A MOSAIC PROJECT

I have had readers ask me about my process of making a mosaic project.  So I finally manged to take pictures of a piece while I was making it.

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive ceramic and terracotta pots to mosaic.  Plastic doesn't work because the glue and tiles don't adhere well enough to withstand expansion and contraction and the seal isn't tight enough to withstand moisture.  This is my experience.  Other, more educated mosaic people may have found a way...

for this project I used a ceramic pot I found on sale at the end of the summer season.  I didn't need to seal it because it was glazed.  For terracotta pots, I brush on a concrete sealer to help reduce moisture transmission through the clay. This is also a free form sort of design.  If I am doing a pattern, I will draw it on the pot before I start to add tile.

I buy my tile from lots of places.  The tile on this project was from a tile outlet that has since closed.  I get it at hardware stores, online sites and sometimes pre-cut from e-Bay.  For this whole tile, I am using my smack with a hammer technique!

 I lay the tile on a piece of cloth, cover the top and smack it with my hammer.  (Lay the tile face down and the hammer will not damage the finished front of the tile.)

I use a lot of my used jars to store tile and cleaned styrofoam meat trays to hold the tiles which I am working with them.  As you can also see, I use old tee shirts, dish towels, sponges and all kinds of stuff from around the house.  The one thing I didn't manage to get a picture of is my nipper tool.  I use that to cut the pieces I am using down to the size or shape that I need.

The red pieces I used were a pre-cut purchase.

My favorite glue is Weldbond.  I buy it online in the big jug and then refill the smaller bottles for ease of use.

Because you want a great seal between the tile and the thing you are applying it to, there needs to be adhesive on the pot and on the tile.  Another thing to keep in mind as the tiles are added to the piece is the fit.  It is fun to piece them together but you also need to make the pieces as flat to the surface as possible.  I am not so great at this, as you'll see in the finished piece, my tiles tend to poke up and the surface is uneven.  I am ok with it - but it really is not the ideal.

You also want to leave space between the tiles for the grout.  Some mosaic makers leave lots of space and have wide grout lines, I tend to like the pieces to be closer together.

When the tile has covered the surface, let it stand for a day to dry.  Then tape off the areas which you don't want to grout.  I have taped off the bottom pf the pot, but I want to get a good seal around the edge where the tile meets the pot at the bottom and top to help prevent moisture from getting up underneath.

I use grout from the hardware store.  It comes in white, beige, black, and gray.  I also use an acrylic admix to wet the grout.  it makes it stronger and more flexible that using plain water. The grout should have enough liquid to make it spreadable but not drippy. 

Oh, and use gloves for this, the grout is really tough on your hands!  Some people spread the grout using a tool, I am more hands on and scoop the grout onto the piece and then smoosh it down into the cracks.

After the entire surface is covered and all the cracks are filled in, the surface can be lightly wiped down.  After about 10 minutes, use a wet sponge to wipe the surface again, but not so much that it pulls the wet grout out from the cracks. 

I use a dish tub with several inches of water in it for this process.  You should not wash the grout down the drain in your house because it will dry and clog things up!  By using the dish tub of water, I can wash the gloves off, and used the sponge to wipe the pot down without using the sink.  After the grout has settled to the bottom of the tub, I can pour off the water and then wipe out the solids of the grout which remain and toss that in the trash.

After several hours you can wipe the surface again, What you are doing is taking the grout off the surface of the tiles, but leaving the cracks completely filled.  The next day the tape can be removed and all the surfaces wiped and smoothed.  I use a spray bottle of vinegar water to help loosen up any grout from the surfaces of the tiles and a rough cloth and a popsicle stick to scrape tough spots.

The last step is to seal the grout.  I use a spray on sealer from the hardware store. Let it sit for a day and then fill your pot!

ALMOST WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

My latest mosaic project.  I made it for a co-worker who just had her house painted brown and cream.  She told me she also likes teal and I happened to have just enough teal tile to go around the rim of this pot.

SUMMER PROJECTS WITH NANCY

My sister Nancy has been coming over to work on her first mosaic project.  She's been very ambitious and is working on two projects at once - a small birdhouse and covering a large concrete globe that is part of a fountain in her backyard.

Working on a large round object is very time consuming because you can only do a bit at a time and then you have to wait for it to dry before you can shift it to work on another part because the tiles slip and slide around.  So she has been coming over for a few hours here and there for a few weeks - which is fun for me to spend time with her!  I have to be more careful though - today I hit my thumb with a hammer because I was yakking and not paying attention - ouch.

Now she has gotten the mosaic bug and has been spending lots of money on tile and stuff - so my brother in law may not be too happy with me.  Oh, well.    Good for the economy, right?

I have been busy finishing a few projects and starting a new big pot.  I finished a new birdbath for my yard because I gave the first one I made to my sister Polly.  I finished the pot I made to match the umbrella, and planted it with geraniums.

I am happy that I have been spending more time away from the computer, up in my mosaic area and enjoying the summer months.  I was so stressed out last year about my joblessness that the summer went by without much enjoyment.  This year I will have lots of nice projects to show for it and will have spent some quality time with my sister.

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER

It has been an uneventful weekend. A bit lazy in fact. I have drifted from a bit of gardening in the cooler part of the day to a little housekeeping. Some reading of my new book club selection "The Irresistible Henry House" which is pretty irresistible.

I have almost finished a new mosaic pot which is an homage to the new stripy umbrella for my mosaic area. In fact I sat right there, under the umbrella to read my book, iced tea at my side for an hour or so yesterday. Anyway, you can't see it well in this picture, but there is a purple stripe and a creamy yellow and the green in the umbrella isn't quite as foresty as the one I am using on the pot, but that's what make it an "homage" I suppose! I will grout it black and plant it later in the week.

Ally spent the weekend in Tahoe with friends and Tom has been either riding or working on his bikes. I had to go rescue him this morning when he had a break down while riding many miles from home, he wasn't hurt, unlike some of the riders on the Tour de France which we have been watching a bit.

I finally watched "It's Complicated" last night. I am probably the last woman in my age group to see it - it was fun, but so much of it had been revealed in the previews and promotional clips that very little was a surprise. That is the problem with waiting so long to see things. I promised Ally that I would save "Nine" to watch with her when she gets home. Which should be about 3 hours from now...

Hope the long weekend was as restful or activity filled as you wished!

MAKING MOSAICS

I finally got busy making some mosaics this week. I started on a little birdbath last Sunday but quickly ran out of the tile I decided to use and had to wait until a new order arrived. I was indecisive until I actually started working on it how I was going to go about the design and then decided to go dark to light with the dichroic glass in the center. This is the first time I have used the opalescent tiles, but I think they will look pretty under water.

I am making a very large pot for our bougainvillea plant which I am happy made it through the winter. I am going to do the entire bottom of the pot in the same tile because it has so much variation in it just as it is, then do a contrasting tile around the rim. I just could not decide what I wanted to do - so I started it and then I'll decide when it is all done.

I guess that I was just not in the frame of mind to make decisions when I got these projects started!

I am having fun with the pot, though. It is the first project in a while that I am making with broken tile. Which means I get to smash the tile with a hammer to break it into pieces. It is one of the reasons I got into making mosaics in the first place. It just sounded like something I could do. I mean, break something and glue it together = art. Works for me!

Oh, And the pot that was blown off my bench and smashed? I am using it as "mulch."

NOW IT''S PERSONAL

This year California is experiencing an El Nino weather pattern. This means the ocean water in the southern part of the state is warmer which causes the jet stream to drop south from it's usual haunts up around Oregon and Washington state, down to the San Francisco Bay Area. So we have been having a very cool and rainy spring. By late May were are normally well into the high 70 - low 80 degree days; wearing our flip flops and capris and enjoying our patio time before the heat of the summer days sets in.

Instead, we are having rain, rain, wind, clouds and 60 degree temperatures. I dispare for having any tomatoes this year but I know we need the rain because we have had several seasons of drought. But today - the weather made it personal, and I am really unhappy.

I have my mosaic craft area set up on a outdoor deck. During a short period of milder weather, I untarped part of the work bench so I could grout a pot I finished at the end of the fall. I wanted to plant it because I had already bought the special kind of lavender I like and that's what I wanted to plant in the pot.

So the pot was grouted and sealed and I was just giving it a few days to cure before planting it. The wind must have whipped up the tarp and knocked it off the bench -

To get all those half marbles to set in place on the rounded pot took so much time. It is hard to see in the photo (because it is so darned cloudy) but the marbles are all iridescent and the glass tile is purple with metallic streaks, so it is a very fanciful look, different from anything I have made before.

So, it's feeling very personal, this El Nino.

NEW MOSAIC PROJECTS

Even though I work from home most days, it so nice to have a long weekend. I got caught up on so many projects and got almost done with this new mosaic project I have been working on for weeks.


I have never used the half marbles on a pot, and the challenge is significant with the curves, so I could only work a little at a time and had to let things set before I could shift the angle. I am also using some small iridized glass pieces I have and then filling with some glittery purple tiles, I wanted to make something very different than I have before - something with a bit of fantasy.




I hope the effect holds up when it is grouted.



I also grouted my new birdhouse and should be able to hang it tomorrow. I had these little red birds which I attached. It's pretty cute - and I don't usually do cute!