout gaps. These holes are easily repaired. My friend Fredrik reported a problem while grouting his mosaic portraits of famous rock icons. He described the grout as having shrank in the grout gap. Shrinking Grout Detail…
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David Bowie, Springsteen, Strummer, Waits Mosaic Portraits
Fredrik Tigerstrom (“T29ART” on Instagram) has made some impressive mosaic portraits of rock icons David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, and Tom Waits. These mosaics are worth sharing for several reasons, and not merely because they are faithful renderings of famous people. Yes, these mosaics are “accurate” in terms of capturing individual likeness, and that is an accomplishment…
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Removing Glass Tile To Change A Mosaic
This method for altering a mosaic can be used before grouting, or grout can first be removed by scraping it out with a grout removal tool or screwdriver. Why Remove Tiles? Even experienced artists modify their designs as they work on them, and beginners can’t help but use a trial and error approach. After all. it’s hard…
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Using Contact Paper to Transfer A Mosaic Design
Choice of Pattern This method for transferring a mosaic design with contact paper works whether you are improvising on a quickly sketched cartoon or carefully following a detailed pattern for each piece of tile. This method reverses the mosaic from left to right in a mirror effect because the tile is laid upside down onto the sticky pattern and…
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Vacuum Attachment For Removing Dust From Small Parts
The new SPARDUSTER™ Small Parts Dust Remover looks like a simple vacuum attachment, but it is actually nothing less than a revolution in studio and workshop cleanup. With this simple tool, cleaning up a work surface covered in mosaic tile goes from 45 minutes of tedious sorting to a few minutes of casual effort. You can…
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Blue and White China Print Porcelain Tiles
We just added three different types of glazed porcelain tile for use as accents in mixed media mosaic art projects, and the most exciting of these are the blue and white floral china patterns. “Blue and Whites” Porcelain Tiles Blue and White China Print are made to look like pieces cut “Blue and whites” are…
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How To Transfer Mosaic Patterns Quickly By Tracing
This article explains how to use a charcoal pencil (or graphite pencil) to color the back side of a paper pattern and then trace over the pattern firmly to transfer it to a plywood mosaic backer board. I have written a separate article explaining why tracing borrowed images is better than drawing for making patterns for small mosaics -even…
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How To Make Mosaic Patterns Without Drawing
You can and should spend more time “drawing” with tile than drawing with a pencil when most of the details in the mosaic are about the size the smallest piece of tile that can be cut. If the smallest details of your design are larger than multiple tiles, then you should draw a detailed pattern, but most mosaic plaques…
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Choosing Mosaic Colors Based On Contrast
Recently artist Jill Miller emailed me wanting some advice about choosing colors for a mosaic table top she was making, and the design she was a chickadee bird with holly leaves and berries. From her photos and a description of the colors she wanted to use for the border of the round table top, it was…
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Mosaic Pizza Oven
Mosaic Fireplace and Oven Surrounds: The Basics A couple of years ago, I wrote a page explaining how glass, ceramic, and stone tiles can be used for mosaic fireplace surrounds and how the tiles should be mounted with thinset mortar or white PVA (polyvinyl acetate) adhesives such as Weldbond. But we are talking about the SURROUNDS, not…