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Creativity ala Mode -  Product Review - Mosaic
by Heidi Borchers 

As heard on Inspired at Home Radio - June 14, 2009!

We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard, “I’ve always wanted to try mosaics….but”.  In fact, there was a time that my sister Candace and I both said the same thing. We were both afraid of attempting our first mosaic project because we didn’t understand what mosaic supplies that we needed to get started.

So Candace was the first to jump in and try it. She stared with a mosaic lamp kit. In her own words it was “a total disaster” and she ended up throwing it in the trash. However, she found herself totally hooked on mosaics and she called me and said that I had to try it!  The rest is history as we both opened retail mosaics studios.  Candace’s original disaster prroject was followed by a table top that she glued stained-glass pieces to but didn’t grout because she didn’t know how.

Our mosaic styles are quite different. Candace is a typical Capricorn and loves everything lined up and matching and more traditional styles. I tend to go wild with colors and different textures. Tiffany's style is kind of in between.

When you venture into your local retail craft store, it can be confusing to understand what you need to buy. You will typically find a small mosaic section but it’s usually not stocked with enough tiles to create a nice mosaic. Most people, when you mention mosaic, think about those stepping stone kits that are available in store – but that’s not true mosaic. Typically these are created by placing tiles into cement.  These stepping stones are usually really pretty in the pictures but can be challenging to make. If you want a true mosaic, just buy a stepping stone from your local building supply store, glue on tiles, grout and you have a stunning garden piece.

Once you know the basics of mosaics, you can mosaic anything. The basics are easy but it is nice to take a class so you have someone to help you to learn so you don’t have to learn the hard way. The teacher can stop you from making mistakes, show you how to cut tile – it’s so easy – and how to grout – that’s easy too!

The basic materials that you need for mosaicing are:

Tiles (you can find tiles lots of places including craft stores, boutique mosaic stores like ours, home improvements stores, bath design specialty stores.) We also like to include found items in our mosaic projects including broken plates, cups, saucers, vases, bric-a-brac, jewelry and whatevers!

Wheeled tile nipper - these are a must whenever you are cutting tiles for mosaics and all mosaics must have cut tiles. (They just look prettier that way.) You can use your wheeled tile nipper on sheet glass, smalti, Venetian glass tiles, porcelain tiles or glass rods.

Weldbond Glue - this is the best – believe us, we tried all the others and you really want to use this glue for mosaics.  It holds so well that when the glue is dry, if you needed to take off tiles before grouting for any reason, you usually have to use a hammer and screwdriver to work hard to pry them off! We have been using the bottle style forever but they now offer a new clog free tube.

Sanded grout – we always use sanded grout (vs unsanded grout) We buy ours in large gallon containers or larger bags from the home improvement store. We also always mix our grout with “grout additive” (instead of plain water). This makes it stronger.  Check out our how-to-grout mosaic photo tutorial at favecrafts.com.

Grout sealer – there is an easy-to-apply grout sealer that you can brush on to your mosaic project after the grout has properly dried. This sealer is a must if you are going to place your mosaic project outdoors. We don't recommend a particular brand. We buy our sealer at our local True Value hardware store.

Start small. The first project that we recommend that you try is mosaicing a brick for a doorstop or garden décor. That way you learn the technique on a small but really useable project. We can't stress this  enough - don't start too big or you might get discouraged. 

There are loads of great mosaic sites to give you lots of inspiration when surfing the web.  Here's a few of our recent projects that we recently shared on our blog:  Tiffany's Inspired Bath Mosaic Jars, Heidi's Stepping Stone, Liz's Mirror, Heidi's Chef Mosaic.