Glad to see you got started on that. Looks good! The only comment I have now is about your clear glass pieces. I remember seeing an episode on hgtv where these guys has glass tile put in their kitchen. They didn't like it because you could see the trowel marks in the mastic through the glass. I'm not sure what kind of adhesive you're gonna use, but keep that in mind if that matters to you.
I used my photoshop to reverse your photo to get a better view.
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Thanks for flipping it, BAMA. I've lost my photoshop and REALLY miss it! I looked for a way to flip it in EasyShare but didn't see one. I've thought about the thinset showing through the clear, but I just want the sparkle as it will be outside, so don't care that it will show through gray. At least I HOPE I don't once it's done! What I really hope I don't lose is the cobalt blue in the lettering. I guess I see this one as a trial run anyway. If I like it, great. If I don't, I'll have learned some things!

Oooooooooooooo - that'll be neat. The blue REALLY shows up well, and I love the lettering style. Wish I could see it flipped, but got the red x.

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Good Morning. Looks like I popped in at the right time for a change. Hope this helps.

I Love the sign!! Great job with the lettering. So pretty.

The picture program I use is a SMALL free down load from the internet called Irfanview. Choose the right down load for your operating system to down load and the program is so easy to use. Any questions I will try to check back in to answer.

Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Irfanview

Gonna be really pretty...when I told you to butter your pieces I thought you were using tile or china sorry....Good Luck never attemped this method.Annie

That looks great! I love the way you did the lettering.

OH THANK YOU, SHADES. What a difference. I could NOT figure it out. It looks soooo much better now. That'll be wonderful, LADY. You gonna do a welcome plaque afterwards???

Thanks, CHRIS, for flipping it also. I'll check out that photo site.

ANNIE: No problem. I thought about using your method even with the glass, but decided to go the indirect route as I have never tried it before.

SQUIRRELLY: I just wrote it REALLY BIG and then put glass on top of it. Somehow it was much more tedious than that sentence sounds... ;0

SLOW: I have a nifty black metal post that I plan to put it on, with our street number also. I'll have to take a pic rather than try to describe it. Check back later!

its looking good

wow, Ronnie, that's really turning out nice. You'll have to give us a play by play on the reverse indirect when you go to set it.

Really pretty, ladyronnie!! LOVE the blue esp!! You have pretty writing to boot...mine's chicken scratching at best since 'uncle arthur' decided to move into my thumbs.

Pat

That is really nice, please do give instruction as to how you did it. What is the advantage of that method and when would one likely do it that way? My brain is always getting stretched here. LOL

Yes! Very nice! It'll look great with the house number. I want to do a number...on the long list!!.

Lilym usually you would use the indirect method when you want a flat surface, I've never tried it, though

Maria

Yep, what Maria said, to make a flat surface. The glass I am using is of several different thicknesses. The lime green is very thin, while the most clear is very thick, and several others in between. I've never done this before, so I'll learn right along with you guys! The difference is, the mistakes will be on MY project and you can avoid them :)

here is an online photo editing thingy that was highly recommended to me, but Ihavent tried it yet. Nothing to download.
http://www.picnik.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: picnik

I finished filling in all the background tonight. I bought some new opaque red and blue scraps this afternoon and added some of those, lost the '70's orange-green-and-brown feel of it. (A lot of those "browns" are mirror backs anyway.) I was going for a "confetti" look, and I think I've achieved it. Unfortunately, my son has determined that the power cord on my digicam is gone bad, and my camera battery is dead :(
I'll hold off doing the thinset until I get my camera back to working. Pray it's soon!

WOW Lady!!! Looks great! Can hardly wait to see the post and everything together! It's all sooo time consuming!!!

Back in business!
Ok, so it's basically done. And boy, did I learn some things about how NOT to do this. It turned out "ok", but not exactly as I had in mind. Mainly it's much thicker and heavier than it needs to be, and I know what I'd do differently next time. I'll post the pics of the process and tell you what I did and what I'd change.

This is what my thinset looked like. I think it was just about right. I screened it through a spaghetti sieve before I added the water so there were no chunks in it. That was a GOOD plan.
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Here's my setup with the first three blobs of thinset. I should have stopped there or even before.
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Mistake #1: Putting too much thinset on the backerboard. I pushed it around with a spoon and then with my gloved hands. That worked fine, just had way too much on it in the end.

I should have had another picture taken between here. This one shows the thinset spread on the backerboard AND on the back of the letters.
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Mistake #2: DON'T spread it on the back of your tessarae! I had a lot of trouble with picking up tessarae from the contact paper, and I didn't need nearly so much thinset (do you sense a theme here?)

Next, I flipped the backerboard over onto the tessarae part, and mooshed it down with my hands.
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This next step worked pretty neat. Because I had it laid out on newspaper, I could wrap the newspaper around the whole "sandwich", then flip it over right side up.
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Another thing I didn't take a picture of, after I flipped it over I smoothed over it with my hands on the contact paper. If I had used less thinset, this may have been even more important to get the thinset/grout between all the tessarae.

After I got the newspaper out from around it, here's what it looked like. I found that I could carefully pull on the contact paper to better center the whole thing, that even though I had mooshed them together it would still move as a whole. I didn't have to move it far.
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Here it is after I pulled the contact paper off. I used a lot of clear textured glass, textured side out so it would catch a lot of light. That was a good plan.

Mistake #3: Don't pull the contact paper off until after the thinset is set! I waited an hour or so, but because it was still fairly wet, the contact paper pulled up on the thinset and made it just a little rough all over instead of smooth. For this project that doesn't matter so much, but if I wanted the "grout" smooth, it would have mattered a lot. DH thought I ought to go over it with a grout sponge, which WOULD have smoothed the grout, but I did NOT want to get thinset onto my textured glass if I didn't have to, and on this I didn't have to, so I left it rough.

Now I have to finish the edges somehow, or not, and decide what to do with it. I am thinking of making another one to actually use on the yard post I have, now that I know better what I am doing. I am thinking of just laying this one near the entry, except I keep thinking it may look like some kind of headstone!

What I did with some of the leftover thinset...

...and the rest of the leftover thinset. I needed a doorstop for the bathroom door. I believe this will work just dandy, after I put some felt on the back to keep from scratching the tile.

That's it! What do you think? All of you who have done this before may look at my mistakes and say, "Well, duh!" I learn best the hard way!

Veronica

Yea!! It looks good. When I was watching your progress, I was wondering if that was too much thinset, but then again you used it as your grout too. I think maybe I would've used thinset to "sticktify" it down, and gone back later and grouted it.
WAIT!! after thinking about it again, that would mean digging the grout out of all that textured glass wouldn't it?
I think you really thought this out well Ladyronnie...don't listen to me....

I think it all turned out just beautiful. Wish there was a way to get all this into the FAQ so it stays put for the next person to come along. Great instructions with your pictures.

Love the door stop too.

Chris

Whatever YOU think you did wrong, surely doesn't show up. It's fabulous! Thanks for the tutorial.

Thanks for the input. I think I'm going to show it to my BIL and his wife tomorrow, and if they react positively, I'll give it to them. Then get right to work on another one :)

it's wonderful! thanks for the pics and descriptions.

I'm curious though, the thinset I have is white but that looks concrete gray? I think it would be even better with white.

Nice job and great tutorial!! Thank you!

Does anyone know how to get things into the FAQ? This would be great along with the epoxy thread and a few others

Maria

YOU DID AN AWESOME JOB!!! AND Thank You for sharing the step by step!!! Excellent!!! I've been learning as I go with mortar too! Well actually everything I do is an experiment!lol!

Thanks again!
NICE: I would like for it to have been white, but gray was what we had on hand and I knew this was an experiment. I have started another one already so may look for white if I go the thinset route again.

MARIA: Ya mean I could be PUBLISHED?? :)

JANIE: Thanks! This was my first time to use thinset, so it's ALL an experiment! Guess this would go in the FAQ for how NOT to do it, at least parts of it! Sure wish I had more of that fancy clear glass though!

That turned out LOVELY! And the tutorial is grand. Thanks!

My sister-in-law really seemed to like it, so it's going to a new home. I just need to learn about sealing concrete and backerboard before she comes back next weekend, so I can get that done in the meanwhile. (We're keeping her son for a week, as he is right between the ages of two of my boys. FOUR boys in the house for a week! yeehaa!) I think maybe I should make a concrete back for it, kind of continue the "headstone" idea? (No, I really DO like this SIL :)

Ronnie, this looks great! I seal with H&C Concrete sealer. I've not had a problem with anything I've sealed.

Thanks debbi. I haven't looked into sealer yet, too much on my plate this week. I appreciate the info though.