Let me add to Linlee's question, what about painting the grout different colors? I have a book somewhere where the lady did that on her bowling ball. Has anyone done this with good or bad results?

I tried doing it on a bowling ball. I grouted it all white, wasn't happy, so painted part of it black. I think it would be hard to grout in different colors but have never tried it.

i havent tried it yet but also due to the manequin had thought about how it would look i think with a peice like that you need the different colors on the bodice and skin and so forth but on a regular project IMO i think it would be easier to do all one color unless it has well defined areas where the color of the glass or tile changes for a large section

I'm concerned about my current project.
Big red & orange flowers that I had in-visioned with black grout.
But then I went and chose a background color of
an iridescent cream/white, and I'm afraid that the cream
surrounded with the black grout would make the background pop
more than I wanted it to. I haven't started the cream yet...guess I may have to rethink this one. My new thinking is to use a warm grout for the background and keep the flowers black. Too difficult?

linlee maybe use a white grout and paint in the grout on the flowers i would think you'd have more control with the paint

ACK I am just barely awake and still need to fix breakfast and lunches. I will post how I did the several colors of grout and the painting in a little bit. Hands just barely working right now, brain even less. Hehehe I just KNEW there was a reason yesterday to take a picture of the left over grout pile before tossing it.

Chris

...that's a thought.
Lot's of little grout lines though.

Painting the grout is easy, just wipe it off the tessere. It soaks into the grout and stays. You don't have to get real tedious with each line

MAria

Here is a link that might be useful: painting grout thread

Exactly right Maria. Slop the paint on and wipe it right off. I thinned my paint just a little since I just wanted a little darker color and not to really paint the grout. I waited a few hours before doing the paint over fresh grout. I did not want so wipe it or brush it out of the grout lines.

I read about using several grout colors and it was suggested to use masking tape as you would to keep paint from getting on your door frames or?? when you are doing a room paint job. Did I do it that way after carefully researching how to do it right. HECK NO I grouted one color and let it set up cleaned the area as you would normally with all one grout color. Had coffee or did a few chores while waiting for grout to get good and firm. Then I moved onto the next area.

I sort of jumped around on my mannequin. I did her green front because at the time I was planning on doing her several colored glassed back in flesh.After doing her stockings in purple and her little panty area in pink I decided I wanted the back of her bustier done in the green. It was so pretty on her front. So then I just did that and then the big flesh grout. That had me scared half to death to do since it was such a large area and I only had so much flesh colored paint to mix with the grout.

YES I just used craft paint for the color of the grout. Remember she is staying inside. I am not sure you could use the craft paint for an outside project.

I tried to hold my clean finger along the already grouted areas to keep the new grout from cover over. When I slopped over the lines I just wiped it up with paper towel or rag. Also I did find when cleaning her further the one thin layer of colored grout would scrape off the other under color. I suppose I could also touch it up with paint if I felt it was needed and just might do so in a couple of places.

Hope this helps. Go for it . It was not all that hard to do.

Chris

I just read a little tip for using different colors of grout. It suggested using the old style picnic squeeze bottles for mustard and ketchup for different colors of grout. By squeezing the grout in the deisred areas, you would have more control and less mess. Might be worth a try.

Thanks...all good tips! Maybe I should try it out
on a small scale first ;o)...sounds messy.

I used 3 different grout colors on this chickadee, I used masking tape to tape off different sections, did the beige, then the white, then the black, was quick and fairly easy.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

I've also used different grout colors on the same project -the same as jane and shades mentioned - masking tape to tape off the different sections...and if it's big sections, you can use plastic with the tape to cover a bigger area....it was pretty easy. good luck, and let us know what you end up doing and how it worked out!

I did a stepping stone that had daisies scattered across it several years ago. The centers were bright yellow shards and I grouted them in yellow by masking off the surrounding areas. Then I did the background in green grout. As I did the background, I got a little sloppy with the masking and found that this "second" layer of grout on parts of the centers came off easily. Did remove it pretty quickly it didn't have time to begin setting up.

Pat

just found this...although I see that the "painting grout" thread is now MIA, I'm wondering if the 'craft' paint that you are talking about is what is referred to as Tempera paint?

(And thanks SO much on the "how to" of that, since the only thing I could think of to apply it was getting out a tiny paintbrush, and couldn't figure out why you all thought it was such an 'easy' idea!!!)

nah it's that acrylic craft paint available at Jo anns and Micheals,,, in the little bottles