The Making of a Mosaic - Episode I

There are different technics to create mosaics. So far I have used the reversed way, I create my mosaics upside down, because it enables me to use materials of various thickness.

First you design a pattern. Here I protected the paper pattern with a sheet of transparent plastic, this makes it easier to clean up the stones during the finishing phase.

Then you set the tesserae (pieces of stones, glass, ceramic) upside down, and glue them onto the pattern with a water soluble glue. As you can see here and on the next view, The reverse method makes it possible to use tesserae of different thickness.

In order to minimize the weight of my mosaics, I like to use the thinner possible materials. However, stones do not always collaborate. Stones of different kind have different personalities. Granites are hard, but can be cut in any directions, Slates are very smooth, but tend to not cooperate, Travertines ans marbles are softer, but are difficult to cut under 1/8th of an inch, Glass cannot really be cut with a saw as stones can be...

See the end of this work on Making of a Mosaic - Episode II