Mosaic Art From the Perspective of a Beginner

I think I should first start out by saying that I do several types of crafts and artwork before I go onto the subject of my adventures in mosaic art.  So, with that said, I will endeavor to share with you the things I've learned from working with glass.  A couple of years ago, my husband and I used to sit on the patio in the cool springtime hours early in the mornings.  We don't do that so much anymore, but I still had the medium density fiberboard which we had cut into two octogens and primed with Gesso and an acrylic paint to completely seal the boards.  Well, times have changed and so I have I.  I decided that the two octogens would be used as bedside tables in our guest room to house the two lamps my mother is giving to us.  Ok, we needed to finish our project. 

So, here we go.  I would first say that if you are going to attempt any kind of mosaic for outdoor usage, use exterior plywood.   You don't have to prime it as we did with the mdf board either.  It's ready to go.  Get your tiles cut from colored glass either from a craft store, or use your own old dishware or glass from the second-hand resale store. If you are using glass that is concave or convex, you will need to break it up inside of an old towel so the glass or pottery will not chip up into your eyes when you hit it with a hammer.  Always use protective goggles to shield your eyes, this is very important when cutting or breaking up glass and pottery. I prefer the glass from the craft store as it's all the same thickness and it's perfect to keep the surface flat to accomodate items such as lamps or other items. 

The craft store has the tools necessary to cut the glass into small pieces so you can work with them to make your arrangement.  A scorer is the first tool you need to score the glass before using  the clamp-like pliars.  My pliars have a raised center point so that when you apply pressure to the score-line the glass will pop and you will have a strip of glass.  Next, I take the strip of glass and use my glass nippers that look like two little wheels set on a pair of pliars.  I found this tool to be most useful in cutting small tiles and creating shapes.  You can nip around the glass pieces to form the shape you desire, in my case I wanted the glass to resemble spires.  I kept my glass of the same color all together and took the small tiles and dropped them into a bowl of alchol to remove the oil the glass scoring tool left on the glass.  If you don't remove this oil, the glass may not stick when applying the glue to the back of it.  This is very important in the process. 

Once I had all of my tiles cut, I placed them into a plastic resealable bag for easy access.  I prepared my project as I said before.  I painted where the tiles and the grout was not to be placed before I applied the glass to the wood.  I used Aleene's tacky glue to place the pieces onto the wood.  After allowing the glue to dry, usually about a day which is more than enough time, I applied the grout. 

The grout we used was different on my two projects.  The first one for the table top was in a gray tone.  We thought it would be good for the look of stained glass.  The second project the cross,  we used a white grout.  The color is up to you to determine.  If you want a lighter look go with a tan color or white as we did.  I should tell you this as it's very important.  When using glass tiles always use UNSANDED grout as the sanded grout will scratch your glass.  I mixed it with my electric drill with a paint stirer in the bit lock.  You will want your grout to be the consistency of peanut butter or cookie dough, smooth, but not to runny.  I applied the grout with a small flat plastic tool I found in the paint department at the local home improvement center.  It was cheap, about .98 as I recall.  It works well when you place the grout onto it and push it into the spaces around the tiles.  Continue to work the grout until you have all of the tiles surrounded with the grout.  I waited about five or ten minutes before I took some clean water in a bucket along with a soft sponge and began to smooth the grout and pull it so the grout was smooth along the edges but solid against the tiles.  You will see a film begin to form on the top of your project, but not to worry, you can remove it later easily enough with a damp cloth or paper towel, even a clean sponge.   I should add that I added the sawtooth hanger onto the backing of the two crosses before I grouted the pieces.  I was concerned that the hammering on the backs would knock out the grout and ruin the piece altogether.  I also learned that placing the glass too close to the edge of the project makes it harder to get the grout evenly distributed around the edge.  I won't do that again, I learned something! 

So, whatever you decide to work on, whether it's for indoors our outdoors, I hope my experience will help you if you are a beginner in this craft as well.  I hope I've inspired you to go looking for the material you want to use in your project!   I will try and answer any questions if you have any!