Getting Practical

I made another decision during my hiatus from blogging (first decision here).

I enjoy being practical with my art, and want to focus on making artistic additions to our home. Right now, I am learning how to do mosaics.

If I was smart, I’d make a coaster or two, or perhaps a coffee table top for practice. Instead, I started on a bathroom floor.

Good luck getting rid of this project if it doesn’t work out.

Luckily, my husband is the one breaking and grinding the pieces. I have the fun job of putting them in place. This is not as easy as I first thought.

The little black outlining tiles were one thing. The filler tiles are another. My aim is to achieve a flow in the placement of many irregular shapes. This is followed by “buttering” the tiles with a cement mixture. It’s almost hilarious how simply plucking a piece up, buttering it and placing it back can lead to fitting problems. If the pieces touch, clippers are required on adjoining pieces, followed by rasp work, so there will be no sharp edges for our delicate feet to deal with later.

Oh, and my husband provided spacers to put on either side of the tiles, along with a bridging tile, to keep my tile heights even. He is such a hopeful man, believing the floor will be perfectly even because of these measures.

What should you expect when you buy a bunch of tiles that do not have uniform thicknesses from a store carrying second hand and remaindered items? Personally, I think a perfectly smooth floor is an unrealistic goal. A few slight height variations add character.

The center “medallion” is already grouted. The gray pieces on the second layer are buttered and the cement is dry. There are a few gaps here and there where pieces have to be shaped to fill them.

Off I go to work on the last layer. My knees are complaining already ~ I have been spending quite a few weeks on them.

#homerenovations #mosaic #bathroom #knees #practical #Art #earthtones #mosaictiles #medallion #practice