Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Story of Crafting a Mosaic Patio Table

We use tables at different places – in bedrooms, in study rooms, in dining halls, and in outdoor gardens as well. By learning how to do mosaic on table, we can enhance the beauty of many indoor and outdoor settings. We want to carve design on the tabletop. Therefore, we need to select a design that we want to create on the table top. To find an attractive design, picture, or scenery you can browse across mosaic portals. Better to create the design on a drawing paper and then replicate the same on the tabletop. You need to decide what finishing you want to offer to the design, and accordingly select mosaic materials. To create the mosaic design, you can use ceramic tiles, glass pieces, shells, pebbles, crockery, smalti, limestone and various other materials. You also need various mosaic kits, tools and equipment.
To create a mosaic patio table, you may need following supplies:


  • Plywood Table Top
  • Drawing Paper
  • Respirator
  • Grout
  • Jiffy Mixer
  • Trowel
  • Tile Adhesive
  • Wet sponge
  • Buckets
  • Scraper
  • Gloves
  • Needle Tool
  • Stiff Flexible Rib


You can use a pencil or marker to draw the design on the table top. Needle tool is used in dot-to-dot technique to sketch the drawing on the table top. Now arrange the mosaic materials according to set guidelines and stick the tiles together using trowel and mortar. To be safe do not forget to use gloves. Use wet sponge to wipe excessive mortars and adhesives off the surface. You need to understand what look you are going to assign to your design and use specific mosaic materials to get the desired finishing. After you have finished embedding the mosaic materials, check everything is okay and let the mosaic piece to dry for a night period or 24 hours. 

Readymade mosaic patio table tops:

Today you can buy readymade mosaic tabletops and legs from stores. In California, www.mikemosaic.com is a reputed online store offering mosaic patio tables and mosaic portraits. On this website, you can also buy custom tables, chairs, bases, and DIY mosaic kits. The store physically located in California is the studio of Mike McCormick. McCormick has more than 20 years experience in designing mosaic arts and furniture items. You can take help of the expert mosaic artist in any of your mosaic project. Contact him at MikeMosaic@aol.com or (562) 505-1779.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Three Don’t s to Keep in Mind while Creating Mosaic Portraits

Mosaic portraits can be masterpiece items for your walls to increase the interior decoration of your home or office. If you have sufficient mosaic skills, you can create mosaic portraits of your family members, historic personalities, mesmerizing sceneries, or any attractive picture you found on Internet. Today you can also use designing software to create beautiful designs to depict in your mosaic portrait. If we talk about mosaic materials, you can use a variety of materials in your mosaic work such as crockery, stained glass pieces, ceramic tiles, limestone, shells, marbles, pebble stones, mirror pieces and many others. You also have large range of mosaic kits and advanced tools available to make your mosaic task easier. 

When it comes to creating mosaic portraits, experts suggest you many do’s and don’ts. Here we will talk about three major don’ts that you should keep in mind while creating a mosaic portrait. 

Avoid using colors too much: When you use too deep colors, the portraits may look fine from a far distance. However, a closer look or examination reveals the ugly side of the portrait. A bit lighter mosaic image would look better from both close and far distances. 

Avoid less cell count: If you want a clear and crisp mosaic portrait, you should focus on increasing the cell counts, the building constituents of the image. With lesser number of cell counts, you get a blurred image, which may not be recognizable from a far distance. With higher number of cell counts, you get more ability to depict the fine details of the image. 

Do not shoot the source image from a far distance: You can build a clear and crisp portrait of the source image only when you have a close picture of the source image. So, avoid taking a group shot or a shot from a far distance of the source image. Shoot the source object from a close distance so that you can have a clear picture of the source enabling you to build crisp portrait. If you are going to portray a person, take a close shot of the face of the person. If you have only a group picture available of the person you are going to portray, then try to crop the image tightly to get closer view of the personality. 

What if I don’t have enough expertise or time?

If you do not have enough expertise of Mosaic art or do not want to spend your precious time, you can take help of skilled mosaic artists for your mosaic project. In California, Mike McCormick is a renowned mosaic artist having spent more than 20 years developing mosaic arts and tables. He has his own mosaic studio in California, where a variety of mosaic items is available for display and sale. You can visit Mikemosaic.com. You can purchase mosaic patio table, ceramic tile portraits, mosaic kits and other great mosaic items for your home and office from the online store. Contact McCormick at MikeMosaic@aol.com or (562) 505-1779. 

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Interesting Facts about Mosaic Art that You would Like to Know

Mosaic is the art of assembling a variety of materials together to create a wonderful pattern or image. You might be interested in digging into the history of Mosaic art and want to get acquainted with some interesting facts related with Mosaic. The story of mosaic takes you back to the lifestyle and culture of antiquated Mesopotamia. Individuals of Mesopotamia civilization used to improve beauty of homes by adding mosaic designs. In that period people used stones, glasses, pebbles, marbles, and other naturally occurring materials to create mosaic designs. 

The most ancient examples of mosaic art are present in ancient temples of Arab and Mesopotamin dating back to second half of 3rd millennium BC. The ancient temples have pieces of colored stones, shells and ivory, which clarify that people were aware of Mosaic art. Excavations done at Susa and Chogha Zanbil revealed some glazed tiles, which dates back to around 1500 BC. However, it is believed that mosaic designs were not in use until the periods of Roman and Sassanid rulings.  At Tiryns, a part of ancient Greek, you can discover mosaics made up of pebbles believed to be created in Bronze Age. At the Macedonian palace-city of Aegae, you can see mosaics created in the 4th century BC. The Beauty of Durrës discovered in Albania consists of some significant mosaic designs created in 4th century BC. 

Around the world, you can visit numerous spots where you can see mosaic workmanship in its complete eminence. You can visit three churches located in Ravenna in Italy - Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Sant'Apollinare in Classe, and Basilica of San Vitale and see the glory of mosaic craftsmanship. Glass mosaic wall arts at Harvey Mandel building in San Diego, California shows brilliance of mosaic workmanship at its best. The mosaics at Romana del Casale villa near Piazza Armerina in Sicily are the largest collection of late Roman mosaics available to the world. You can visit churches in Madaba, Jordan; the Jāmeh Mosque of Yazd in Iran; subways in New York city to see some splendid mosaic designing work. 

Today advanced equipment has made mosaic work effortless and you can use a wide range of materials for mosaic work and perform mosaic art on a large variety of items. If you do not want to spend your precious time, you can buy a large range of ready made mosaic items for home use such as mike mosaic patio table, mosaic portraits, and mosaic wall arts. If you are in California, you have opportunity to buy mosaic items online. Visit mikemosaic.com. The store is physically located in California, USA. You can also take help of Mike McCormick, a renowned Mosaic artist for any mosaic project. You can contact McCormick at MikeMosaic@aol.com or (562) 505-1779.