I'm still new here. But because of inspiration found here during a dilemma about our bathroom last spring, I decided to mosaic our bathroom counter top. I had plenty of glass, know how to cut glass, and only needed to buy a few items.
I decided to use this mesh I found for mosaic, to build the design upon, then transfer the finished piece onto the counter after glue was laid. It has worked out well SO FAR. I worked outside at our picnic table when i had a chance. That is where I put my totes of glass. As I nipped it, I put the colors on paper plates. I have a carpet sample I have used for years on which to score glass, so that was put on the table also.
I took the mesh I ordered and made a pattern divided into 9 sections. I laid the sections on a cookie sheet. It was the right size, and allowed me to carry it for storing in the garage when not working. If I was only going to be away a short time, I covered the piece in progress with a dish towel to keep the kitties or whatever from moving things around too much. Actually it rained on everything a few times, including the paper plates of glass mosaics. But luckily, by the next day everything was dry each time, and I could pick up where I left off.
If you aren't familiar with this mesh, so far i am happy with it. After you arrange your glass on it, you heat it with a heat gun, or what I did, in a 200 degree oven for 30 minutes. When it came out, all of the mosaic pieces were glued to the mesh. It is a really strong bond. I had a couple minutes to nudge glass into place if I didn't like the position. I also ran a rolling pin over the whole thing to make sure the pieces were all flat. Now I have these flexible mesh sections that are almost ready to be glued to the counter.
A challenge are the edges, and two curves on the front. But I have a solution that I'll show in pictures after it is installed. Here are a few pictures.
Some additional thoughts: I found that for me, this is a rather tedious craft. Our picnic table is a little low and hard on my back to lean for hours. And my knees get stiff and sore. And behind all the work, is the nagging thought that it just might fail in some way. After all, this is my first project. Well, officially it is. I made a small project early in the summer to get the feel of the glass, the glue, the grout, how to plan a design. That was in preparation for what I am doing now. I had a plan in my head to do something simple. I learned that no design is simple, every piece matters. I feel my 'design' is rather uninspired, but I like it pretty well. My choice of colors in my minds vision, was to be rather muted colors, pastels and such. I broke away from that and did add some stronger colors. I hope it won't look 'gaudy'. And finally, a good decision I made was to listen to audiobooks from the library as I worked. This REALLY helped displace the tediousness of the task. I brought out my old Sony boom box, ran an extension cord from the garage and voila! I wonder what the neighbors think, especially during the swearing or sexier parts, lol.
So that is my story of mosaic up to now. I hope to finish this in about a week, then work upstairs in the bathroom will begin and I'll post pictures of that later.
