A checklist when making mosaics with kids

One of my Flickr friends had asked how I go about making mosaics with kids, so I thought I’d write a post about it…

When I mosaic with kids, I generally let them go. I’ve only ever used ceramic tile with them because it doesn’t get the sharp edges that glass does. Having said that I’ve cut up mirror before for the older ones. If the littlies want to use it I will ask them where to put it and lay it down myself. Mirror for some reason likes my blood. It’s the one material that I almost always cut myself on!!!

We talk about what they want to mosaic and what colours they want to use where and I let them break the ceramic tiles once chosen. Kids of all ages (I’ve now done these with kids from 2 – 8 years of age) love this bit!!!

So far I’ve only ever mosaiced stepping stones with kids. There’s no real reason other than it’s nice to have kids’ artwork in the garden! Probably too, it’s small enough that it doesn’t escape their shorter attention spans and actually has some use. Being a very pragmatic person, I like including my childrens’ artwork in our lives, but in such a way that has some use. Too often the kids will come home with their beautiful artwork, but masses of it and I still don’t know what to do with it all!? I’ve taken to photographing it and making an album of their artwork on the computer. Then it gets recycled, save for those really exceptional ones! I have such a hard time throwing their work away (and to be perfectly honest most of it is in a box under the house, or in those clear-plastic-sleeved folders!) but what do you do with it all!?

Anyway, they draw their image with chalk/crayon etc and interestingly the younger they are the more appropriate their artwork is for mosaics. There’s less detail. I also have to remind them that it should cover most of the area, otherwise you end up with this tiny drawing in the centre of the substrate. If they want a border on the edge then I measure this out for them beforehand and they then draw between the borders.

I let them either butter each tesserae down or put the adhesive down block by block (each section of their design, so that they can still see the design) and let them stick the tesserae down after – this is easier and keeps them interested for longer, but for those kids that take a long time it might not be the method to choose as the adhesive will start to skin over quickly. With the younger ones I help them do the edges so that no sharp bits are overhanging.

I really do it all by feel since some kids could sit there all day long while others only have 10 mins to give. It is important to be as prepared as possible though because the chance of you having to take over is definitely there…

With the sunflower that Molly made, I explained to her that we needed pointy yellow tiles for the petals. She got it no problem! I did have to help a little because her attention span started to wane after an hour 🙂 and so finished off the background for her.

I suppose I could do this all on mesh. I’d say that doing mesh mosaics with kids is really the way to go, but there’s something to be said for kids and instant gratification. Mosaic is a fairly laborious medium and any way that I can keep my kids interested in it, I will use! The nice thing about mesh is that when the kids get bored of it, they can put it down and come back to it later. Also the installation is fairly quick and you don’t need to be concerned with the adhesive starting to get old.

So, to summarise:

• Choose a substrate first and have it prepped and ready to go.
• Talk about a suitable design (I always let the kids draw their own work. This to me is so important, not only for their own self esteem but also because you will never be able to replicate the way a child draws. It’s too precious!)
• Decide on what materials to use
• Choose a colour scheme. This is another one I don’t interfere with too much (I let them choose from what I have on hand). Kids have the best sense of colour. They’ll put things together that I would never do and it looks great! They have a very fresh colour palette. Or maybe it’s just my kids 🙂
• If you let them break the tile, make them wear safety glasses and gloves (kids’ gardening gloves work well) and supervise, supervise, supervise! I actually cover the tile up in a rag to minimise flying bits… and explain to them before giving them the tile hammer that waving it around like a madman is bad!!! LOL… Also the tile will break much easier if it is not lying on a flat surface, so laying the tile on two pieces of wood for example can achieve good breaks. You want to break the tile on the non-glazed side BTW 🙂
• You need to decide if you are going to let the kids butter the back of each tile or spread the adhesive down section by section (which is way faster!), or even use the baggie method. NB: I think if I was doing an interior piece I’d go the weldbond and let them paint it on the back of each tile
• Be prepared and organised!
• Let them do it, even when you think they are doing it “wrong”. It’ll always work out in the end and they are so proud of themselves when all is done and finished. AND they will come back for more. That’s the beauty of mosaicing with children!

You can view pictures of some kids’ mosaics on my flickr site.

Molly’s sunflower

We finished my daughter’s sunflower stepping stone today. Very cute! Though she’s adamantly told me we are giving this to Grandma… I wanted to keep it because I still don’t have any of her artwork in the garden. I think we’ll do another to fit with the boys’ round stepping stones by the Secret Hideout 🙂

Of course she wanted pink grout. I ought to make up some hot pink grout some day. I’m sure she’d love it! But the dark purple had to do. She wasn’t impressed, as most 3 year old little girls would not be when they don’t get their way. Life’s tough. 😉

We made this with ceramic tile that we had on hand, smashed with a tile hammer. The kids love to do mosaics like this. It’s exciting to break things as a youngster I think (as an adult too…) but also kids like instant gratification and working like this is exactly that.

I love the grout – a product by Custom Building Products. It was leftover of some I bought in the US last year. It is such a wonder to use. So easy to work with. We don’t have it here in Australia, of course. They also come in fantastic colours. The lads at the shop where I buy my supplies think I’m a nut when I start talking about all the things I’m looking for. Though they’re lovely and very helpful. I have thought of perhaps distributing it here, but it would be a whole other branch of business… Don’t know if I’m up for that yet, but we’ll see.

Table centre sections

Finally I feel like this table is starting to come together. I’m actually very happy, so far, with how it is turning out. I’ve done some of the borders direct and the rest I’ll be doing indirect. I still havn’t glued down these centre sections that I finished the other day. The middle one made me work for my money! I diluted the glue too much and ended up having to redo most of it… I suppose that’s what keeps us humble. 🙂 Anyway, I’m now doing the small half circles and then it’ll be mostly done! I have given up on the idea of getting this finished before my trip OS. There’s no way I can do it. I couldn’t have chosen a worse time to be going on holiday actually. Work is busy – I have two huge events I’m organising for when I get back (Fun!!!). This commission ended up being handed to me now and my studies have had to be put on hold. I am so relieved with that! It got to the point that I was really not enjoying it any longer.

I decided to go with a little bling here. I couldn’t help myself 😉 Plus it’s not like it is brash and unappealing… I felt like it needed something more to it. Anyway, back to do more.

How to make mosaics – a Beginner’s Guide

There is a chinese proverb that goes like this:

I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand

Someone left a comment asking how to begin making a mosaic which then prompted me to decide to write a quick guide of what to do, where to go etc… I’m not going to tell you how to make a mosaic with step-by-step instructions. A simple google search can do this for you. What this post aims to do is to give you a quick overview and let you know the resources available for you to get started. At the end of the day, most mosaicists are self-taught, myself included. I started simply by going to the bookstore and happening on a mosaic book that I took one look at and thought: I can do that! After that, it was inspiration taken from my surroundings and the internet. That’s it! It took about a year and a half before I realised that there is a load of information out there on mosaics and that the worldwide mosaic community is in fact very, very small! So this is what I have found and what I think everyone who wants to start making mosaics ought to do!

Making a mosaic is really a 4 step procedure. You have your design step, then the tiling step (gluing down your tesserae), grouting and finally sealing.

Begin with finding inspiration. For me it was by accident, and finding a book on mosaics at the bookstore. There are many books at your local library, most of which give you step-by-step instructions. Read it, be inspired, find something you like and that you think you can do. I wouldn’t say: don’t start with a mural! However, a mural is a little more complex since it’s on such a larger scale. Might be nice to start with something smaller and feeling the satisfaction of finishing a piece before the frustration sets in 😉 Kids’ illustrations are in fact a great choice for mosaics. Look in your childrens’ colouring books. The simpler, the better. You don’t want to start with a picture that has too much detail.

You need to then decide what you want to mosaic. Is it going to be an interior piece, or an exterior piece? This will largely determine the substrates chosen, aswell as the adhesives you choose.

For an interior piece, mdf or plywood are OK to mosaic on as long as it won’t be hung in a room that is very humid (like the bathroom!). However both these surfaces need to be sealed otherwise you will have problems later on in grouting. The surface will wick all the moisture out of the grout, which can cause problems like the grout cracking etc… Adhesives to choose can be as varied as using the traditional cement-based adhesive also known as “thinset”, or a strong PVA like Weldbond. Some people even use silicone, though this is more common for glass on glass projects and even liquid nails. I suppose you can ask yourself, how long do you want your piece to last, can you spend hours on a piece, or do you have spits and spats of time here and there?

More consideration needs to be given to an exterior piece since it is outside in the harsh elements! Your choice of glues, in my opinion, is much more limited as it needs to have the ability to withstand being outside. If you are working on a piece that will be fully immersed in water, then this also needs to be considered. I say avoid wood all together. There is too much movement in woods these days, since they are sold so green. But some people use marine ply and are happy to do so. Again, the choice is yours. I have used mdf that I sealed with a special sealant that apparently lets it stay intact outdoors. It’s been a couple years and so far so good, but we’ll see…

I could write about the choices of adhesive but they are just so vast, and it’s not what this post is really about. Find one that is not only suitable to your project, but one that you like using!

The next step is choosing your tile and laying it down. How are you going to cut it? Do you want to just smash tile with a hammer, or do you want to cut the shapes out? In either case, think safety first and cover up your eyes (and your kids too if they are hanging around!). Look into tile nippers for cutting your tile, wheeled glass cutters if you are using glass and a glass cutter too. If you are serious about mosaics then having some basic tools are invaluable. That said, a simple hammer will do the trick for smashing tiles.

Have loads of fun gluing the tile! After drawing your design out onto the surface, start laying the tile down in the foreground. Generally speaking the background is filled in last. Well, that’s common sense really!!! 🙂 After you have finished gluing all your tesserae, you need to let it dry atleast 24 hours.

Once dried, you can then proceed to grout your piece. Grouting will bring the whole piece together.  Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions for this. Grouting is easy once you get the knack of it, but beware it can be messy! I’d also advise to use gloves. It is a cement based product and will dry your hands right out! It is important to let the grout dry out of the sun. Don’t ever try to speed the process up. It needs time to do it’s thing. A couple tips: always let the grout slake. That is, after you have mixed the grout up to a toothpaste consistency, let it sit for around 5 minutes (read instructions) before stirring again and applying. It’s an important step that alot of people skip. Also, if you care about your plumbing never, ever clean off your grout bucket down the sink! It’ll be an expensive and painful exercise… Keep in mind too that your grout has a limited working time. You need to make sure you set aside plenty of time to grout and polish your piece. Finally,white is not a neutral tone when it comes to grouting. I would never use white grout on a mosaic. I’m yet to see a piece that has been grouted white where I actually like it. It can always look better in a grey or vanilla, if you’re looking neutral.

3 days after having grouted, seal your projects with a grout sealer. Seal them even if you are leaving them inside. Sealing is good. Sealing is your friend.

That’s it in a nutshell! So get crackin’! Each step goes into much more involved and detailed steps so I highly recommend joining some online mosaic communities. There is a ton of information in their files and if there isn’t, then ask. Mosaic Addicts and Mosaic Artists Org are both yahoo groups. It’s easy to join and start participating in the online forums. Another more obvious place to look is for classes in your local community. There is usually always someone out there teaching mosaic.

I’m a big believer in learning through doing… Hope this helps some of you get started!

Table on the go

Yesterday I got stuck into this table. Very exciting as it is now starting to come to life. Hopefully the tiles will be in shortly so I can continue on it. For now I’m just happy to have the pattern transferred.

I started outlining some of the borders directly. I think it will end up being partially direct, partially indirect. Thankfully I have a steady enough hand that when I work direct I can generally get a good, even surface. I brought the table inside because it’s too bloody cold outside to work, and I’ll be working on this mostly at night. There was no way I was going outside, at night to work in a Canberra August! So it’ll be interesting when we go to take it out of my studio 😉 It’s so heavy as it is!

I’m excited about this though now. I wasn’t feelin’ the lurve before, but now that I’m starting it’s feeling good. I’m just anxious to get moving on it.

Enlarging the pattern. There are various ways to do this and I think everyone has their way that works best for each different application. With this one I went the old fashioned way of measuring everything out using a ruler and keeping things square with a homemade chalk line. They’re the best! This method of enlarging is easy to do on a flat surface like this…

Table Commission

This is the design for the table I’m making. I’ve just received the table from Nyree, who designed and made the table. Yay it’s very exciting!!! Out of all the designs, the client preferred this and chose these colours out of a variety that I made up. Of course this is a very crude interpretation of what it will look like, but it’s really just to give the client an idea…

I was really given artistic freedom on this so went with an Asian feel since the rest of the client’s home has a very Asian feel to it. It was also requested to keep it fairly subdued: nothing too brash, more earthy tones. Ceramic was chosen over glass. I’ve decided to use a vitrified ceramic.

These colours are really not very accurate and of course it is solid in this representation, which it won’t be in the final product. It’s very exciting though! I do need to trim off a little more on the substrate since our last effort because the table has been painted and a zinc layer also on it (for rust), so it has added a little bit of thickness to it. That’s what I’ll be busy with this weekend, buying the tiles and magnifying the design to fit the table.

I think it’s going to look good. I’m going to make every effort to have it finished before I leave in 3 weeks. It’s no drama if it doesn’t, but I’d really like to also for other reasons. Shall I set myself the challenge then?!

Babooshka

Finished her off last night and am getting her prepared to put her in an exhibition, along with Bambino (a little 3D bird I did back in March). Hopefully they’ll both be selected… The Exhibition is the Mosaic Symposium being held this year in Tasmania. It is organised by the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand. From what I gather, it seems to be an event that happens every two years. I’d love to go, but I will be gone OS (very exciting!!!). Still I thought I should submit a few pieces.

Although I was quite unsure about her to begin with, I like her. She’s kitsch. I didn’t like that she was cute to begin with, but I chose a subject matter that is cute, so there’s really no getting away from it! Grout colour was the other issue, but she’s all good 🙂