Do it Yourself Mosaics

After seeing the beautiful mosaic art backsplash previously I decided to write about doing mosaics yourself.  Anybody can do this and not only is it fun, you can really decorate your home with some original pieces.  I  saw a stunning mosaic piece in a friend's house and asked her where they got it. It turns out that my friend's sister in-law, Susan Hyde, is a mosaic artist and teacher (You can check her out at susansmosaics.wordpress.com). To make a long story short, Susan started a mosaic class and I decided to join.   I had never done any mosaic art before but I couldn't wait to try.  At the class we were taught how to use tile cutters, glass cutters, given inspiration with layouts and shown how to grout properly.  As we tested different layouts Susan was there to give advice and practical help.  The women in the class did a number of beautiful things like tissue boxes, clocks, name plates, picture frames and just art for the walls.  Here is a picture of my first Mosaic from that class.

The petals are shaped from broken pieces of a plate

After that I attempted something more complicated and used my tile cutter to cut almost every piece.

Yerushalayim

 I found out about a great store a bit further after Modiin Mall, in a place called Shilat.  It's called The Art Depot and it's a crafter's haven.  It has everything you can imagine and the place is huge.  There is a big section of shelves with tons of mosaic squares in a variety of colors and sizes.  You can pick up some specialty tiles with pretty pictures on them or solid colored tiles.

There are many more colors and sizes available

 
I ended up doing quite a few mosaic pieces and had a lot of fun with it....

I hung this up above my kitchen table

A plain stool decorated for my girls room, no cutting of tiles.

I made this for my sister

If you don't have a car then you could also go to Sifrei Geula in the Merkaz.  They don't have the same variety of mosaics but they have a lot of wooden bases to mosaic on.  You could also use broken plates, leftover mosaics from your bathroom or kitchen,  mosaic sheets from a real tile store, pebbles, moonstones and leftover beads for accents.
Now, don't say 'I'm not artistic so I can't do any of this', it's not true.  This mirror mosaic below, required no cutting and just a simple random pattern.  We (my friend Debra and I) did this project a couple of years ago at the Bais Tefillah  mother/daughter event.   Girls of all ages made some beautiful mirrors. You can do this too...

I bought the base and mirror separately at Sifrei Geula

When you want to buy grout (in Israel it's called 'roba') you can usually buy some in the art store but they also sell it at any home hardware (hakol lebayit, Ace).  It's cheap ( around 20 shekel for a small bag) and it's easy to make.  You just pour the powder into a container and add small amounts of water, mixing very well, until you get to a smooth creamy consistancy (not soupy but not dry).  You smear it all over your mosaic so that it fills up every crack.  After it dries a bit, wipe off the mosaic with a damp cloth until its clean.

 I also used my mosaic inspiration to do something about my cluttered necklaces.  I needed a place to hang them up so that they wouldn't get tangled and were easy to see.  I bought a large square of plywood from Sifrei Geula and painted it blue.  I then used my glue gun (can't live without it) to glue some leftover kitchen knobs onto it.  I lined the edges with mosaic stones (using plain white glue) and used some large pebbles to decorate the corners.  Here is the end result....

I hung this up in my bedroom

If you want to check out another local mosaic artist take a look at Chani's gallery at karamikakreations.weebly.com  (you need to type this address into your browser) Enjoy!