• Mounting and Grouting Mosaic Garden Sign

    Mounting and Grouting Mosaic Garden Sign

    The backer used for this project was a reinforced mortar stone, and thinset mortar was used to mount the glass mosaic, which was on Mosaic Mounting Tape. This mosaic garden sign is displayed under the QR-code mosaic so that passersby know the purpose of the QR code.

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  • Miniature Mosaic: Mountain Valley Twilight

    Miniature Mosaic: Mountain Valley Twilight

    I continue to work on a series of miniature mosaics mounted on what I call my “mortar stones,” which are irregularly-shaped backers made by spreading thinset mortar on 3 or 4 layers of hardware cloth (steel mesh). My latest in the series is my mosaic Mountain Valley Twilight, which is 9 x 6 x 1/2…

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  • Mosaic Garden Sign

    Mosaic Garden Sign

    The Mosaic QR Code that I made for my garden needs some text with it because most people assume the sign is for some realtor or other commercial service. I decided to make a mosaic sign with the text “About This Garden” that could be displayed with the QR Code Mosaic.

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  • Contrasts: Value Versus Hue

    Contrasts: Value Versus Hue

    Natalija Moss’s latest mosaic is a small work of 12 inches in width, but it demonstrates the power of contrast in value and of contrast in hue.

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  • Mosaic Obelisk Garden Sculpture

    Mosaic Obelisk Garden Sculpture

    Lyn Richards has been making a series of mosaic obelisks for installation as garden sculptures, each with a completely different design. Like her Irises mosaic birdbath, Lyn’s garden obelisks are tightly executed.

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  • Vinegar Cleaning Grout Haze and Pit Stains

    Vinegar Cleaning Grout Haze and Pit Stains

    Glass mosaic tile, particularly vitreous glass tiles have sometimes have a few tiny pits in their surface, and these tiny pits can get stained with grout. Fortunately the pit staining can be prevented by applying a product called grout release before grouting, which is what installers use for large architectural tiling jobs. You can also…

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  • Sizing Your Mosaic

    Sizing Your Mosaic

    Once you have a design you would like to create in mosaic, the next step is to determine how large to make it. The minimum size a mosaic can be is determined by the finest detail to be depicted in the image. I recommend trying to render that one finest detail first to determine if…

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  • Van Gogh’s Cat Mixed-Media Mosaic Sculpture

    Van Gogh’s Cat Mixed-Media Mosaic Sculpture

    Artist Peter Vogelaar has been at it again, and this time he has managed to surprise me. His recent mixed-media mosaic sculpture Van Gogh’s Cat has a plinth that steals the show in my opinion. The plinth on which the cat is standing is a mosaic-covered cylinder that seamlessly combines Van Gogh’s Starry Night and…

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  • Fundamentals of Mosaic Composition

    Fundamentals of Mosaic Composition

    I recently completed a mosaic titled Woodpecker Forest, which shows a pileated woodpecker on the side of a pine tree in a forest carpeted with capensis flowers. I think this composition is a good teaching example because it demonstrates several fundamentals of visual art. There is strong value contrast (light-dark) contrast in both the figure…

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  • Pileated Woodpecker Mosaic

    Pileated Woodpecker Mosaic

    My Pileated Woodpecker mosaic was made by improvising over a pattern. I created the pattern from a photo collage that I made in Photoshop.

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  • Stained Glass Improvised Mosaic

    Stained Glass Improvised Mosaic

    I made a mosaic of a pileated woodpecker by improvising over a pattern. Below is a video of the process of laying up the mosaic on a temporary surface of sticky contact paper.

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  • Classic Tattoo Design Mosaics

    Classic Tattoo Design Mosaics

    Artist Sheldon Stehman‘s tattoo-inspired work demonstrates the vitality of the mosaic medium and how surprisingly well it accommodates contemporary pop-culture designs and themes. Sheldon uses classic tattoo designs as models for his mosaic interpretations. I think that was an inspired decision.

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