I have a sketch. I have 45 days. Time to get the parts to make this thing. The Romans would have used stone pushed into mortar to make their mosaics. I have to make this portable, lift-able and affordable, so I'm going to use cut tiles with a matte finish for my tesserae. I grabbed my mother-in-law (who is a mosaic enthusiast and very encouraging of this project, even if she thinks my scale is unreasonably large) and we headed over to her favorite tile store to see what is available.
She prefers to use Daltiles because they have color all the way through, not just on the top, and the tiles have flat bottoms. Apparently, I will see why this is important later. Unfortunately for me, the local Daltile store does not sell to the general public and while they give us a sample sheet, I left the store with a growing sense of panic. How am I going to do this thing if I can't find tiles in colors I can use? My color needs for this project are pretty specific (and not particularly fashionable right now) and some of the colors I want to use are made to order only. This, the sales woman tells me, takes 4 to 6 weeks and, as she reminds us 3 or 4 times, they Only Sell To Contractors.
 |
| Daltile Keystone sample card |
On the way home, we were passing by a Home Depot and Gail (my mother in law) suggested we stop just to see what they had. More bad news - their usable tiles in matte sheen are mostly just white and grey. There were some additional colors in glossy finishes and a lot of colors that I can't use for this project. Discouraged, I did pick up some of the white tiles, and the 3/4 inch plywood I'll need for the base. Important tip for when you do your mosaic - really really look at the pieces of plywood and find one that is straight. Wavy boards mean wavy mosaics. Wavy mosaics mean tiles may have a greater chance to pop off. We had to go through many pieces to get one that wasn't wavy or full of knots, which cause other issues with tiles not being level and with tile adhesion to the board. You may have better luck with this at a locally owned lumber yard. We had quite a mess in the aisle as we examined each piece of plywood to find the perfect one.
Back in the car, Gail said the hardest part of mosaics is gathering the materials but that I was welcome to root through her stash and take whatever I can use. I had already begun to think about what else I could do in place of a mosaic, when the project was saved! She had all the colors I could ever dream of using and then some! I grabbed her tools, her preferred adhesive and three-trips-from-the-basement-worth of her precious tile horde and headed for my workbench.
 |
| Part of the tile horde generously shared from the lair of my Mother-In-Law Gail. |
Transferring my design to the board took some time. It's not like paper where you can just stick it on the light table and trace. The trick of coating the back with graphite and tracing on top of the design didn't work so well either. I ended up getting a few reference points in place and then using the compass and ruler to redraw most of it. Fortunately, geometric designs are pretty easy to reproduce and it was faster the second time. The portrait in the middle was a little harder, but I got enough of it in place that I had a good foundation to work from.
 |
| Spacing the letters is tricky. I hope I drew them big enough. |
I was concerned for some of the areas where there would be more delicate lines - the letters, the circles and the border around the portrait. I decided to go over these with black sharpie, both to make them easy to see as I worked and to be sure I left enough space to accommodate the thickness of the tiles. I don't know how small I'll be able to cut tiles and still have them be usable.
 |
| Well, I drag my fist through paint on a regular scroll, why not do the equivalent on a mosaic? |
 |
| Design is transferred! |
No comments:
Post a Comment