How to Make a Mosaic Sundial

You can make your own sundial to add to your home's landscaping or garden. Make it into a mosaic, and you'll have a functional piece of art. Here's how you can make a mosaic sundial.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wood for a base
• Gnomon, or hand, of the sundial
• Tile or mosaic nippers
• Cement
• Squeegee
• Masking tape
• Tiles
• Grout
• Water
• Newspaper
• Dish cloth

1. Make or buy a plan to build your mosaic sundial. Drawing out your pattern before you start building your sundial can help you make certain that you have enough materials before you start.

2. Get a sundial template so that you correctly place times along your sundial. You can download one from the Internet.

3. Set up your base. Cut a piece of wood to the size you want your sundial to be. Then, using masking tape, tape around the edges of your wood base.

4. Get your mosaic pieces and gnomon, the hand of your sundial, ready. If necessary, cut your tile pieces down to size using your tile nippers. Clean your tile pieces, and remove the paper backing using warm soapy water.

5. Mix and apply cement or other mosaic adhesive to the wood base. You can get cement from a craft supply or hardware store.

6. Arrange your mosaic pieces on the adhesive. Start with the gnomon, and arrange tiles around it.

7. Apply grout to your mosaic. Make sure you fill in the spaces between the tiles.

8. Use a wadded up piece of newspaper to clean the grout from your tiles. After the grout dries, take a dish cloth and polish the film off the tiles until they are clean and shiny.

9. Remove the tape from the base once the grout is completely dry, and place your sundial outside so that the gnomon is facing true north.

Tips & Warnings

• When placing the tiles in your mosaic, keep the spaces between them even. This is especially important if you are arranging tiles in parallel rows.
• Apply a color tint to your grout. You can do this by mixing powdered grout coloring as you mix the grout in Step 7 or by applying paint to the grout before Step 9.

Resources

• Place times correctly by downloading a sundial construction template from this site.

[jgsmom]

on 6/9/2008 Awesome article! I am going to try this!