Do-it-yourself mosaic in the country is quite a feasible task!
If there is a desire to decorate the walls of the house, fences, steps, paths on the site, garden furniture, then the ability to lay out a mosaic will turn a dream into reality. This is especially true for those who try to use everything around them with maximum benefit, even those materials that are trash, garbage for most. After all, shards of glass, mirrors, dishes, bottles, finishing ceramic tiles, pebbles, small pebbles will also be used. Some even use wood chips.
What can be decorated with mosaics?
Oh, this list is long enough!
After all, they decorate with it
- walls of houses;
- garden furniture;
- fences;
- steps;
- swimming pools;
- flower beds;
- paintings on the walls;
- tracks;
- platforms under the recreation area.
Master class on laying out mosaic tiles
Drawing up a sketch of a future painting
First of all, it is worth deciding what the plot of the future mosaic will be. If the master has imagination and knows how to draw, then he can draw up a diagram on his own. And everyone else will have to be content with other people's drawings, of which there are many. Almost everyone knows how to enlarge a drawing to the required format.
A 1 cm X 1 cm grid should be imposed on the picture, and the diagram should be lined with the desired magnification. For example, if you want to make a drawing 5 times larger, then the squares are drawn with a side of 5 cm, 10 times - the side is 10 cm. Then all the lines are carefully transferred from the sample to the diagram. Even primary school students can easily cope with such work.
Preparation of material for mosaic
Most often, after renovation in every house, some part of unused ceramic tiles remains, or an old one appears, removed from the walls. This may well serve as a material for a mosaic. But it is possible for the selected pattern to require tiles of other colors. Then you can go to a hardware store and there for a meager price, or even free of charge, buy a battle or the remains of ceramics.
In order to lay out the mosaic, the master needs small pieces of tile. Part of the tile can be left intact. The rest of the tile is either cut with a professional tile cutter or cracked with a cloth-wrapped hammer.
In the course of work, it may become clear that smaller pieces may be required. Then the fragments "rule" with the help of pliers or pliers, removing the excess. Particular accuracy is not needed here, it is only important that the pieces of ceramic are not larger than the remaining free space.
Surface preparation
It is best to lay out the mosaic on plaster, cement-sand screed, drywall or putty. A very important condition is the absolute smoothness and cleanliness of the surface. Therefore, before starting work, it is necessary to carefully level it and seal up the cracks, treat it with a primer, as this will increase the adhesion (adhesive force).
It is best to transfer the sketch of the drawing to the base of the mosaic with a pencil, so as not to get lost and lay out the picture in compliance with the necessary proportions.
Preparation of mosaic adhesive
This question is almost the most important when creating paintings from shards. The most suitable mixture should be selected, which has the highest adhesion to the materials with which you have to work.
For concrete substrates, experts advise taking white cement glue (Kreps Reinforced White, Litoplus K55, UNIS Belfix, Ceresit CM 115).Reactive epoxy tile glue, epoxy grout, or liquid nails are best for working on wood.
Laying out the mosaic
When working, you should remember these basic rules.
It is very important to apply the adhesive mass to both surfaces: the base and the material with which the drawing is laid out. Moreover, one of the surfaces should have a lighter spreading.
First of all, they use that material (fragments, pebbles, pebbles, shards of dishes), which are the thickest, in order to then drive all the rest under it so that the alignment is most accurate.
Apply the glue mixture only to small areas, previously highlighted in the sketch. Only light areas can be coated with a larger area, the installation of which will require a minimum of time.
Having spread the glue mass on the surface of the base with an ordinary spatula, you then need to remove the excess mixture with a spatula with teeth.
Pieces of uniform thickness are laid out on an even adhesive layer. If you have to use pieces of different thickness in the composition, then leveling the base by adding glue will help the master.
Thinner tiles and smaller fragments will go deeper into the glue mass faster - remember this and try to avoid "falling through" the pattern in the overall composition.
It is necessary to start laying out the composition from the center, so it will turn out better in terms of compliance with the sketch and proportions.
The background and abstraction are left for last, since first of all you need to lay out those objects that have complex geometry: people, animals, plants, and the like.
Grouting
The final final step is this process. It touches mosaics on floors, walls, countertops. Do not do without grouting and pictures of fragments of tiles on the paths and sites in recreation areas.
After laying out the mosaic, you should wait at least a day. Then, right on top of the picture, they spread the glue base and carefully drive it between the mosaic components with a rubber float, while leveling the entire surface as much as possible, especially at the seams. Excess grout is removed with a sponge.
After drying, it is necessary to wash off the glue from the tiles themselves and other components of the mosaic. If necessary, you can use a metal brush or a washcloth, but you need to use them with extreme caution.
Litochrom Starlike Crystal, an epoxy resin with a chameleon effect, is most suitable for this stage of work. After all, this material has the ability to take on the color of the piece of the mosaic that is closest to it. But cement grout or putty can also be used, although the effect, of course, will be less bright.
Mosaic decoration of garden furniture
When making a mosaic on a rectangular tabletop, it is best to fill vertically the borders along its edge. The composition itself must be laid out from the edges to the center.