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I am new here. ;) What an amazing site!! You are all so creative and inspiring. I'm also fairly new to mosaics. I've done a few projects here and there but this is by far the most time consuming one i've done. I regrouted it 2 times. I didn't like the white grout first because it didn't make the design pop like I wanted. So then I tried grey grout and it looked fabulous. After visiting this site I saw something about rub n buff...which i'll have to try in the future. That may have saved me hours of removing the white grout and replacing with grey grout.
I do have a few questions though...do you sand the edges of the dishes after you break them so they aren't so sharp? My friend does mosaics and made me a beautiful bird house but it's very sharp. I didn't want my table to be that way so I took my dremel with the stone grinding bit and made the edges smooth. That took a while but I was pleased with the results.
Also, I tried sealing the table with a craft mosaic sealer. That did not work well. After drying it just peeled off the tiles and looked horrible. Is there a particular sealer that any of you have found to work better?
Hi kimmage, i grind all my dish pieces for my mosaics,this is what i use small grinder.i also add pva glue to my grout for all my mirrors and tables,but averyone is different for what works for them.heres a pic of my grinder.carol.
kimmage...I'm not a expert, but from reading all the links and threads on mosaics from all the great people's on DG that does these fabulous mosaics, many of them just use regular sanded grout , for wide grout lines and outside projects,and grout sealer. (on the grout box they usually recommend a grout sealer, there brand of course.) On your grout color... did you know that you can color grout with acrylic paint ?? !!! its works great!!! you can either mix some acrylic paint with water and mix your grout , or just paint it after your grout cures. I have tried those grout colorizers from Michaels but I don't like them. Remember to color your grout before you put the grout sealer on...hope this helps.
Sue
Very cute. I seal mine with tilelab sealer that I get from home depot.
I havent begun to use plates yet but I know some that smooth there pieces by using a barrel style rock tumbler that you can get fairly cheap from harbor freight. But you dont want to use it for pieces that have gold painted on them it tumbles the gold right off!!!
Some of you have the best tools! I'm like Tim the Toolman Taylor and figure that she who dies with the most tools wins!!
I have found that when working with tile, an inexpensive fine wood file will take those sharp edges off in no time. Also, for any of you doing stained glass, a carborundum stone works great on tile and it can be used wet or dry.
Hi, We all have second and sometimes third thoughts on grout colors! It's still a hard decision for me. You did well changing the color, white is hard to get right, it fractures your piece so much, and is not usually the right choice. As for the tile sealer, you NEED to seal the grout, use a good penetrating grout sealer, lettiing it soak into the grout and wiping off your glass BEFOR it dries! Oh, we learn from our mistakes! I have several of my early projects that have "peeled" off coatings from sprays I thought would make my piece shinnier! And also, heres a bad one, Sometimes the coatings turn an ugly YELLOW! Yuck, so be very careful about what you use on top of your mosaics, I learned the hard way that the glass is pretty enough without spraying anything on it, But DO seal that grout! I love your first piece there, called Pique Assiette, its very sweet I think, Keep mosaicing, I just know you'll make a lot of beautiful things!!!! Louella
