Lyn's Mosaics
During the dark nights of winter Lyn has made some
mosaics. We first of all scoured the local tile shops for suitable tiles,
preferably all the same thickness. The tiles are wrapped in a cloth, and then
hit with a hammer to produce suitably sized pieces, the cloth stops the tile
from shattering everywhere.
A piece of exterior grade plywood is then cut to the shape of the finished
mosaic. You will also need some waterproof tile adhesive and grout, add a pair
of tile nippers as well, to enable you to cut the broken tile pieces to shape.
In several of the mosaics, square swimming pool tiles which are available fixed
to a backing sheet have been used for a border around the mosaic. The small
tiles about 25mm square can be removed from the scrim backing easily.
You can roughly draw the picture you want onto the plywood, and then start to
glue down the pieces of tile onto the ply, don't attempt to put too much
adhesive down at a time, otherwise it will start to set before you have the
tiles in place. It takes a while to select a suitable piece of tile to fit where
you want it, (like a jigsaw puzzle).
When you have finished the tile fixing, allow a couple of days for the adhesive to dry completely. Then you can apply the grout all over the mosaic, removing the excess, and leaving to dry before polishing off the smears with a dry cloth. It is only when this is finished that the picture will come to life.
You can fit a couple of mirror plates to the back of the mosaic to allow fixing to a wall, or where ever you would like to display it.
The first picture is of a Spanish house complete with
mule tethered outside.
The stem of the Bougainvillea climbing the house wall, and the balcony rails
where made from strips of plastic. And the Bougainvillea flowers are glass
beads. The tiles on the roof were cut square with the tile nippers.
This is only part of the mosaic which is about a metre wide, and a little higher
with a curved top.
The second picture is of a Kingfisher, note that different colour grouts have
been used to emphasize shapes.
The third picture is of a Mediterranean island with palm tree and agave. Again
coloured grout can be seen in the sea area.
Start with something fairly small, just to see how you get on, it does require
patience, but when you have made several, you will want to make more.