I made a mosaic of a pileated woodpecker by improvising over a pattern. I created a video of the process of laying up the mosaic on a temporary surface of sticky contact paper. The Video The video of laying up the mosaic is a series of progress photographs. Notice how casually I make changes on the sticky contact paper. It’s a very forgiving process that allows you to try different options and compare them. video: Pileated Woodpecker Mosaic: Improvising Over A PatternThe Captions The captions for the video explain the process: This mosaic was made by improvising over a pattern covered by cle ..read more

Artist Sheldon Stehman‘s tattoo-inspired work demonstrates the vitality of the mosaic medium and how surprisingly well it accommodates contemporary pop-culture designs and themes. Sheldon uses classic tattoo designs as models for his mosaic interpretations. I think that was an inspired decision. Body of Inspiration Tattoo design is informed by animation and cartoons and other modern forms of illustration, and so that medium has a lot to offer in terms of bringing freshness to mosaic. masked-senorita-mosaic-sheldon-stehman This freshness of theme is very important for the success of contempora ..read more

Artist Natalija Moss rebuilds Honda Insight hybrid cars, and she also makes mosaics of them using stained glass. Here are a few Honda Insight mosaics she made years ago. Unfortunately, Natalija didn’t take definitive photographs of each them, and so the images in this article were all created from the group photo using Photoshop. Even though these three mosaics are different sizes, they are still a great example of how to use a series as a way to hone technical skill. Each of these mosaics depicts a Honda Insight from a different perspective, but they all use the same technique of depicting t ..read more

I made a video that shows how to translate an image into mosaic by improvising loosely over a pattern. The pattern I used for this demonstration was the pattern I created quickly using Photoshop for a friend. The Video The Captions I am improvising over the pattern instead of following it closely: image: kingfisher-mosaic-in progress-comparison-v3 copy I’m not even following the colors of the illustration I used to generate the pattern: images: kingfisher-mosaic-in progress-comparison-v4 copy I am interpreting the photo in terms of the colors available in the tile color palette. I also have ..read more

I made a video showing how to clean up the spreading tools and bucket after mixing up grout or thinset mortar. My method only requires a cup or two of water from a spray bottle and some downcycled plastic grocery bags. Grout and thinset can be messy, and most people use a hose with a nozzle and gallons of water to clean up. Cleaning up with a water hose isn’t practical in all locations, and our method with a spray bottle and a cup of water and some scrap material is kind of elegant in terms of minimizing the amount of water needed. If you learn how to do this method with a cup of water, you c ..read more

Mosaic tile is laid one tile at a time, and the process can be distracting artistically. The mind becomes focused on fitting small pieces together instead of seeing the image as a whole. Fortunately there are ways around this problem. Seeing the Image as a Whole Seeing the image as a whole is the key to creating better visual art. That is why painters frequently step back from their easels and squint at their work in progress. The goal of squinting at a distance is to blur the fine details and see only the general shapes and contrasts on the canvas. The artist wants to know, “Is the image rec ..read more

Recently a friend of mine asked for a mosaic pattern for a kingfisher and the materials to make it. He made this request at the eleventh hour when he discovered that it would be raining the entire weekend of his family’s beach trip. I literally had to get the pattern and the tile shipped the very next day, and so I couldn’t spend too much time creating a pattern. Fortunately, there is a quick way to generate a pattern using Photoshop’s “find edges” filter: filter >> stylize >> find edges Making Iconic Images I looked through many online images of kingfishers to select a model. I k ..read more

Natalija Moss’s latest Honda Insight mosaic is a great example of stained-glass mosaic where the grout line is used as a figurative element and as an element visual framing. Natalija is a self-taught artist and mosaicist just like me, and she also rebuilds Honda Insights by restoring interiors and rebuilding the battery system with newer technology. Rebuilding these car interiors and batteries is yet another skill Natalija taught herself. She learned by doing and by extensive online technical research. Natalija has rebuilt at least seven or eight Honda Insights since I have known her, and wor ..read more

I have made a video about how to mix up small amounts of powdered products like grout and thinset with minimal dust and mess. I worked briefly as an engineer in an advanced materials testing laboratory with exotic and toxic materials, and I have put some thought into the methods I show in the video. Notice in the video how I keep my hands, trowel, and bucket clean throughout the scooping and mixing process. The method I show also minimizes the amount of dust that is created. I should be wearing rubber gloves as I do this because powdered stone products such as grouts and mortars are caustic ..read more

Artist Valerie Theberge recently installed an outdoor mosaic sculpture in Washington, DC, and like much of her work, the sculpture is monumental in scale. I recommend taking a look at Valerie’s website or Instagram, especially if you are planning a large mosaic mural or sculpture. mosaic-sculpture-dc-2-val-thebergeMaterials and Methods Valerie makes the sculptural bases for her mosaics from expanded polystyrene (EPS) covered in eight layers of fiberglass mesh and mortar, similar to this method for making an outdoor mosaic backer. mosaic-sculpture-in-progress-val-theberge Valerie carves and sa ..read more