Mosaic Sculpture

July 28, 2017 tarannosaurus

Bold Projects → Mosaic Projects → Mosaic Sculpture

Similar Projects: Mosaic Sundial, Mosaic Solar Lights

I got really into mosaic sculpture one year, and I developed a lasting love for it. It’s surprisingly easy to do, if you can handle having little glass shards everywhere (or better yet, have a controlled environment like a work room for doing these sorts of projects). What you’ll need:

Styrofoam and/or Clay and/or chicken wire (to create your sculpture base)
Toothpicks (optional depending on design)
Hot glue gun (optional depending on design)
Thinset mortar
Sandpaper
Glass tiles
Tile cutters/Glass nippers (or hammer if you’re not going for precision work)
Tile adhesive (or more thinset mortar)
Grout
An old cloth or sponge
Spatulas (for spreading mortar, joint compound, etc)
Discardable plastic cups/bowls (for mixing mortar and grout)

You can get glass and tools from art supply stores like Michael’s, but I love the selection available online. My two favorite resources for both tools and glass are Delphi and Maryland Mosaics.

Step 1: Create Your Base

Use your styrofoam, clay, or chicken wire (or any combination of the above) to create the base for your design. If you’re doing a more complex design, you can use toothpicks or the hot glue gun to connect pieces of styrofoam or clay together (this is only a temporary attachment mechanism). Once your base shape is complete, mix some thinset mortar in one of your discardable plastic cups and apply it to your shape, completely covering your base and sealing all the individual components together.

The base for this turtle was made using clay for the head and legs, attached using toothpicks to the styrofoam body:

The bases for these fish used styrofoam with the glass fins inserted and glued into the styrofoam body:

Once your base is completely coated, allow to dry for 24 hours. Once dry, use sandpaper to smooth your base.

Step 2: Prepare and Apply glass tiles

It can be quite satisfying to prepare your tiles. Simply bash them with a hammer and see what happens. I like to place them between layers of a towel or something similar to avoid having glass shards and tile pieces flying everywhere, but you can do whatever you want. It’s your life. I typically have specific ideas for shapes that I want to use in my designs, so I’ll use a nipper to cut my tiles into triangles or other specific shapes. I also like to reserve some of my tiles un-cut so I can try for specific shapes and sizes to fill gaps in my designs once I’ve started applying the tiles.

Many people recommend using a special tile adhesive to apply the tiles. I like to just use an additional layer of thinset mortar. Mix up a new batch and apply thinset to the section you’re going to tile, then just place your tiles, making sure you leave some space in between the tiles for mortar (the amount of space you leave between them is an artistic choice). You’ll have a little time to move the tiles around and change your mind about the design before the thinset is dry, but it will dry fairly quickly, so only apply thinset to a small portion of your base.

This lizard has been partially tiled using thinset mortar:

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. 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.

Tom is applying brown grout to this sundial base:

Allow to set for a few 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.

Tom cleans the excess grout from the sundial base: