Hi, I'm a mosaic maker/potter. I make my own tesserae and mosaics loosely in the roman tradition.

[helen baron]

Embarking on large scale project, Have previously made mosaics using reverse method, sticking tesserae onto brown paper using wallpaper paste, then sand in gaps, ring of steel round the mosaic and concrete. When solid, turning it over, washing off paper and sand from gaps and grouting. Now making a floor in panels. Can I still work on brown paper with wallpaper paste and make lots of square panels and then could an expert tiler fix it to the floor as a whole? Tesserae not all the same thickness (though within a couple of millimetres) Want it to last a very long time.

 

[Dan]

Have you got any pictures of that kinda of stuff? I'm from The Potteries in Staffordshire. That's the kinda stuff we have some bespoke small potters doing at the local fairs. From what it sounds like anyway.

Welcome to the forum @helen baron

 

[GoneGuy]

Hello and welcome, I would be interested to see some photos of your work

 

[Old Mod]

Hi and welcome to the forum Helen, what’s the project?

 

[Albert]

Welcome to the forum Helen

 

[helen baron]

Hi, Here are a couple that are about a metre across and a pic of me working on a larger rectangular table top (in reverse)

 

[helen baron]

Have you got any pictures of that kinda of stuff? I'm from The Potteries in Staffordshire. That's the kinda stuff we have some bespoke small potters doing at the local fairs. From what it sounds like anyway.

Welcome to the forum @helen baron

Thanks for replying, I've posted some pics. I'd be very interested to see the kind of work your local potters have done.

 

[helen baron]

Hello and welcome, I would be interested to see some photos of your work

Hi, Thanks for replying, just posted some pics.

 

[helen baron]

Hi and welcome to the forum Helen, what’s the project?

It's just an idea at the moment, but the idea is to do a patchwork of square mosaics of different local stories and characters.

 

[Qwerty]

Welcome to the forum Helen

 

[GoneGuy]

Hi, Here are a couple that are about a metre across and a pic of me working on a larger rectangular table top (in reverse)

View attachment 108221 View attachment 108222 View attachment 108223

That looks very nice and bespoke work

 

[Dumbo]

Hello and welcome . .

 

[Old Mod]

It's just an idea at the moment, but the idea is to do a patchwork of square mosaics of different local stories and characters.

Sounds very interesting Helen, please post progress reports/images along the way if you go for it. (Which you should )

So I’m no expert when it comes to manufacturing mosaic, however if I read it correct you say you fill with concrete on the back, correct?
If this is for a floor covering, I would have said you would be better off leaving them as paper faced mosaic so that the tesserae can be adhered direct to the substrate with adhesive.
I would expect the concrete to deteriorate because of its minimal thickness over time.
Then the tesserae would debond from the floor.
As a paper faced mosaic they’d stay fixed to the substrate if fixed correctly.

 

[Lou]

Wow that looks great! How long does that take you to do?

 

[helen baron]

Sounds very interesting Helen, please post progress reports/images along the way if you go for it. (Which you should )

So I’m no expert when it comes to manufacturing mosaic, however if I read it correct you say you fill with concrete on the back, correct?
If this is for a floor covering, I would have said you would be better off leaving them as paper faced mosaic so that the tesserae can be adhered direct to the substrate with adhesive.
I would expect the concrete to deteriorate because of its minimal thickness over time.
Then the tesserae would debond from the floor.
As a paper faced mosaic they’d stay fixed to the substrate if fixed correctly.

Hi, That's great, it's exactly what I hoped to hear! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

 

[helen baron]

Wow that looks great! How long does that take you to do?

Hi, Thank you! It depends on the size of the tesserae of course. Generally for the metre circles it takes a couple of weeks to stick the pieces down on the paper (but I'm not doing it eight hours a day). As I cut all the tesserae prior to firing, there's no cutting at this stage so it's fairly time efficient.

 

[Italy]

good boy,
good job .....