Remember when I first posted about making mosaics, and the first set of tiles I ordered weren’t quite right? My mom decided to peek at her present, and she emailed me to say she really likes those gold tiles. I tried to talk her out of it, but she said orange isn’t her color (guess she wouldn’t fit in around these parts…go Big Orange).

They say mothers are always right. The gold, and the varied blue tones on the “counter” underneath the wine glass, turned out nicely.

The gold tiles are actually clear glass, with a gold-and-black foil glued to the bottom. It gives them a depth and interest you may not be able to see in the picture. For me, it was nice to work on the same pattern but with a different set of and size of tiles, and Derek and I agreed that the smaller tiles make a more detailed overall picture (in his computer-geek fashion, he called it “less pixelated”).

My next project is going to be doing a mosaic for our “outdoor” table on which the wood rotted the first season on our porch. Now I just need to come up with a pattern, and that’s where I flounder. Mom? Mom?

It turns out grouting is not as bad as I feared.

My mosaic turned out pretty darn well if I do say so myself:

But I’m jumping ahead. Let’s walk through the process. First, I mixed (way too much) grout.

Then I dolloped a few spoonfuls onto the tiles and tried not to panic.

I spread it around, pushing it down into the cracks with a special rubber paddle thingy. It was during this step that my heart palpitations quit and I realized it was all going to come together.

Behold, the grout is in. After all the cracks were filled, I scraped off the excess and waited two hours.

Then I cleaned it with a slightly-damp sponge and needled a toothpick around in areas where grout had caked up.

Forty-eight hours later, when the grout was completely dry, I sealed it with a grout sealer. Done!

Now I’ve got two more trays to go…before Christmas. The countdown begins. Derek wants, some day, to do liturgical mosaics, so I generously offered to show him the ropes and make him my apprentice this month.

DeAnn got me thinking in her comment about people who can craft and say they can’t (why? Perhaps they don’t have the time or patience, and saying “I’m not crafty” is a good excuse for not doing it) versus people who can’t craft and say so.

I’m definitely in the latter camp. My problem is a lack of unfettered creativity. I think most crafts require a good eye for design and form, and I’m all function–How does it work? Can I put the pieces together? I never was good at starting from scratch. I love looking at and enjoying things other people have crafted, but darned if I can come up with fantabulous Etsy-worthy ideas myself.

But my sister challenged all of us to do crafts for Christmas this year. I’ve wanted to learn how to do mosaic tiling ever since I wrote a story about it for Cooking Light back in 2007, so I decided to just go for it.

The thing about mosaics is that they are mostly function. By that I mean, once you have a design, the rest is mostly process. That’s a craft I can get behind.

****Mom, Sarah, and Trina: if you don’t want to ruin your Christmas surprise, stop reading. Pics to follow.****

First, I made a pattern and traced it onto my trays. (This was the hardest part…see NOT CREATIVE, above.) I kept it really simple so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed with my first stab at mosaics.

I used graphite transfer paper.

Next, I painted the trays. I wasn’t sure whether to do this step first (to avoid getting paint on the mosaic) or last (to avoid getting grout on the paint). I did it first. The results aren’t in yet as to whether that was a good idea.

I ordered a bunch of tiles online.

And laid them out on the tray.

But I didn’t really like those gold-black tiles much. They looked better on my computer screen. Let’s try this again:

Much better. Next, I started work cutting and gluing the tiles. This first tray took weeks because I would do a little section at a time whenever Jonathan and I went down to do laundry. After about 10 minutes, he starts pulling cords, getting into my wine rack, and climbing the stairs, so I have to give it up until the next day.

Finally, all the tiles are glued in.

Now it’s time to grout. I’ve never grouted anything before, and I’m scared that I’ll ruin the whole thing. (Mommy!)

TO BE CONTINUED….