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Mosaics – Crafting and Installing Mosaics

You will find that there are various ways to use ceramic and ceramic like tiles to decorate your home. From the floors, the walls, and the ceilings, mosaic patterns made from ceramics and glass bits are one of the most fabulous additions that you can make to any room in the house. While we are going to discuss some of the great ways that you can use mosaics in your own home, you will often need to remember that you can decorate walkways, siding, plant containers and so much more outdoors as well to brighten any area of your home that you want to add that special touch too. 

Because mosaics are made from tiny pieces of tile, ceramics, glass and other types of stone, you can usually find a number of ‘extras’ in home centers everywhere. Such items that are in the clearance section because there are only a few of them, or they are in the clearance or sale section because they are broken. This is where you are going to find some of your most inexpensive pieces that you can put together with other pieces that you have been collecting to finish whatever your project is. 

Mosaics do take a little time to build because you are working with such small pieces, and because you are working with pieces that you need to work to fit together. You can take your tiles and smash them, or you can carefully cut them, cut either way, you are very rarely going to end up with two pieces that are the exact same measurements and fit unless you are purchasing small, tiny tiles that are designed for this. The only difference is that when you purchase the small tiny tiles that are all the same size, you are going to pay more money for them. Think of it like this, when you smash a ceramic tile and you are left with eight pieces, and you do the same thing to another color tile, you have sixteen pieces to put together but to form a new picture, a more colorful area, or a design that captures the eye. 

Before undertaking a large project like you kitchen floor, or a walkway in front of the house, we do suggest that you try a small project, like a small area on a box that you want to decorate, or make a garden stone, or you can use a small area of a wall in a room that need a unique look. Starting on a small project, you will understand fully how much time and patience you will need to complete a larger project. 

No matter what type or size of project you are going to start out with, you should draw your design on a sheet of paper that is the same size as your project. If you are doing a floor, using several sheets of paper or poster board will keep your ideas together while you are working on the larger project. 

Your design of a heart, a balloon, a face, or a mixture of colors will be laid out on this paper. As you, smash your tiles or glass you fill in the areas that need this particular color, and then when you are finished, your overall design will be more noticeable. 

When you want to smash your tiles, you can place a cloth on the bottom, put your tile in, and put a cloth on top, then tap with a hammer a few times to create multiple pieces, different sizes and shapes. If you want you can use a pair of needle nose pliers or a pair of nippers to snip off pieces of the tile as you want to use them, working your way through larger or bottom pieces as you go. If you are working with small pieces of tile, you may want a pair of tweezers, a pair of rubber gloves or a few pieces of large fabric to help you keep track of all your tile, glass or ceramic, and so you can handle these pieces at the same time. 

Most often you are going to use ceramic glue, ceramic adhesive or similar heavy duty glue to keep all of the tile stuck to the flooring that you are putting the mosaic onto. After you have finished the box, the floor, the wall, the ceiling or whatever you are working to put your design on, you are going to want to seal the mosaic pattern with a clear coat of ceramic sealer. While this may be one of your more expensive things in this project, you are going to seal in the color, locking down the mosaic pieces, and you are going to seal out dirt at the same time. 

One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to do the entire floor. You can do a little pattern in front of your sink, in front of the door or just in the middle of the floor, and the remainder of the floor can be ceramic tile or a similar type thickness of flooring so that your mosaic doesn’t ‘stick out’ as you walk across the floor. Mosaics can be set in tile, in wood or in concrete; it all depends on your imagination!