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Mosaic Gazing Spheres
Mosaic gazing spheres are popular outdoor mosaic projects, and they offer a few simple advantages over mosaic-covered concrete lawn ornaments: They are lighter in weight and can be relocated more easily. Also, the mosaic gazing sphere can be adjusted in height easily by changing the height of the display stand used to support them. These…
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Thinset On Plywood Mosaic Backer?
Thinset mortar can be used on a plywood mosaic backer provided the plywood has been sealed with a white PVA adhesive such as Weldbond. Otherwise, the plywood can suck the moisture out of the thinset before it has a chance to harden leaving it soft and crumbly. It is important to seal the plywood at…
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Broken Ceramic Tile Mosaics
People often email me asking where to get 4-inch glazed ceramic tile in a range of colors to break up with a hammer for making a mosaic. The simple answer is nowhere. Colorful bathroom tile has gone the way of the dodo, at least for now. (I explain why in the last section of this…
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How To Choose A Mosaic Background Color
The background in a work of mosaic art serves two purposes: contrast the colors of the figures in the foreground. suggest motion by arranging the tile in contours around figures. The first point is obvious, but the second is often overlooked even though it can make the difference between a great mosaic and a mediocre…
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Assessing Glass Mosaic Tile Health and Safety Concerns
Recently a customer emailed me asking if there was an ASTM-D4236 certification for one of our glass mosaic tile lines. ASTM-D4236 is the labeling and precautionary standards for chronic health hazards in art materials. There isn’t an ASTM-D4236 certification for any of our products to my knowledge. They are manufactured as building materials and not…
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Outdoor Mosaic Signs
In the last section of one of my previous posts, Custom Shapes For Mosaic Backers, I showed some pictures and instructions for how I used 3/4-inch expanded steel to make a backer for an outdoor mosaic. The expanded metal was welded together in 3 plies, some mounting bolts were welded to this, and then the…
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How To Select A Jigsaw For Making Mosaic Backers
Tools Are Cheaper Than Craft Supplies I have often made the claim that a person could buy a sheet of cabinet-grade plywood and a jigsaw for less than what the craft suppliers charge for shaped mosaic backers such as hearts and stars and things like that. While this might be an exaggeration for an individual…
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Long-Term Art-Studio Experiments and the Pace of Mosaic Composition
Don’t Rush The Design Process It is easier for me to explain what I mean about pace and long term experiments if I discuss my painting instead of my mosaic artwork. Compared to most mediums of visual art, mosaic isn’t typically executed in a rush because the amount of work usually requires multiple sessions in…
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Advanced Tips For Selecting A Grout Color
The primary reason for grouting tiled surfaces is to prevent water from penetrating behind the tile and weakening the adhesive or the backer and the structure beneath the backer. In mosaic artwork, the grout also has a visual function, and that is to contrast (not match) the tile colors. If the grout color does not…
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How To Make Custom Shapes For Mosaic Backers
Rectangular backers are fine for most mosaic designs, but sometimes you want to make an irregularly-shaped mosaic or a mosaic with a custom shape, such as the silhouette of a common object: tree, automobile, flower, turtle, etc. How you make such a backer and what materials you use depends on whether or not the mosaic…
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How To Estimate Mosaic Colors Using Photoshop Elements
Irregular Shapes It’s easy to estimate the total area of a rectangular or circular mosaic using our tile estimator, but it can be much more difficult if the shape of the mosaic is irregular. In fact, most of the individual color fields in a mosaic are arranged in irregular shapes, unless you are doing an…
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The Importance of Small Experiments in Art
In my previous post about how to use found objects in mosaic art, I made the claim that small experiments done before you start a large project do not require any extra time because of the time they save on the project itself. I wish I could emphasize how true this is. Here is how…