Or, The Paraphernalia that Comes With It continued. Early in June, I wrote a post about the artistic dilemma of having too many mediums already, each of which required its own outlay of moderate too expensive equipment.  You can read it here: http://open.salon.com/blog/shiral/2009/06/02/the_paraphernalia_that_comes_with_it

      I   now announce that my artistic side  rather than my left brain banker -in-residence persona won this particular tussle.  Here is the “before shot” of my late, unattractive glass table top that gave rise to this latest artistic attack:

 

 

The "Before" shot

 

About a week into June, I painted the following half-sized design for  the new table:

 

 

The Design on Paper

 

       In mid June, I checked some books on Mosaic technique out of my library.  Then one Saturday, I rode my bicycle down to Michael’s Craft store and loaded up on mosaic tiles.  The correct  mosaic term for tiles is tesserae, but who wants to be a pedant?   I also bought grout, mosaic craft glue,  a grout floater (Essentially a sponge one side of which is firm backing to use to push wet grout down in between the tiles), and a pair of wicked-looking tile nippers without which you simply can’t work in mosaic. The cost added up alarmingly fast. Later that month after the next paycheck, I bought the wooden table top, sand paper the rubber gloves and safety goggles at the Home Depot. 

 

      Then, worried that I probably didn’t have enough tiles to cover the area of a round table two feet in diameter (I was right), I went back to Michael’s and bought MORE tiles and  a larger but still not large enough supply of grout.

 

Mosaic Equipment

      Perhaps my inner artist felt my inner banker would be less shocked if I accumulated it all sloooow-lyyy. It helped, but not all that much.  On July third, still convinced I didn’t have enough tiles, but being reluctant to buy yet more of the cursedly expensive little bags and boxes of precut ones, I went to the local Goodwill and struck it rich. These poor dishes had no way of knowing their useful life AS dishes was over when I walked out the door with them. Mwahahahaha!

 

Future Tesserae

 

          A word about the light blue plates at the center; they’re from Ikea. If you have small children and if you're in the market for some sturdy inexpensive dishes for daily use, these might be a good bet. You could just about use them as Frisbees. I know, because I was tempted to try after my blister-raising struggle to cut the little blighters into tesserae.  They’re thick and tough and they break very reluctantly. But they were the closest thing the Goodwill had to the color I wanted.  My greatest finds were the two Blue Willow salad sized plates. One of them provided the central piece of the center star in my mosaic design. These two little birdies were so cute, I just had to leave them intact and feature them prominently:

 

 

Blue Willow Birds

           My first preparatory step was to sand the round wooden table top. Then I drew the full-sized design on it with an improvised compass created by driving a nail into the center then using string and a pencil to trace the circular outer borders, and then rulers to draw the central star design:

 

 

 The Design on Wood

                I spent about eight hours on the Nation’s Birthday happily cutting tesserae (and making a big mess) and filling in the central star:

 

         Mosaic is hypnotic, by the way. The fascination of seeing your pattern shapes fill out as you cut and place the tesserae is irresistible. I finally had to quit, since I was working outside and the light was failing.  I had to work on  Sunday the Fifth, but instead of spending my morning writing  as I usually do, I spent it working on my mosaic and had to force myself to stop in time to snatch some lunch before work. After coming home from work, I went right back to my mosaic, and once again worked until the light failed.Over the next week, I completed the central area of the mosaic, becoming more skilled and more exacting at shaping the tiles to fit into and define the edges of the blue and white areas:

 

 

 More Design

 

         I got so tired of trying to cut the light blue plates into workable tiles that I used them to fill in larger areas when possible.  There is something to be said for the pre-cut ceramic tiles, expensive or no—they’re much easier to work with! As were, fortunately, the blue willow plates. Here is the completed central area of the mosaic:

 

 

The Center is Complete

 

       Next, I added a narrow border of random sized and shaped blue willow tesserae:

 

Blue Willow Border 

        I could have made it wider, I suppose. I know it's not easy to see. After that, I started work on the blue and white wave pattern outder border.  This was the part of the design which took the longest, as it involved a lot of cutting and shaping of small tesserae to form the curves:

 

 

Working the Wave Border

 

      This became rather tedious, I admit, so my work was not as fast as when I started. But here it is completed at last:

 

 

Wave Border Finished

 

       Lastly I added a narrow border of dark blue tiles all around the perimeter, which really finished things off nicely, I thought:

 

 

       Next came the  grouting.  All the mosaic books warned me in dire terms about two things; One, don't add too much water to your grout unless you want it to crack after it's dry, and two, don't rinse unusued grout down the sink unless you want monumental plumbing problems.  So I used a disposable plastic thingie (I'm so technical) in which to mix my grout and was so determined not to make the mix too wet, I probably didn't add enough water in proportional terms.   Mixed grout is rather like working with gritty cake batter and it sets up alarmingly fast. I had just BARELY enough to grout the whole table, and certain parts of it did not get quite enough. One or two small tesserae came unglued in the process as well.  I chalked it up to experience:

 

 

The Grouted  Table
       

     “It’ll look antique” I consoled myself as I cleaned the partially set up grout off the mosaic tiles and let the grout cure for the requisite 24 hours.

                           Anybody want some iced tea, cookies and fruit?
 

 

Iced Tea, Anyone?

 

Lessons Learned.

           You can read books on top of books, but really, the best way to learn any new skill is through hands-on practice.  And I taught myself a lot through the course of this project.

 

       One, it’s worth the effort to shape your tesserae with care, especially when you’re working on the border areas of your design.  It looks much more polished when you’re through. I was a lot more skilled at the end of this project than I was two weeks ago. The outer edges of my table look much cooler and more professional than the central part.   

 

       Two, wear long pants and shoes—not sandals!—and  definitely wear the safety goggles while you work.  The tiny chips of pottery and glass trimmed from your tesserae as you “nibble” them into the desired shape with your tile nippers really do fly everywhere, and any one of them would feel nasty in your eyes. They’re painful enough if they work their way down into your shoes.

 

       Three, work outside and sweep often—cutting tesserae makes an awful mess. It’s also good to have a trash bag handy when you’re shaping your tiles. 

Four, make your cuts over the trash, NOT over your pattern. The  surface of your incomplete mosaic should be kept as clean and dust-free as possible.  Next time, I’ll know to cover my project when I’m not actively working on it. A brush is a great thing to have to clean off the surface. 

       Five, enthusiastic or no, it's  probably not a good idea to spend eight hours at a time cuting tesserae. It's really hard on your hands.

      Six, the little battery powered blower my sister gave me to keep my computer keyboard clean is an excellent tool for cleaning dust, leaves and tiny ceramic and glass fragments from the crevasses between  the tesserae of  a mosaic. And,   you're less likely to knock any glued-down tesserae loose, where the brush can knock loose pieces out of place.

 

      Seven, when it comes to grout, I realize I ought to have used a darker color than white as the white tiles in my design kind of disappeared once the table was grouted. Gray grout would have shown up better against both the light and dark tiles and united the pattern better. It would also  have been better to overestimate how much  grout I needed rather than underestimate it  just to have a margin of safety. A piece that’s imperfectly grouted doesn’t really look antique—it just looks inexpert.  But for a first attempt, I’m very happy with the results!