Mosaic Peacock

While I'm painting the next section on my paper mache project I thought I'd post a little bit about mosaics.  I started experimenting with glass a few years ago.  This peacock usually sits in a stand on a table.  We built a light in over the stand, so I was not able to get a good shot of the mosaic while it was in that stand.  I have it propped against a stool for this photos.

This mosaic is eighteen inches in diameter.  The glass is cast as part of the stepping stone.  The glass is iridescent blue and green with white,brown and black glass used on the face of the bird.  I cut the glass myself.

I traced the rim of the stepping stone mold to make sure my drawing would fit properly in the mold. Then drew a picture of my peacock on white paper with a heavy black marker.

I taped my drawing to a board and laid a piece of Mosaic Mount, sticky side up on top of my drawing.  I also taped the edges of the Mosaic Mount to the board.  At this point the piece of Mosaic Mount was larger than the diameter of the stepping stone mold.  (In case you are not familiar with the product, Mosaic Mount is a clear temporary adhesive contact paper.)  Many times Mosaic Mount is used with the tiles facing downwards.  For this project, the glass was placed on the product face up.

I laid my glass pieces over the design until I had the design looking like I wanted, leaving a gap between each piece so there would be room for grout.  The next step was to place a piece of Mosaic Mount trimmed to the size of one inch smaller than the interior diameter of the stepping stone on top of the glass.  Once that was done, I made sure the top piece of Mosaic Mount was well adhered to the glass.  I placed the design sandwiched between the two layers of glass into the mold and made sure it was centered.  Then I peeled off the back layer of Mosaic Mount and brushed fine sand in between the pieces of glass about half the depth of the glass in the design, but leaving the rim free of sand.  Then I poured in the stepping stone cement.  I let it set up for a couple of days to make sure that it was completely dry before removing from the mold.

Once the stone had cured, I removed it from the mold.  I removed the Mosaic Mount from the front of the glass and brushed away the sand with a whisk broom.  Then the stone was grouted.

My next blog entry will have more on this mosaic and some close up pictures.