Shading Grout in a Mosaic

A couple weeks ago I finished a project that was quite a while in the making. (Click "egret" in the label cloud <== to see other WIP posts on this mosaic.) A portrait of a fearless Egret who visited breakfast diners while we were on vacation a two years ago- titled "Curious Neighbor".

He is pretty big, 13.5" x 27", at least for me since I often work with small pieces. So many decisions went into the making of this piece but for this post I'm focusing on my grout decisions- and some how to. (To share the info and so I remember myself :)

Sometimes grout can be used to add contrast to a section to bring the eye to that area but for this piece I decided to use the grout to further blend the colors. It also then added to the soft, calm, natural feeling I was going for.

(Though I did include one area of high grout contrast in the mosaiced pot. The egret is directly from my own photograph but the background is a compilation from other photos. The pot was included as a bit of 'man-made', along with the deck, in an otherwise very natural setting. So I added grout contrast here to contrast with the soft grout of the natural areas.)

For the rest of the mosaic I chose grout colors to blend the areas. And for the egret himself I used white, warm grey and a blend of half white and half warm grey. Blending the grout kept the softness of the shading on the bird feathers.

For the sand area I also used a graduated series of grouts from canvas through a light mocha- and I photographed the steps! :


First, have plenty of masking tape on hand! The bird has already been grouted and the tape keeps the bird's grout nice and clean. The geranium plant leaves were grouted in mallard green so they need to be covered as well. I use small bits of tape and very carefully cover just the existing grout so I don't end up with gaps in the joint with the new color.

Click on any picture to see a large version.




Small plastic cups and Popsicle sticks are wonderful for mixing small batches of grout. The left cup is straight 'canvas' color and the right cup is 1/4 canvas 3/4 mocha. The center four cups are graduated amounts of the two colors. Add water slowly when mixing so too much water is not added.






Kind of like playing in the mud!
I started with the canvas color and put that on the lightest sand area then worked my way down. Where I changed color I 'smooshed' the two colors around a bit to further blend as I worked it into the grout spaces. Around the flowers I used a slightly deeper color for more contrast. I actually did not use the darkest blend after all.








In this last picture, much cleanup later, the grout is not fully dried and the variations show a bit more.

More Poured Concrete Stepping Stones

The second set of nine poured concrete and stained glass stepping stones are finally complete after I took a bit of a break due to summer. Top left jellyfish is created with bits of glow-in-the-dark tile.

I did a how-to posting a while back- click here to see.
All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs.

New (old) tool for breaking curves in stained glass

Some times the 'old fashioned' way really is easier and better. Case in point the old stand-by (oil less) glass cutter . I have one of these but the constant need to dip the cutter end in oil had it sitting in a drawer as a backup only.

What I had not fully appreciated was the wonderful efficiency of the ball end for breaking out curved score lines. Especially long score lines. So simple, so quick. Just hold a corner of the glass with either fingers or pliers, tap that ball end on the underside of your score line and be sure to have that glass over a table because it will break beautifully along that line most wonderfully and unexpectedly almost every time. Or did everyone know this and I am the last?


I suppose my only excuse is that often I work with tiny pieces and it is not as much use in that case but I can assure you that this simple tool will no longer be relegated to the dark corners of a drawer but will have a home on my work desk.

Just to be fair, I do have another good tool, a type of running plier, for breaking out curves and will still use this on smaller pieces of glass.

Custom Order Wedding Stepping Stone

Ack, falling behind a bit on the blogging what with kids off for summer vacation.

I teased about this stepping stone way back in June but never showed the finished stone. So here it is finally. Wedding colors are celadon green and chocolate brown.
Pieced in reverse with stained glass. I then used this method to make it into a poured concrete stepping stone. A bit of the detail- bee has iridescent glass for wings and the black body stripes have tiny gold flecks in them to pick up the light too.

Sailing Welcome

Last weekend we took a short trip to St Augustine, Florida. (Just a three hour drive from here but well worth the visit even if you are farther.) So, of course, we had to hunt down a local glass shop- D&L Art Glass. Bought some nice pieces of glass and a whole box of scraps. If you are a mosaic artist you know what I mean when I say I was almost giddy that they sort their scraps by color and had a generous variety.

Back home, I put all my goodies away but didn't have an immediate home for these pretty bits:

Before I knew it they were speaking to me and I had this little sign made:

Piecing a Mosaic Rose

Who knew, dressmaker's tracing paper can also be used to trace a design on glass. I used this method first when making my self portrait mosaic.

Here I use it to make a rose. Yes, green. This is part of a custom stepping stone for a wedding and it will also have green hydrangeas. Looks pretty combined with the chocolate brown for the writing. Still a WIP so I'll post more pictures later.



First tip is to make sure your glass is very clean.

This method also works best if the sections of your motif can be systematically cut away from the design and still keep the pieces whole. This pattern I made was almost ideal. Piece # 16 ended up in three pieces.

I also numbered the pattern and glass pieces to make putting it back together so much easier.

First Nine Poured Concrete Stepping Stones

Here are the first nine poured concrete stepping stones in my very ongoing project to make pathways around our yard. But, yay!, I am keeping all these, lol.


Wondering how to make stepping stones like this for your yard? I blogged about the how-to here.
All designs are my own. If you make some stones I hope you use the opportunity to also create your own designs.

Self Portrait in Black and White

A social networking site for Mosaicists that I belong to had a challenge contest recently to create a mosaic using only black and white. I took up the challenge and tried something else new in the process- a portrait. Never having done one before, I figured I start with me.

Thank you so much to the members for voting my self portrait Members Choice!

A slide show- black and white movie style- of a bit of the process of putting this mosaic together:

All materials are stained glass - pure white for the face/neck area, three other whites for the hair, a textured black for the shirt and two little triangular pieces above the right side shoulder.

How to Make a Poured Concrete Stepping Stone

Half of our yard is covered in river rock. Not easy to walk on. I've decided the solution is MANY stepping stones- guessing about 50. I could just buy a bunch at the home center, but what fun is that?? Instead I'm making poured concrete stepping stones with a different mosaic design in each. I have a few already made and thought I'd share the process I've been using. You can make these mosaics as simple or as detailed as you desire. I'm planning on using up a whole lot of bits and veering toward the simple end.

Some supplies you'll need or just find handy:

• Portland cement type I
• Sand
• Dish pan (dedicated) for mixing in
• Some sort of trowel or small hoe as a mixing tool
• Some sort of disposable, or never to be used again for food, cup for scooping sand and cement.
• Clean water for mixing (or admix of some type if you live in a frost zone- read labels at your home center to find an appropriate admix).
• Disposable dust mask. Very important to wear this while working with the dry cement!!
• Hardware cloth
• Wire cutters or similar for cutting hardware cloth
• Gloves- heavy duty for use when cutting hardware cloth and vinyl disposable for when mixing concrete.
• Mold. For this project I use a 14" diameter commercially made stepping stone form.
• Clear contact paper
• Some sort of tesserrae for piecing a mosaic design. I use stained glass frequently.
• Mold release of some sort. I use petroleum jelly- cheap and easy to find.
• Newspapers for work area
• Plastic to cover concrete after unmolding.
• Sturdy board larger than the mold to use when flipping the mold in step 6.

1. The mosaic design is pieced in reverse on the contact paper. Place the mold on the paper side and trace it then cut the shape out 1/4" inside the line so it will fit inside the mold. You can sketch out a design on the paper portion. Peel off paper, and place sticky side up on your work surface with the design underneath. Remember to reverse words/letters/numbers so they are mirror image while piecing.

2. Figure out how much sand and Portland cement you need. For this project I use recipe #3 in the book Making Concrete Garden Ornaments by Sherri Warner Hunter. One great tip, among many, from this book is to fill your mold with sand and measure the volume. This will be how much you use for the project and 1/3 of this volume is how much Portland cement you will need. Use approximately half as much water/admix as cement by volume. I have a wonderful old clear plastic pitcher with very straight sides that I have marked this ratio on for each mold size I use.

3. Smear a thin coating of petroleum jelly on the inside of the mold. Place the contact paper/pieced design into the bottom of the mold with the pieced design sticky side up. Use the wire cutters to cut a circle of hardware cloth about 2" less in diameter than your mold (one inch smaller each side).

4. Add the sand to your plastic bin. Put on your mask and measure out the Portland cement and add it to the sand. Stir in well and slowly add in water/admix in increments. Be real careful that you do not add too much liquid. I aim for a very soft cookie dough consistency. Not crumbly but never runny.

5. Go slowly adding the cement mix to your mold. You need to press the concrete into all your spaces but carefully so you do not dislodge your pieces from the contact paper. Fill the mold half way then place in the hardware cloth piece. Raise slightly and tap the mold down to the ground repeatedly to raise any air bubbles. Fill the mold the rest of the way and repeat the tapping to again remove air bubbles. Smooth the surface. Clean up plastic pan and tools OUTSIDE. Cement/concrete washed down a drain will harden in the drain!

6. The filled mold needs to sit undisturbed until the surface is firm and no indent is made when touched. I found the amount of time this takes depends very much on the air temperature. In the summer here (90's day 70's night) it required only six hours but in our current temps (70's day, 50's night) it takes 12 hours. When firm enough, gently pull mold away from sides very slightly. Place a stiff board (I use a leftover large floor tile) on the stepping stone surface and carefully flip the board and the mold. Slowly pull the mold straight up to remove. Remove the contact paper slowly. The surface can be gently cleaned using a paper towel or a piece of newspaper. Cover in plastic and leave undisturbed for at least three days. After seven days it will be cured enough for walking on and the color will lighten to about its final color.

Glow in the Dark Tiles

I recently purchased some glow in the dark tiles from Maryland Mosaics. These are the coolest tiles! Not only do they glow but the glow is through the tile. The tiles are thicker than most stained glass- about 3/16" thick- with a very flat bottom. So far I have been using them like mini smalti pizzas and cutting slivers off with my wheeled cutters to place on end in my mosaics.

Closeup of a light switch cover in progress showing the cut tile placed with the riven edge up:

For the moon in the above picture, the 'hair' was pieced using the smooth, shiny tile surface and the remainder was pieced with bits of riven tile for a highly textured look. (Mouth is a piece of white iridescent glass.)