So, I had a random few days of free time recently and I decided to make a mosaic. No idea where the idea came from, but I ran with it. I must say the finished product really surprised me, and I realized art isn't as hard as I thought. I also really enjoyed smashing all the tiles with a hammer (what a great stress reliever). Below is the finished product, and then I'll show you how I went about creating him.
First, I went to Home Depot (that place makes me broke) and bought my supplies. You'll need a board to glue the tiles to, I bought a pre-cut one measuring 2x2 and it's 3/8 of an inch thick. You can buy whatever size you want for your project, but I wouldn't recommend getting too much thinner of a board because it might snap under the weight of the tiles and grout. Then I bought random tiles that I liked, one large gray one for the elephant (about 1'x1'), some for the sand and grass, then two small white ones and two small black (though I only used the black for the eye, and it's very tiny). The Home Depot I was at didn't have blue tiles, so I pick up one square of mosaic glass tiles (and they're already placed on a mat that I had to tear them off of).
I also got a tile nipper (literally) at A.C. Moore for $15, but that's optional. I used it for the tiny tiles of the trunk and to shape his eye. I spent roughly $20 at Home Depot (but I already had the grout and tile adhesive). The first thing I did was find a picture of an elephant, not sure why I chose an elephant to make either, but he was fairly easy to draw. This is the picture I found:
And I used the above elephant to serve as a model for my own elephant, which was much less detailed. But don't worry if you can't draw (I certainly can't), you really only need a rough outline, and if all else fails you can always bribe your friend to draw it. So here is what my elephant looked like in his outline (you can barely see him because it's in pencil, sorry).
I was very proud of that little sketch (I mean, I can barely draw a stick figure). Then I used my little hammer to smash the tiles to bits. I did lay newspaper down to catch most of the mess but beware: tile pieces will fall everywhere and you will spend time cleaning it up. Also, I used safety goggles, which were more like big sunglasses, but they did the trick. Tile pieces will fly in your eyeballs, they don't care, so if you like your vision wear goggles. Then I laid down the sand, then the grass, the sky and the white strip above the sky (clouds?) I left the elephant for very last. You'll want to stick very close to the lines you've drawn, it makes all the difference when you fill in the main shape. All the breaks outside of the elephant were natural results of my hammer, I didn't use the tile nipper at all, but I still got very close to the elephant outline, so it is possible. (Even the tusks broke themselves perfectly, it was amazing).
Finally, I smashed the gray tiles (that took forever) and placed the pieces on the board (that took even longer). Once all the tiles were in place, I began the massive task of gluing them all down (that took the longest). I used AcrylPro, which you can get at Home Depot (I think it's like $8). And I spread it on the tiles individually with a plastic butter knife. It took an excruciatingly long time, but I had good company.
Once all the tiles were glued, I let the whole thing dry for 24 hours. I would suggest letting it dry even longer so the tiles don't fall off when you're spreading the grout. Here he is, drying and waiting patiently to be grouted.
Then I used a grout spreader, which I don't have a picture of, but you can Google it (it's just a rectangle of metal with a handle). I got a big blob of grout on my spreader and simply dragged in along the entire mosaic, letting the grout fill in all the crevices between the tiles). Don't worry, it will cover the whole mosaic and look blurry and milky, but once the grout dries, you can wipe the tiles clean with a wet sponge or cloth. And after it's all dry he was ready to be placed in my room. I couldn't hang him on the wall because he's super heavy and you can't put holes in the walls here anyway. So I just rested him against the wall, and he settled in just fine.
So good luck and have fun and of course, I'd love to see pictures of your own creations!
