My article about making patterns for irregularly-shaped mosaics shows other work-in-progress steps for the same mosaic I show here in this post. The mosaic is named for its subject, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. It’s about 6 x 7 x 1/2 inches in size. In this article, I show the creation of the temporary surface and mounting the mosaic to the backer. Temporary Surfaces Temporary surfaces such as a piece of sticky contact paper allow you to quickly lay out the design and easily make changes at any point, including after you get it all laid out and can see ways to fix critical errors and ..read more

What does a skeleton’s rib teach us about how to make mosaic more easily? It teaches us only one lesson, but that lesson is probably the biggest tip I have for how to make mosaics more easily and with less tedium and frustration. The Importance of Fun Projects Recently I have been making mosaics based on photo collages as models, and that level of “realism” means a lot careful attention to detail and a lot less latitude. A detail is either right and looks somewhat like the model(s) or it is wrong and looks less real. While I enjoyed these projects, they weren’t what most people mean when they ..read more

My recent mosaic Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Buttefly was mounted on an irregularly-shaped backer. This article summarizes how to use Adobe Photoshop to size and crop the pattern so that it matches the shape of the backer. Previous articles explain how to make a mosaic pattern from any photo using Photoshop’s find-edges filter and how to make a tough “mortar stone” mosaic backer from hardware cloth (steel mesh) and Versabond brand thinset mortar. Size and Shape This procedure makes a template from an outline traced around the backer. By scanning in the tracing of the backer, you can capture the ..read more

As artists, we are often hypercritical of our own work and can only see the flaws in our art. Often times these “flaws” are details not even noticed by the viewer, and when the are noticed, they aren’t even perceived as flaws. However, sometimes we really do screw up a detail in an otherwise perfect composition, and that is really demoralizing. As artists we feel that we are only as good as our latest work, and all previous accomplishments are irrelevant, and so this one failure takes on a psychological weight that is all out of proportion. That’s why it’s important to know how to rework defe ..read more

My most recent mosaic Blue Jay is 10 x 10 inches and made from our American-made stained glass on a mortar stone. This mosaic was made by improvising over a pattern. Improvising Notice how the sunflowers in the background do not remotely follow the lines of the pattern. Instead, I improvised loosely based on the general idea suggested by the pattern. I made the flowers larger and placed them for best impact. blue-jay-mosaic-v5-pattern-1200 Now that might seem an obvious way of making a background, but what isn’t is obvious is that the same method of ignoring or improving the model was also ne ..read more

Artist Donna Stern has made some small mosaic sculptures that demonstrate the range of possibilities the medium has beyond murals and coverings for larger surfaces. Some of Donna’s recent mosaics are utilitarian (switch covers) while others are strictly decorative (mixed-media fish sculptures), but they are all small and very well done. Of course, it’s easier to work on larger rather than smaller mosaics if your design has a lot of detail, but there are many reasons to consider a series of small mosaics compared to one large mosaic. Reasons to Go Small Multiple Chances Who doesn’t want more t ..read more

The backer used for this project was a reinforced mortar stone, and thinset mortar was used to mount the glass mosaic, which was on Mosaic Mounting Tape. This mosaic garden sign is displayed under the QR-code mosaic so that passersby know the purpose of the QR code. Mounting Process Like the QR-code mosaic, the mosaic garden sign is a gridded gapless mosaic, and so the mounting process was the same as shown in the video for the QR-code mounting. Mortar is spread on the backer, which is then lowered onto the mosaic, which is face-down on mosaic mounting tape. Clarification: a thick bed of mort ..read more

I continue to work on a series of miniature mosaics mounted on what I call my “mortar stones,” which are irregularly-shaped backers made by spreading thinset mortar on 3 or 4 layers of hardware cloth (steel mesh). My latest in the series is my mosaic Mountain Valley Twilight, which is 9 x 6 x 1/2 inches and made from our American-made stained glass and black non-sanded grout. Indirect Method Here is the photo of the mosaic after the tile was laid out over a pattern and picked up with Mosaic Mounting Tape. mountain-valley-twilight-mosaic-in-progress There was clear contact paper taped over the ..read more

The Mosaic QR Code that I made for my garden needs some text with it because most people assume the sign is for some realtor or other commercial service. I decided to make a mosaic sign with the text “About This Garden” that could be displayed with the QR Code Mosaic. Mosaic Letters I made the letters quickly using Morjo brand Outliners Mosaic Sticks. garden-mosaic-sign-workstation I drew the lettering on paper free hand and taped clear contact paper over the pattern with the sticky side up to make a temporary mosaic surface. On this temporary surface, I laid out my design using a process of ..read more

Natalija Moss’s latest mosaic is a small work of 12 inches in width, but it demonstrates the power of contrast in value and of contrast in hue. Hue Contrast Notice how the few pieces of red and orange leap out from the cool green and blue hues of “the background.” The mind naturally thinks of warm colors as being closer and cool colors as being further away. That rule of perception isn’t culturally constructed. It’s how our brains work, a basic piece of biopsychology. Notice also how well the few warm-colored tiles stand out because of the cool hues of the background. What’s less obvious is h ..read more