Photo: Martha G. Brady
Today I’m sharing 2 videos. Don’t be intimidated by them. They are talking about how to grout art pieces. The process is the same for ordinary tile. The reason I used the videos on art pieces is because they use broken dishes and you can learn a bit about the differences for when you use broken dishes. There were lots of videos on this topic so if you don’t find these videos helpful to what you want specifically, just google the topic and you’ll find plenty of info/videos to help you.
The tiles above were done by Mia and me. Hers is the one to the right, mine is to the left. As you can see, mine was made with a broken up dish. I culled the daisies from it and used background colors as well. Mia’s tile was made with leftovers from earlier craft projects that she chose.
Continuing our series: Finish Your Unfinished Projects or
Use up Extra Stuff that is Filling up your Closets!
I’m passing on the information about dishes because of the emphasis on this series of posts on using up leftover things in your house. What I’m coming across after my moves is broken dishes that are pretty colors or have pretty prints, leftover craft supplies that included some of the round stones that my grands have enjoyed working with this summer, and some broken china that got passed on somewhere along the line…yes, it was broken and glued back together…not very valuable for sure:( I did like the print so decided to hang onto it for the day I was going to make this stuff.) That day has come!
I’m very glad I did my first project on a small tile! It was a lot like working a puzzle. It took way more time than I expected…but it was a lot of fun!
Having tile crimpers would have made this project much simpler! I should have bought them. There was more choice at the home DiY stores vs. hobby stores and the costs were lower. Now that I think I’ll do this again, I think I’ll get a tile crimper. They make the edges straight which is much nicer for the edges of your project!
Now that I have watched a number of instructional videos, I realize I should have gotten some square tiles for the border. My border is pretty ragged and it made finishing the sides more difficult. It would have simplified finishing off Mia’s tile as well. Now I know.
Next, I want to experiment with colored grout and different designs. I’m still not ready to create a huge mosaic for my living room. You can relax Brandon…or any of my other sons-in-law!
This video shows you how to grout the tile once it is glued in place:
This one shows how to prepare your plate/dish with the nippers as well as considerations as you cut it up.
I have a broken plate that I would like to reassemble into its original look mosaic-style using grout. Because of the curved lip and ridges on the bottom I have been unsuccessful it getting the pieces (which are fairly large) to bond to the grout. Any suggestions?
Pam, I suspect you will need to make your pieces smaller. the pieces i had on my trivet with daisies in the photo, had some larger pieces and i regret not cutting them smaller. they didn’t lie as flat as the others b/c of the curve in the plate and if they had been rebroken again, i think they would have been flatter and looked better in the final product. at this point, that is the only suggestion i can make.