Silva, these are gorgeous! I especially love your little birds. They're so simple but you've made them so sweet.

I'm curious, when you mosaic on mesh, what kind of adhesive do you use to glue the tiles to the mesh?

I use Weldbond or MAC glue. I dab the back of the tess and then apply to the mesh. My goal is to glue each piece securely to the mesh, yet leave a part of each tess exposed (so that when the piece is installed there can be tess-to-substrate bond).

Hey girl I am loving it all . I want to do some on rock maybe when I get through with this floor . If you ever get this way there is a granet place that has tons of gr. scraps you can get for free.

Thanks for the info Silva! I've been wanting to try mesh, your advice is very helpful.

Beautiful !! You're such an inspiration :)

Absolutely Beautiful!!!! Love them all but am liking the rocks! Did you use thin set to adhere the tess? The butterflies are so pretty and would be a lovely touch in the garden.

Thanks, all. I used thinset to adhere the tess to the rock. Then I used it to grout as well. Finally, I sealed the entire rock with grout sealer, just to make doubly sure that they would be weatherproof. If I first made the mosaic on mesh, I used MAC glue to adhere the tess to the mesh. But I still used thinset to glue the "mosaic on mesh" to the rock. Here's an article I wrote about it, with pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to mosaic a garden stone

I love all your work, the dragonflies are wonderful.

They are all so pretty!

Thanks for sharing, Silvamae! I really love your butterflies and especially your dragonfiles! I am not totally understanding the mesh technique, but I will have to read up more on this. Sure looks handy as far are building the mosaic design, though. Very lovely, and your are very talented.

Patty S.

Thank you all. Patty, the technique sounds awkward but is really easy. One reason to use the method is so that you can create the design in your studio, and then transport it elsewhere to install. Another reason is that, with a mosaic design on mesh, you can curve it slightly to install on, say, a vase or a pole. So, step by step,

1. Lay down a cutting board or other stationary flat object.

2. Lay down a pattern, such as a hand-drawn sketch or a picture cut from a magazine, and tape it to the board.

3. Lay down a piece of plastic such as a sandwich bag that has been cut and opened out to lay flat. Tape it in place over the pattern.

4. Lay down the mesh and tape in place, on top of the baggie.

Dab glue on the back of each tile and press into position, guided by the pattern that you can see through the baggie and mesh. Let dry. Pull mesh/mosaic up and away from the baggie.

Oh, what a great explanation, makes complete sense, and what a great idea about this being more amenable to curved surfaces, very clever! Have a question - if you're using glass tesserae, can you see the mesh through the glass when you place it on the final surface?

Patty S.

Yes! You have to keep that in mind; if you are using cathedral (see-through) glass or translucent glass, the mesh will show through. This method only works well with opaque glass. If most of your glass is opaque, but you have one or two translucent pieces, you can still use them by (1) painting the back of the piece of glass with white paint, (2) carefully cuttin a hole in the mesh and glueing the piece of glass directly to the substrate.

I should have said (1) painting the back of the piece of glass with white paint, OR (2) carefully cutting a hole in the mesh and glueing the piece of glass directly to the substrate.