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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Practical Tips for the Mosaic Artist

How cliche is it to start one's blog with a disclaimer? But, alas, I am. I am going to list some tips I have found helpful and useful during my time as a mosaic artist. The disclaimer is that I am giving these tips not under the authority of an art school degree or having been trained by so-and-so. These tips are just tried and true by yours truly.

Here are some tips for cleaning after you've grouted:

1. Use dry Q-tips to clean the grout off your mosaic.

Dry Q-tips?! Yes. I used to grout my piece then spray it with water and do the whole plastic-bag-and- sponge thing. But here is what I have found that actually works very good and is really much more quick to get results. Once you've grouted your piece, get a just ever-so-slightly damp cloth/sponge/paper towel and wipe off the piece so you can at least see the outlines of all your little tiles/pieces. If you are working a small project (maybe a square foot or smaller), you can then go ahead and take a dry q-tip and use it to clean off an individual tile or too. Once your q-tip is dirty, toss it and get another one. You should not need to use any water at all. If your piece you are cleaning is larger than one square foot, you should give the sections you are not cleaning a light spritz of water (one or two spritzes should work) every ten minutes or so. The trick with using dry q-tips to clean off the excess grout on your tesserae is that the grout needs so be drying already. If the grout is super wet still all you will do is drag it around when you wipe it with a q-tip. But you mustn't let your grout dry too much or the q-tips will not work. At that point only scraping it off will work! Yes, you will use a lot of Q-tips. But it works! (Buy in bulk!)

2. Put your hot air to good use

Let me explain. Once you have cleaned off each tile or piece with your dry Q-tips, and your grout is pretty much dry, then take a soft, dry cloth (I find that a good-old-fashioned clean cloth diaper- like the ones moms use as burp rags- works great!) and breathe on a small section of your piece. When I say "breathe on it" I mean to fog it up like you would fog up a mirror. Then, immediately use your soft cloth and polish that spot up. Small, gentle, circular motions work great. Once you've done that all over your piece you will be amazed at how shiny it is! I used to use vinegar to clean my pieces but I have found that plain old hot air works great. And it's free!

Here are some tips for using acrylic paint to color your powdered grout:

1. After you've dumped some powdered grout into your mixing dish, add just enough water that it starts to clump up here and there. Then add enough acrylic paint to finish the mixing process. In other words if it takes 2 parts grout to 1 part water to mix up your grout (let's say for example-it's actually less water than that but 2:1 is an easy proportion to work with in this example), then add 1/4 part water and 3/4 part paint to equal 1 part liquid you'll need to mix your grout. You may have to add a tiny bit more water or a tiny bit more paint to achieve the texture of the grout you desire.

2. If you are trying to lighten or darken your grout, your grout must be pretty close to the shade you are trying to achieve. I once took an almost beige grout and tried to add white paint to make my grout nearly white. I had to add so much white paint that my grout was too runny. So I'd then add more beige grout to make it not runny, but that only succeeded in making the color too dark again. So I was running in circles. Also, I once took white grout and added red paint to it to try to make very red grout. You colorists out there already know that I ended up with pink! Again, just as I'd added enough red paint to acheive the red I wanted, the grout would be too runny and so I'd add more (white) grout and then it would become too pink again. So stay close to the shade you want with the grout you use.

Here are some tips for getting FREE tesserae!!!

1. If you enjoy working with dishes, ceramics, figurines, jewelry or just about anything you can find at a thrift store then try this: Get a box or a basket and write your name and phone number on it. Then take it to a local thrift store (usually the one's for charity are more willing to do this), and ask them that anytime they get any boken dishes, figurines, etc. to put it in your basket instead of the trash. Then every week  or two (depends on how much inventory the thrift store deals with) call or stop by and see if you need to pick anything up. You will want to make sure you are consistent so that your basket isn't sitting there for weeks overflowing. Most charity thrift stores are happy to help out a local artist and see something that was going to go in the trash be repurposed for beauty. I do this successfully with two thrift stores in town and I am now bursting at the seams with stuff. I do get some things I don't want but instead of being a burden on the thrift store workers by giving them a list of what I want and don't want, I simply throw away or donate to a different thrift store what I don't want. You'll get a lot of coffee cups. Be prepared. But I also get some really nice china and figurines that broke and they just can't sell them.

2. Some communities have stained glass artists. You can contact them and see if they would be interested in giving you their scraps. My step-mom does this and gets so much stained glass scraps from this one lady that she gave me 3 boxes of the stuff because she had so much! You might be able to locate stained glass artists through your local art organization, or even in the phone book under stained glass (my community phone book lists 6 businesses in the yellow pages under that category!).


I may have to do another post on tips because I didn't realize how many I had! So, for this month, I hope you can find some use out of these tips because I sure have! Pass it on!