MOSAIC TIPS & GENERAL INFORMATION

This guide covers the basics of creating a mosaic - some of the tips are a matter of personal preference.

Substrates:

wood, terra cotta, polystyrene, silver trays, hardibacker board, pots, glass, almost anything can be your mosaic base. Always seal your substrate before you adhere tesserae using BIN or Kilz primer sealer.

Adhesives:

Weldbond: dries clear in about 1 hour. Weldbond should only be for indoor mosaics.

GE II clear silicone is a good adhesive for indoors/outdoors.

Liquid Nails: dries clear – may be used indoors/outdoors.

Thin-set: use for inside or outside mosaics. It works well for mosaic tesserae that have different thicknesses and curves because you "butter" the back of the tile so they are all the same level when you place them on your substrate. When using mixed thin-set, place in a plastic ziplock bag, snip a small opening in the corner of the bag - pipe it out, or you can use it mixed in a cup and a popsicle stick to apply it to the tesserae. Store thin-set bag in a large plastic bucket. If you leave it in its sack on your garage floor it can absorb moisture and harden.

Tesserae placement:

The closer the better when you glue your tiles/china on your base - about 1/8 of an inch – your grout will have less chance of cracking. (Tesserae: broken china, glass gems, stained glass, beads, stones, shells etcetera).

Embellishments:

If you are using plastic faux pearls, porcelain or plastic roses, etcetera – you may want to pre-seal the embellishments first. Before you grout mask off the accents with blu-tak or a Weldbond mask – brush it on and after your mosaic has been grouted and cured you can peel off the mask. Weldbond mask works well.

Grout:

Make grout about thick oatmeal consistency and add a little watered down Weldbond to it - let it sit for about 10 minutes. On average 1 lb of grout should cover 2 square feet of 1/2" tiles spaced 1/8" apart. I always use sanded grout – I like the look of it better than unsanded grout. Wipe off the grout with a paper towel or barely moist sponge after about 15 minutes - check back on your project as it hardens and wipe off the excess grout again. You can color your grout with acrylic paint or some home improvement stores carry grout colorants. Wait a couple of weeks before you seal your finished mosaic (for the grout to be cured).

Seal finished mosaic:

Generally should wait about 2 weeks for the grout to completely cure: For indoors brush on (use foam brush) watered down Weldbond or Tile Lab Penetrating Grout Sealer - you can get at Home Depot.

Sealing Outside mosaics:

Tile Lab Penetrating Grout Sealer.

Tile calculator:

mosaicmercantile.com has a tile calculator - helps you estimate the number of tiles needed to cover a specified area.