Stained glass mosaic

Stained Glass Mosaic are great fun and very enjoyable to create. The skill is much easier to learn than old fashioned stained glass and nonetheless the results can be equally as beautiful. In very simple terms this type of mosaic is just like a normal one, however you use the medium of glass for both the base and the pieces you are going to afix. It is usually best to limit the range of colors you use, three or four related colours or tones are often more effective than a whole mish mash

of clashing colors! Once the mosaic has been completed a great way to finish it off is top use premixed tiling grout to fill the gaps around the pieces. Tiling grout comes inmany different colors now , however generally a darker color that creates a look of stone, or black, will look best on your work, certainly bright white rarely looks good, so be careful which you choose!

You will need to use a good quality clear drying adhesive to bond your mosaic pieces to a piece of clear picture glass. A great idea is to buy an old picture frame (6 x 6 inches is a good size for starters). You should take out the glass, but put the frame to one side, you will need it later.

The glass should be properly cleaned before any glass is glued to it. You can make you own mosaic pieces, by cutting them from a full sheet of stained glass, with special glass nippers, alternatively buy some ready cut mosaic pieces. These can be bought from online supply sites. See the links below for more details. Always wear protective glassses when cutting glass and be

aware of how sharp cut edges can be. Rinsing cut glass to remove dust is a good idea. As mentioned above it is a good idea to limit your colors to maybe 3 or 4 at first, so as not to overcomplicate your first design attempt. Try different tones of blue alongside a vibrant orange for example. Often using opposite colors from the 'color wheel' can create nice effects.

Next, you need a simple design to work from. You can either draw your own design or trace a pattern from a stained glass template image. How about using a simple celtic knot as your starting theme? Just do a quick search in google pictures and you will find some great ideas for your pattern.

Once you have your design, outline it in black pen and place it under the clear glass. This is your template which you will work to. You can now set out and begin glueing down the pieces of mosaic one at a time, using a strong clear adhesive like Weldbond. Weldbond is great to use for mosaics as it is free from a strong smell and cleans up in water. You may also find the clear glue for sealing around showers is good to use, however this does tend to smell pretty strong and give off fumes, also it can't be easily cleaned with just water.

Fix the glass mosaic pieces a few millimeters apart, whilst cutting any that need to be adjusted to the right size. The gaps left are where the tiling grout will be applied later on. When all the bits are affixed and when you think that you are happy with your finished design, hold it up to the light to see how the colors will relate to each other. If all of the mosaic pieces are properly glued down, by the next day the project will be properly set and dry. The next stage is to applying the tiling grout. This is done using a tiling spatula and is very messy. You simply scoop up the premixed grout and press it all over the mosaic, pushing it right into all the gaps. Once you have done this, wipe of the excess with a damp cloth and leave to dry. Now the tricky bit is letting it dry enough to clean the glass, but not letting it set too much so that it becomes hard to remove from the mosaic surface. It should take between 40 minutes and 1 hour to become touch dry, however this will vary a lot depending on temperature and humidity and you really have to monitor it every 10 minutes or so as it dries.