Mosaics

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

Has anyone here ever tried this type of Art/Craft?

Ricardo · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 826 Location: Blue Mountains

Hi Jane
I have created a few mosaics, I use tiles, ceramic, glass, stones, mirror etc in the patterns. They are mainly for table tops and walls in gardens or around a pond.

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

Hi Ricardo & Kate

How did they turn out? Were they hard? Is it expensive?
I've been thinking about giving it a try for a while.

Cheers

Jane

Ricardo · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 826 Location: Blue Mountains

Hi Jane
Here's a post I missed for a while, sorry.
Mosaics are not hard to do, just draw your idea into your sketch or just go completely free and do pattern that are creared as you go.
The materials can be as expensive as you want, I get all the tiles, old plates, marbles, stones etc for free from either the tip, roadside pickup days, friends, garage sale, etc. The glue I use is a water proof tile glue, that can cost a bit, but it is better to buy a 20 litre rather than a small 500ml can. You need grout, premade or cement, sand, bon-create mix. Then a surface to put it on, start with a 60cm X 60 cm sealed plywood or fibre cement board or even cement stepping stones, till you get used to it. I just break the tiles etc with a mallet, place the tiles in an old towel for safety. You might need a pair of nippers to cut odd ones to fit too.
Yes they work out great and last years.

good luck let me know how you go

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

Thanks Ricardo, I miss posts to sometimes Laughing

I have the tile cutters, and an old coffee table with a tile top, I want to do it up, and you have help me will a lot of information.

Thanks again

Brad73 · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 2206 Location: Tamworth

Hi guys,
I have tried a little of this, but i found i got a really neat (cool) effect just smashing the tiles up. I used some smashed mirrors into it as well. Don't worry, I didn't break the mirror, so I won't have any bad luck. I got my brother to break it..... Very Happy

_________________
B73
A funny thing happened to me on the way over here tonight............

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

your poor brother Laughing

I've seen some mosaics with mirrors in them, and they look really good. I think I will add some to the coffee table when I get a chance to do it up

sunday · Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 3995 Location: Victoria

Hi Jane,
I gave this a try a few years ago - it was fun Smile

I made my own stepping stone to go near the garden tap. You need a mould to pour the concrete in - I used a reasonably strong cardboard box from memory, poured the concrete in about 7cm deep and then laid out the mosaics in a pattern of sorts. I used broken crockery and tiles that I picked up at a tile shop (their reject box). After it sets you simply peel away the box from underneath. Easy Exclamation

Have fun

julie71 · Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 390 Location: Brisbane

Hi Jane,
One tip if your the type to plan your design, you can lay out all the pieces in the design you want and place a sheet of clear contact over the design and lift it onto the glued surface, once the glue is set you pull the contact off and grout it! This is best for smaller pieces, but it works well if your doing one for someone else and you want to show them the design before it's 'fixed'. I've done this with stone tiles for a couple of house floor features and it works well. Another technique is to hot glue the pieces onto flyscreen and lift the piece into place, glue entire piece, then grout when finished.
Good luck,
P.S. always wear gloves, the glue and grout particularly will burn your skin.
Julie

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

I like the contact idea Julie, I'll have to tell that one to my mother, she was doing Masaics for a while

Stepping stone sound good to Sunday, but how does it go when it's wet? Wouldn't they be a bit slippery?

sunday · Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Posts: 3995 Location: Victoria

Hi Jane,
I haven't actually found it to be slippery but then it is just one stepping stone and it is in the garden near the tap so not a walkway. I guess if you were making stepping stones for a walkway you would be better to use broken bits of floor tiles that are made for wet areas. Smile

Ricardo · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 826 Location: Blue Mountains

d00mg1rl · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 474 Location: Tamworth

sound nasty Ricardo, I'll have to remember that one Shocked

mshapiro · Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 6 Location: other

Ooh - don't know where to start on this one, so a few random points.

There are many other ways of doing a mosaic than using smashed tile and plates etc, though this particular technique has it's place and IMHO is hard to do well. It's called pique assiette btw.

There is a huge range of materials and techniques; eg glass, china, marble, pebbles, smalti, vitreous glass tile, shell, tempered glass, glass gems and lots more. Some materials and techniques are better suited for some situations than others. There is also a huge range of substrates - the base the mosaic is mounted on - some are suitable for outdoors, others such as wood, however well sealed, are not.

Stepping stones can indeed be slippery and for outside one should use only materials that are rated for outside, and if you are doing something horizontal, then use only materials that are rated for horizontal use. eg, not wall tiles. There is an argument that if your pieces are small, say 1 cm sq approx, then the fact that they are broken up by the grout lines counteracts the slip factor.

There is a technique called the indirect or reverse method which allows you to get a flat surface for stepping stones, tables, etc, even though your individual pieces may be of different depth.

Oh and I wouldn't use flyscreen personally for a couple of reasons. One is that it has very small holes and may well form a barrier between the adhesive and the tile. Second, if you use the metal sort, it could rust and affect the stability of your piece. You can get fibreglass mesh especially designed for this method of mosaic making.

Hope that helps

kitkat · Joined: 13 Mar 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Victoria

Hi Folks
I am new to this site and want to pick your brains.

For the past few years I have been saving several bins of broken ceramics from my kiln firings...with the intention of making a mosaic garden seat...... from strawbale...rendered with concrete and then mosaiced.Is this feasible if some of the ceramic pieces are curved ( like from bowls and cups)?
thanks for sharing
Kitkat