Stained Glass/Mosaic panel question?

[Margram]

My mosaic-y friend Helen uses pva to glue down tile and glass bits, then colours the grout
with acrylic paints.

Marg x

[Pat from Canvey]

Just out of interest, how big is the panel? Thinking those mosaic squares must be very small!

The panel is 14.5 inches square and each of the small squares are about 1/4 inch. They vary a bit because they were all hand cut. I just cut strips of glass and then used tile nippers to divide the strip up. It's quicker that way.You could also use non-uniform glass pieces left over from making stained glass windows and use the tile nippers to make the piece fit the available space. Provided you've got your pattern marked out, it's fairly straightforward. This bird mosaic is made that way.

It may look a little weird but I was into pattern formation at the time and tried to design it so that the pattern could be repeated as in block printing of wallpaper.

[Jay9]

 I have glued previous verions with ordinary tile adhesive, PVA glue and clear bathroom sealant (depending on what surface I am glueing onto).

I'd go with MDF sealed with white emulsion paint and then PVA glue for sticking the glass down before grouting with ordinary tile grout.  I've also coloured the grout with acrylic paint, if you want a dark colour/shade you will need a lot of paint as the grout always dries up much lighter than you think! 

Always best to test some grout colours first as it can really throw your design if the shade turns out wrong

Good luck!

[Lloki]

Thanks Janine,

Funny enough I was going to post another question about colouring grout and you've just answered it - brilliant!

I'm getting to the point where I can start sticking down now, I've sized all sides of the MDF with diluted PVA (recommended by Reading Stained Glass) and I'm going to use PVA when the sticking down begins - wish me luck!

[Lloki]

Sorry another question!

Colouring grout?

I was thinking about colouring the grout to blend in with the surrounding colours, you know greenish for grass, blueish for sky........ instead of mixing up a lot more coloured grout than I actually need, does anybody have experience of grouting (using normal tile grout) and then just painting over the cracks (with acrylic paint) so to speak?

Any advice gratefully received!

[Pat from Canvey]

I think it would be too time comsuming to paint the grout. As far as I can recall, and it's a long time since I did any mosaic, I used normal white tile grout and coloured it with acrylic paint, choosing a colour that best suited the glass used, eg background glass armstrong opaque beige ....colour of grout light beige. For this one I kept the grout white to merge in with the central panel.

[Lloki]

Thank you Pat,
I did think it would take a long time to grout, so then having to paint over it was just a consequence I thought I'd have to bear!
I do have the patience of Job (so I've been told)
It did take me 11.5 hours to stick down the hawk alone (only 95 pieces) - when I can work out how to post pictures I will, but believe me I'm in for the long run - I'm on a mission! It will not defeat me!!!
Perhaps if I can (eventually) post a picture, it will give some idea of the size of the "issue" I'd  like to get it right first time, maybe white is the way to go?
Thanks for the advice anyway - I think you may be right!   

[Jay9]

I'd colour the grout rather than paint over, it just wouldn't look right otherwise.  Lighter grouts always look better as they help set off the colours, dark colours can 'break up' the design so you see it as a mix of individual pieces rather than your eye being able to 'see' the whole thing as big picture.

hope that makes sense!

[Lloki]

OK, Thank you ladies, colouring the grout would be the way to go!
Only thing that worries me slightly is getting a good colour match between batches - I'm not going to be able to mix the whole amount up in one go - I think I might just keep it simple and go for white instead, but thank you anyway.
Thanks for the tip about dark grout, I was thinking of using a darker colour on the hawk thinking it would "blend in and bind it together" didn't realise it could look strange!