mosaic anything for practically free

The art of the mosaic is very simple. It's merely sticking tiles or other pieces of ceramic on to something and then putting something in between the spaces to fill in

and make it permanent. The first thing you have to decide is what you want to

mosaic. You can embellish table tops, flower pots, picture frames, counter tops or

anything else you can imagine. Now you will need the ceramic tiles or what ever else

you choose to use. To get the tiles, I have resorted to many different sources. You can actually go to a tile place and ask them if you can have anything that is broken and that they are going to dispose of. You will be surprised how happy they will be

to satisfy your request. Choose varied colors and patterns if you like or choose just

one kind if you want it to be less busy. Another idea, which may take a little longer

to complete, is to save every dish you've ever broken(tell friends and relatives what

you're doing and ask them to save as well). The next step is so fun, especially if

you have some aggression to resolve. Take the tiles or broken pottery and a large

hammer, cover the pottery with a towel and bang the heck out of it with the hammer.

Now you have created lots of little managable pieces to play with. You will now need

to glue the pieces on to the object you want to enhance. The glue really doesn't

matter, however rubber cement and anything not permanent will not work effectively. The best glues are white glue(school glue- like Elmer's) or a silicone

adhesive, that you can get at a home store. I, for one am not all that fond of creating

a picture with the pieces, though you can if you choose. I prefer the randomness of

just creating as you go. The easiest way to work is to do all the boarder first. Place the material any way you want, making sure not to go beyond the edges of the surface

you are working on. Try to keep an even amount of space between the pieces and

work it like a puzzle, paying attention to where the pieces might fit. When you have

covered the whole surface to your satisfaction, let it dry for about 12 hours. Now

you will need some grout (the stuff that fills in the spaces). You can purchase it at

a hardware store or a home store. You can either buy the premixed or the dry. I

think that the dry one is less expensive, because you'll have to ad the water and mix

it yourself, following the directions on the package. Either way, now you're ready

to grout your piece. You can purchase a grout spreader at the same places that you

bought the grout or you can use a plastic kitchen spatula and have it work just as well. Take a generous amount of the mixture and start at one end dragging the

spreader and the grout across the tiles. You will see it filling in the spaces as you

go along. For this part of the process, more is better, you can remove the excess

when your done. If you don't use enough, it won't turn out right. Once you've

coated the entire piece and it's pretty level, take a large dampened sponge and start

to gently remove the grout that is covering just the tiles. Be careful not to remove

what is in the spaces. You will have to occasionally rinse the sponge as it will be

full of grout. Once your satisfied with the look, and the tiles or ceramic look clean. Let
it dry. That's pretty much the process. You can vary the types of material that
you use and there are an infinate amount of surfaces to be beautified. Get your
hammer and get busy smashing things.