How to Prepare for a Mosaic Project

Preparing for a broken-tile mosaic project always follows the same steps. The only difference is how much more exciting your final product gets every time. Here is how to begin a project.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tile
• Clear workspace
• Apron or smock
• Hammer
• Towel
• Safety glasses
• Ceramic tile mastic
• Mastic tools
• Band-Aids

1. Take out the item you want to create the mosaic on and place it on a clear workspace. Be sure you're not being too ambitious--think about the time commitment of your project. A trivet can be done in about an hour whereas a table can take days or weeks.

2. Put your apron or smock on and choose your color scheme. Then select the exact pieces of tile you will use for your project.

3. Get out your hammer, safety glasses, tiles and towel and lay your tiles face down on half the towel. Put on the glasses, cover tiles with the other half of towel and hammer away. Always crack a few more pieces than you think you'll need.

4. Open the towel to check how the tiles cracked. Smaller pieces make more intricate artwork than larger pieces. For smaller projects, re-crack any pieces that are bigger than 3 inches in any direction.

5. Transfer your tiles to a container or to your work space. Turn them all over, decorative side up, and sort them according to color, shape or any method you like.

6. Bring out your adhesive tile mastic and the tool you prefer for spreading the glue on tiles. A plastic butter knife, a tiny trowel or mastic in a squeeze container work well. Since you'll always start tiling on the edges, take the time determine what tile shapes you'll need first. A round edge requires rounded shapes on the broken pieces and a straight edge requires geometric shapes like squares, rectangles and triangles to complete a finished edge.

Tips & Warnings

• Always crack tile on a cement floor surface like the garage. Hammering tiles can ruin decorative flooring and patio stones.
• Leftovers from every mosaic project can create a whole new project, so save extra pieces.
• Keep bandages handy in your tile tool kit, since tiny shards can cause tiny cuts when handling tiles.
• Always wear your safety glasses when cracking tiles. Tile shards can fly out in any direction.
• Never prepare for mosaic projects in front of children-- tile shards are dangerous, hammers can cause harm and tile mastic is toxic.