Bold Projects → Mosaic Projects → Mosaic Solar Lights

Similar Projects: Mosaic Sculpture, Mosaic Sundial

This project was one of my most commented upon Christmas gifts, and it’s the sort of thing anyone with a yard can find a place for. Just buy a set of generic solar lights at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot, stick some clear glass pieces on it, grout it, waterproof it, and voila – “stained glass” solar lights. So fancy. I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures during the process of making these – I was in a rush to get them finished in time for the holidays and didn’t even think about it. But the process is just a simplified variation on what’s in the mosaic sculpture post.

What You’ll Need:

• Basic clear glass solar lights
• Multi-colored glass panes or pieces
• Tile cutters/Glass nippers (or hammer if you’re not going for precision work)
• Clear glass adhesive
• Grout
• An old cloth or sponge
• Spatulas (for spreading grout)
• Discardable plastic cups/bowls (for mixing grout)
• Waterproof grout sealer

Step 1: Acquire and Prep Solar Lights

Decide how many lights you’re going to make since you’ll probably want a set of lights (one or two would look rather lonely, so I’d do at least 3), and go to your local store and pick out the size and style you like. You’ll want a style with glass that will be easy to tile (bumps, scallops, ridges, etc are going to make your life harder). If you’re wanting to use larger glass pieces, try to find a style of light that has flat panels on it; the smaller the radius of curvature, the smaller the glass tiles you’ll need to use for them to stick properly. Once you have your lights, clean all the glass panes with alcohol to make sure your tiles will stick.

Step 2: Prepare and Apply Glass Tiles

Depending on the design of your light and your artistic vision, break your glass into appropriately sized pieces. I used nippers to get consistent sizes out of my glass panels, and then custom cut additional pieces later on to fill in the gaps. Once you have enough pieces to begin work, apply a thin layer of clear glass adhesive to an area of glass and apply your tiles, making sure you leave some space in between the tiles for mortar – for this project I like to leave only a thin space between the tiles for the mortar, since the whole point is to have beautiful multi-colored splashes of light shining out. You’ll have a little time to move the tiles around and change your mind about the design before the adhesive is dry, but it will dry fairly quickly.

Repeat this process, applying thinset to a portion and tiling, until your base is completely covered with tiles. Allow to dry for 24 hours.

Step 3: Apply grout

Mix up the grout according to the instructions in one of your discardable cups/bowls. Grout is available in a wide variety of colors, and the color choice makes a big difference in the final appearance of your piece – I like to use black or very dark grey or brown for this project to provide maximum contrast with the colored panels. Using a spatula, apply grout over your entire piece, making sure to work the grout in between all of the tiles, filling in the gaps completely. If you chose to leave smaller gaps, it may take a little extra effort to get the grout seated between all of your gaps. Allow to set for several minutes.

Step 4: Clean up the grout

Once your grout is set, it should be relatively easy to remove the excess grout from the glass tiles. Simply take a damp cloth (not soaking wet) and rub the tiles, and the grout should come away easily. It’s actually quite satisfying, although it can be a painstaking process if you have a lot of small tiles/features you’re trying to “unearth” from the grout. Regardless, it’s always really fun to watch your mosaic piece emerge from underneath the messy grout layer. Once complete, allow the grout to dry for 24 hours.

Step 5: Waterproof your Lights

Since these will (presumably) be used outside, you want to make sure your hard work isn’t damaged when it rains. Prepare and apply the waterproof grout sealer according to the instructions, making sure you cover all of your mosaic work sufficiently. Allow to dry thoroughly.

Completed Work

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