Discover the Materials and Methods Used to Create Mosaic Art

How Mosaics Are Made

First some technical terms, because there are technical terms for everything. Any of the words that don’t look familiar are Latin.

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Hammer & Hardie

Tessera – the stuff (a small block of stone, tile, glass, or other material used in the construction of a mosaic)
–     Marble, Granite, Quartz, Minerals, Stone
–     Smalti, Glass, Ceramic, Clay
–     Found Objects: Shells, Buttons, Beads

Interstices – the space between the stuff

Cutting – how you make the stuff smaller
–     Hammer & Hardie
–     Nippers
–     Wet Saw

Substrate – what you stick the stuff on (wood, wediboard, floor, mesh)

Adhesive – how you stick the stuff together (thinset, weldbond glue, silicon)

Grout – the stuff you stick in the space between (sometimes, maybe, it depends...or not)

Andamento – the “flow” of the stuff as you lay it out

Methodology – how you do the sticking (direct, indirect)