Getting things straight
First things first: the tile adhesive method is the same as the thin set method. Got it? Good. It’s a simple point but can be curiously confusing if you come across references to thin set and don’t know what it is. Our American friends call tile adhesive, thins. We call thinset, tile adhesive. That all there is to it.
Is it the right method?
The key thing to do before choosing the tile adhesive method is to decide if it’s the right method for you.
Tile adhesive is a thick paste into which you press your individual tesserae. The method has lots of advantages but a few significant disadvantages too. Weigh them up carefully and think about whether any of the other methods might suit you better before proceeding.
I don’t claim to be an expert in the tile adhesive method, far from it. The most I can say is that I have dabbled with it off and on over the years. I never really embraced it until taking Rachel Sager’s online Intuitive Andamento class available through Mosaic Arts Online.
Since then I have found it curiously compelling and liberating as well as a bit scary. Think of those You Tube videos of medical research chimps going outside for the first time. That’s me.
For maestros in the method see work by Rachel Sager, Julie Sperling, Isaiah Zagar, and Dugald MacInnes among others.
The tile adhesive method: pros and cons
PROS
- This method allows you to work with a variety of weird and wonderful tesserae. Different thicknesses are no problem. Broken plates with beads, sea glass with pebbles, bottle tops with shells are just some of the possibilities that the method opens up.
You don’t need to grout – I love the tile adhesive method for that reason alone.- It is a less precise method of working with mosaic. The results have a free spiritedness and expressiveness to them which is hard to replicate using other methods.
- The surface of the mosaic will be uneven. This allows you to be much more creative with textures and the comparative reflexivity of the tesserae than you would be using flatter pieces.
- The process of making mosaics in this way is quicker than other methods, or at least I find it so. The results are instant whereas with a conventional mosaic you can only fully appreciate how the work will look at the end after it has been grouted.
- Your heart lifts every time you hear the sound of breaking crockery and rusting hardware. Other people’s rubbish and previously invisible rocks suddenly become hugely interesting.
CONS
It’s hard to correct mistakes. That can be a good thing as well as restricting. If you press a tessera into the adhesive and decide then and there that that you dont like it, then you can obviously scrape off the adhesive, tessera included, and do that part again. However, if you have progressed further into your work and later find that a certain tessera is bothering you, then you have no option but to leave it and move on.- You need to prepare/cut/sort your tesserae in advance. You will be working with wet adhesive and cant spend too long fiddling about shaping your tesserae once the making process has begun.
- It is messy. Very. But you get used to it and there are ways to make it less so.
- You need to make sure you don’t answer the door while you are working or get distracted by a phone call. Excess tile adhesive must be scraped off and recycled as you work and at the end of each mosaicking session. Otherwise it will harden and be pretty much impossible to lay the next tesserae. Not really a con, just something to bear in mind.
- It’s important to consider the non-mosaicked areas of the mosaic both in the planning stage and while making the mosaic. You don’t want dust to fall into the adhesive. You must also try to avoid the adhesive bulging up around the pieces. It takes practice to get a smooth finish.
- The surface of the mosaic will be uneven (also a pro, as explained above).
- Don’t expect to keep rigidly to a design. You will be putting the adhesive onto the board and therefore on top of any design that you may have drawn onto it. It is almost impossible to work within preordained lines.
The Tile Adhesive method _ what you need:
Materials. There are countless things that can be used in a tile adhesive mosaic so explore, experiment and enjoy. However, do bear in mind that it helps if the downward-facing sides of the pieces you are using have a flatish surface. For example, round shiny beads are not ideal. However, you can adjust the thickness of your tile adhesive according to the pieces you use. As long as approximately one half of the thickness of the pieces is embedded into the adhesive you will be fine. Here are some ideas:
1. Sea-worn ceramic shards, sometimes they have interesting textures. Rinse and dry before use. 2. Broken plates, collected and sorted by feature, in this case the manufacturers’ stamp, see Emma Biggs’ Made in England mosaic below. 3. Bottle tops. 4. Sea glass. Bear in mind that the colour of the glass will be affected by the colour of the tile adhesive. Rinse and dry before use. 5. Random items. This is part of a pair of false teeth that I found on a track leading up to a remote village cemetery in Greece. 6. Pills and plastic parts from single use medical equipment. The pills are experimental and might disintegrate over time in the adhesive. I have given both sides a good dousing with hair spray which could help to avert decay. These are included here to encourage you to think of ways to use unconventional additions to your work. 7. Pebbles, keep them fairly flat and uniform to make your life easier. Rinse and dry before use. 8. Watch parts. 9. Shells. Rinse and dry before use. 10. Coins. 11. Broken plates, collected and sorted by colour. 12. Beads. 13. Buttons.
Substrate
This could be marine plywood or a tile backer board.
If you use marine plywood, you will need to prepare the board first – see my tutorial: https://helenmilesmosaics.org/mosaic-tutorials/preparing-the-board/.
Be aware that tile backer board seems to have a remarkable number of different names for the same thing. Compressed foam board, Wediboard and Jackoboard are all tile backer boards. It is sold in large sheets of different sizes and thicknesses. It is a water resistant, light weight construction board used in bathrooms. For this project I will be using Jackoboard, available from CDT Tiles.
Attach the hanging fittings before you start mosaicking. Lawrence Payne of Roman Mosaic Workshops has made an excellent 4.5 minute video on the process called: Tee Nuts – Wire Hangings for Compressed Foam Boards and he also supplies the components. If using a tile backer board, you will also need a Stanley knife, a metal ruler and a pencil.
Tile adhesive
You can buy tile adhesive as a powder and then add water to get the right consistency. Or you can buy it in pre-mixed tubs. Above is BAL’s White Star Fibre Enhanced Tile Adhesive for Walls which is a white, water resistant interior grade adhesive. The powder variety is the one you need for outdoors.
Tempera Pigment. It is hard to get hold of tempera paste but tempera pigment powders come in a range of colours. Let’s keep things simple for now and choose black. If you use the pre-mixed adhesive, you need to use paste colourants. Powder pigments go with the powder adhesives. Wet with wet, dry with dry.
Other tools and materials
Old spoon to add the pigment to the adhesive.
Large spatula to mix the pigment and adhesive together.
Small plastic food bags, not too flimsy. You will be putting the coloured adhesive into the bag and cutting off a corner to make the mosaic equivalent of an icing bag. You don’t want it to burst. Alternatively, you can just apply the paste directly onto the substrate from the tub. Your choice.
Small spatula and/or various dentists’ tools to remove the excess tile adhesive as you work.
Nippers and tweezers.
The Tile Adhesive method _ using Jackoboard
Cut the Jackoboard to the required size. Measure out the size that you want and mark it with a pencil. Place the metal ruler on the drawn lines, hold it firmly down with one hand and cut the Jackoboard with the other using your Stanley knife.
It is unlikely you will cut right through the board in one go so gently crack open the board along the scored line and then cut again with the Stanley knife to get a clean break.
Despite your best efforts you are likely to have rough edges and frayed bits. Just cut them off in the same way as above with the Stanley knife and metal ruler. You can also file them down.
Getting ready
- Choose materials and do a rough layout of the mosaic so that you can be sure that the materials you intend to use work well together.
This is especially helpful if you are aiming to have random tesserae ‘fit’ together as with the sea-worn ceramic pieces below:
The process
2. Draw in guiding lines. As noted under ‘Cons’ above, it isn’t easy to work to a pre-set design when using the tile adhesive method. However, you can stop yourself going completely off piste by drawing in some guiding lines. They will still be visible on either side of your adhesive and will therefore help to keep you on the right path. Number 1 is the centre line and Number 2 is the point where I wanted to place the ‘trunk’ of the tree.
3. Mix the adhesive and enough pigment together until you get the colour you require. Put about three tablespoons of the mixed adhesive and pigment into your plastic food bag and squeeze it down to the bottom, then snip off one corner to create an adhesive icing bag.
4. Apply the adhesive to a small section of the mosaic by squeezing it out of your plastic bag ‘nozzle’ onto the board. Spread to a thickness of about 4-5mm using your small spatula. Try and get the surface of the adhesive reasonably smooth but Julie will be there by your side if you find this hard to achieve. In this case it was logical to start at the bottom and work my way up. But where you start is dependent on the mosaic.
5. Clean up excess tile adhesive regularly and recycle it back into use.
6. Spread the adhesive over the uncovered edges of of the board as you work. This is best done with a finger.
7. Keep going until the mosaic is complete.
For another project using tile adhesive, try out: How to Make a Mosaic Virus.