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What to use for a backer is determined by how the mosaic will be displayed. For example, you could use a piece of sanded plywood as a backer for a small mosaic plaque or trivet, but you could NOT use plywood as backer for a mosaic floor because wood is compressible. Similarly, you could NOT use plywood as a backer for an outdoor mosaic or wet mosaic because plywood warps over time due to changes in humidity.

We have some additional recommendations for choosing a backer based on how the mosaic will be displayed.

Concrete Backer Board

The best all-around mosaic backer is concrete backer board, such as that used in bathrooms as the sub-floor for tile floors. Concrete backer board is cheap, cuts easily, comes in 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick sheets, and is available at almost any building material store. Drywall can be removed easily and replaced with a sheet of concrete backer board. The 1/2″ thickness is recommended for floors, and we only use the 1/4″ size when laminating it to plywood.

Using Concrete Backer Board for Wall Art or Plaques

A small piece of concrete backer board can be used to strengthen a piece of hanging wall art or a plaque. 1/4″ backer board can be laminated to a piece of plywood and then the edges sanded with a belt sander (wear a mask!) to make the sides look even. The backer board will provide a rigid and waterproof layer for the mosaic to rest on while the plywood behind it can be used to anchor the screws in that are needed for the hanging wire.

Mosaic artist Natalija Moss began this mosaic by laminating a piece of 1/4″ backer board to a piece of plywood. She used Weldbond mosaic glue and some clamps to laminate the plywood to the backerboard over night. Then she drew the pattern for the mosaic using a marker onto the backer board side of the piece.

Using the direct method, Natalija then started cutting and gluing pieces of stained glass directly to the backer board surface. Backer board may bond to the glue more quickly than other surfaces such as plywood, so make sure you have your pieces exactly where you want them or you may have to scrape them off with a flathead screwdriver which could damage nearby tiles, especially stained glass. Always wear safety glasses when mosaicing, but especially if you find yourself scraping off tiles.

The finished piece. There are two screws in the back of the plywood with a hanging wire tied to them. The plywood behind the backer board is about 1/2″ thick so she used short screws so as not to penetrate the backer board and damage the mosaic. It is also possible to cut a keyhole slot using a plunge router, but that should be done at the beginning before any glass is put down.

Durable, Strong, Inflexible, and Clean

Mosaic backings should be durable, strong, inflexible and clean.

Durable

Durable means resistant to water and moisture. Over the years, humidity in the air can turn plywood and particle board into splinters. Long before this happens, the tiles will begin popping off as the plywood warps. MDF and particle board swell and disintegrate with humidity as well. Avoid using wood products of any type outdoors. If you have to use wood outdoors, then use marine plywood, and make sure you paint the undersides and side edges with multiple coats of exterior paint and seal the finished mosaic.

All that being said, plywood can be used for dry indoor mosaics such as small plaques, picture frames and mirrors. If you make an indoor mosaic picture on plywood larger than 2 feet wide, then you should still paint the underside and sides to keep humidity from warping the plywood over time.

Strong

Mosaic materials are heavy, no matter if you are using stone, ceramic or glass mosaic tile. Grout is concrete. The weight of even one square foot of mosaic can be heavy. This means that not only your backer must be strong but also your points of attachment. (Never hang a mosaic from a single nail like a painting.) Mosaics made on thin panes of glass are also not recommended, especially glass table tops.

Glass table tops can sometimes be replaced with a sheet of concrete backer board if the table is strong enough to support the weight. (Never create a safety problem by gluing heavy mosaic materials to a glass table top.) The table should have a wide enough base so that the mosaic doesn’t make it “top heavy” or otherwise unstable. The table should also support the concrete backer in the center and not just on the edges. If your table does not have support in the center, consider bolting or welding a piece of angle-iron across the center.

Inflexible

Grout and mosaic tile are inflexible. If they are mounted to a backer that flexes even slightly over time, the grout and tile will crack and pop off. Mosaic backings for floors should also be incompressible. This is why concrete backer board is used beneath tile floors instead of plywood.

Note that plastic and thin sheet metal fail all three of the above criteria, but especially the requirement to be inflexible. Plastic and sheet metal also pose additional problems with bonding securely to glue and grout.

Clean

Walls and floors made from concrete, stone or masonry are obvious choices for mosaics, but even these ready-made backers should be scoured to remove paint, sealants and dirt, and you may need to plaster them smooth with mortar before starting the mosaic.

It never hurts to take a wire brush and scour a surface before you attach tiles to it. Nothing is worse than putting days or weeks into a project only to have it not hold up very well. It only takes a little dust or a little grease or a little paint to cause tiles to pop off within a few years or even months. How do you know that concrete wall doesn’t have an invisible pore sealer on it? You don’t. Take a wire brush and scour it!

If your surface is large, such as for a mural, then use a power tool called an angle grinder with a rotary wire brush. (Wear gloves and a face shield, especially if you haven’t used one before, because things like angle grinders and belt sanders can take the hide right off of you.) You can rent power tools at places like Home Depot, or you can ask your favorite handyman or handywoman to scour the wall for you. The point is that this type of surface prep can be done with little effort and is worth doing because it might determine whether or not your mosaic lasts more than a year or two.

Contemporary floor mosaics usually take the form of accents such as mosaic medallions and mosaic borders instead of the larger pictoral designs that covered the entire floors of ancient Roman houses. The contemporary mosaic accents are integrated with the existing flooring material, which is usually larger tiles of marble or ceramic. These limited area designs are more practical for the simple reason that most of the floor is covered with furniture, and it only makes sense to mosaic the small part of the floor where it will be consistently visible. That being said, I would absolutely love to have a customer email me pictures of a full floor design.

Mosaic Medallion

The mosaic below is a beautiful example of a compass rose medallion made by our customer Caroline Lahman from the tumbled marble mosaic we sell. I’m particularly impressed with the professional quality of the work Caroline did, and the fact that she actually took the time to photo-document the work in progess with publication-quality images, which is something I usually fail to do once I get rolling. The first step in making a mosaic medallion is to draw a pattern and tape it to a work table and cover the pattern with construction plastic or plastic kitchen wrap so that you don’t glue everything to your pattern. On top of this, fiberglass mesh is laid and the corners taped or tacked down securely. Although the pattern should be visible through the mesh, I find it useful to take a Sharpie brand marker and trace the design on the mesh directly just to make sure I can see it once things get a little messy. For most floors, water isn’t that much of an issue, but for shower floor and bathroom floor mosaics, it is something to think about. For these “wet” mosaics, I like to use only a drop of glue at the center of the tile when I attach it to the mesh. This leaves some of the tile uncovered by glue so that it can bond directly to the thinset mortar when the finished mosaic is mounted to the floor. The thinset mortar is much more water resistant than white PVA glues such as Weldbond. (That being said, Weldbond is fairly water resistant when fully cured.) Thinset mortar and grout are both concrete products that can stain porous materials like unpolished stone. To prevent this, the mosaic should be sealed before you grout it (and probably before you mount it because accidents can happen during mounting). The catch is that you don’t want to seal any surface where grout will need to bond, including the sides of the tiles. You only want to seal the top face of the stones. To do this, I use a small artist’s paint brush and carefully brush the sealer on the top face of the stone taking care to not let excess sealer run into the gaps between the stones. I use TileLab brand “Grout & Tile Sealer” for a normal seal. I use TileLab brand “Stone Enhancer & Sealer” if I want to slightly enhance/darken the stone colors (recommended). Both of these are available at Home Depot. Note that these products are invisible pore sealers and not an actual coating like polyurethane. The finished compass rose medallion is well integrated with existing floor and the color scheme of the room. Congratulations Caroline on the job well done!

Mosaic backsplashes and shower mosaics make great projects, and with a little thought, it is possible to come up with designs, even figurative designs (pictures), which integrate visually with existing tiling and decor.

Thinset, Mastic or Weldbond?

Ordinary bathroom and kitchen tiling is mounted using a product called tile mastic, which is a water-based adhesive. Why then do people say to avoid adhesives when creating mosaics in a shower?

The reason is simple: Bathroom tiles are typically 4 inches or larger, while the tiles used in an artistic mosaic are usually smaller than 1/2 inch. This difference in tile size means that the artistic mosaic has more grout lines and thus more places where can potentially penetrate behind the tile and weaken the adhesive over time.

However, mosaic backsplashes in both kitchen and bath CAN be installed using a white PVA adhesive such as Weldbond provided the mosaic is grouted properly and the grout is sealed with a tile and grout sealer, which is absolutely essential on horizontal surfaces where water can pool. In fact, if the mosaic will be wet more often than dry, then you should use thinset mortar instead of adhesive. (Thinset mortar is a sticky concrete that has polymers mixed in for strength and adhesive properties.) For shower floors, for example, you would definitely want to use thinset mortar instead of an adhesive. I should also note that while mosaic walls can be made on drywall or plywood, you should use 1/2″ concrete backer board for any floors to be tiled.

Use Mesh or Work Directly?

For large tiles, thinset is usually spread on with a trowel with 1/4″ notches, and the tile is pressed into the thinset quickly and efficiently. But artistic mosaic work has a different pace from architectural tiling just as painting a portrait takes more time and care than painting a barn door. Many artists overcome this difference in pace by first laying up the mosaic on fiberglass mesh or laying the mosaic upside down on mounting paper or clear mounting tape (in what is called the reverse method). With all the detail work done in advance, the sheets of mosaic are then pressed into spread thinset just as ordinary tile would be.

BUT, an artist often chooses to work in thinset directly and set one tiny tile at a time. Most people can figure out how to do this when using an adhesive, which comes in small convenient bottles, but working with a sticky concrete product like thinset mortar takes a little bit of thought. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult, and some simple tools like palette knives or popsicle sticks and tweezers can take a lot of the frustration out of the process. I have written a page for how to use thinset for making mosaic art, which probably goes into more detail than you need for most projects.

I consider this mosaic to be the antithesis of the cutesy mosaics seen at most art and craft shows. Very nice work. Jason Hiller is a tile and stone contractor in the Bellingham, Washington area.

Mosaic fireplaces are made by applying mosaic to the surrounding face, but not the inside of the fireplace itself. In fact, if the fireplace is actually used and not merely decorative, you probably shouldn’t mosaic the hearth (floor) in front of the fireplace because heavy chunks of wood and fire irons tend to crack and knock tile loose over time. That being said, porcelain tile and many varieties of stone are very hard and could be used for the hearth. The fireplace surround can be mosaiced with a variety of materials including glass tile.

Brick and stone should be plastered over with thinset mortar to smooth the surface in advance of actually applying the mosaic. Alternatively, 1/2 inch concrete backer board can be mounted over the existing fireplace surround as a backing for your mosaic.

For mounting the tiles, a white PVA adhesive such as Weldbond or thinset mortar should be used. I have written a page for using thinset mortar for detailed mosaic art, but for larger tiles, the thinset could be spread with a 1/4 inch notched trowel, and the tile pressed into it relatively quickly as is typically done with bathroom tiling.

A Whimsical Fireplace Mosaic

The fireplace mosaic below is a whimsical design made by my friends for their ice cream shop, which was located in a restored Victorian house in Decatur, Georgia. The color choices and motifs are in keeping with the kid-friendly theme of their shop.

An Outdoor Fireplace Mosaic

For outdoor mosaics subject to rain, humidity and freezing temperatures, thinset mortar should be used instead of adhesive to mount tiles. Thinset is a sticky concrete product that contains polymers for added strength and adhesive properties. We usually use it for grouting our outdoor mosaics because it is stronger than grout, and it will be the same color as any thinset that squeezes up between the tiles from when they were attached. We have successfully dyed thinset with concrete dye without any noticeable loss of strength or adhesion. Concrete dye and thinset are sold at most building material stores.

The fireplace below is actually an outdoor pizza oven, based on the wood-fired Italian variety, and the mosaic is on the hearth in front of the oven. The oven and the mosaic were made by one of our customers and her boyfriend in his backyard. “I Cinquanta Gradini” means “The Fifty Steps” in Italian, a reference to the 50 steps leading up to the house and oven.

Learn by Looking

The best art is ultimately derived from looking at nature, but nothing seems to inspire an artist more than looking at great artwork by other artists. The reasons are simple: There is the competitive urge to create something even better, but there is also the discovery of new ways of seeing or rendering, a humble realization that the artist has done something in a way that hasn’t occurred to the viewer before.

The amazing thing about art is that this phenomenon occurs all the time, including when experienced professional artists look at naive art or art made by little children.

When artists browse other artists, there is a cross-fertilization of ideas where the synthesis is greater than the sum of the parts. There is the thought, “I can’t wait to do that myself and do it in my own way.”

Mosaic art is particularly suited for casual study by other artists because unlike painting, there are no hidden layers or semi-translucent layers and everything is visible as it was laid down. While a novice might benefit from classes or books for learning the best way to cut tile or transfer patterns or apply grout, he or she can learn more or less everything there is to know about the design merely by looking at it, including that critical element of style that is andamento, which is best expressed as the arrangement of tile in parallel or concentric work lines to suggest motion.

Triangular Tesserae

Normally I dislike mosaics made with triangular tesserae because they seem to be used by artists who aren’t as concerned with using andamento (arrangement of tiles) in rows or concentric rings to create a sense of flow or motion, which is a great source of visual interest in mosaic artwork, but David Cruise’s work really caught my eye.

David creates visual interest in localized areas of his mosaics by using contrasting colors and by contrasting light and dark areas. Notice how light-and-dark contrast naturally catches the eye and makes different elements more distinct. I also like how the andamento of the triangular tesserae creates a woven basket texture in the fruit bowl, however unintentional that might have been.

It is also worth mentioning that you can have the tile close together with minimal grout or no grout (if your mosaic is indoors and not subject to moisture). If there is no groutline, the artist needs to be more conscious of varing his or her colors in order to call attention to individual tiles and break up visual monotony. This can be done by mixing two or three similar colors or shades of a color instead of using all the same color, which is what Yetti has done in the background areas of her magical mosaic. David uses this approach to show depth and shading in his apples and oranges and other fruit and the torso of the female figure.

Mixed-Media Mosaic

There isn’t any need to limit yourself to just one type of material in making a mosaic. Different types of glass, ceramic and stone can be used together in the same piece in what is known as mixed-media mosaic.

More Great Mosaic Art

One of the largest collections of contemporary mosaic art online can be viewed at our Mosaic Artists Gallery. For a discussion of how to create photo-realistic mosaics and mosaic portraits, plus some great examples, see our page of Mosaic Portraits. For examples of mosaics that are whimsical and fresh without being tired or cliche, see our page of Fun Mosaic Art. For examples of using different types of materials in the same mosaic, check out our page of Mixed-Media Mosaic Art.

This page includes photos of our mosaic tile being produced and packaged at our supplier factories and at our own warehouse in Decatur, Georgia. Mosaic Art Supply’s warehouse was intended to be strictly a distribution center, but we quickly transitioned into small amounts of light manufacturing in order to produce blends and tile assortments.

Glass Mosaic Tile

The vast majority of the glass mosaic tile we sell is produced primarily as a building material and not as an art supply. This means the tile comes from the factory in full sheets that are 1 or 1.15 square feet, and we cut these sheets up into mini sheets to allow an artist to buy in smaller amounts. Note that we buy glass tile mounted on paper and not mesh because the paper is designed to be removed while the mesh is intended to be permanent.

Marble Mosaic Tile

Here are some pictures of our marble tile being boxed for shipping at the factory in Shanghai. The factory produces mesh-mounted mosaic medallions and flooring, so the tile we buy from them is the same stone they would normally use in their finished mosaics: These are our 3/8″ marble mosaic tiles, which have a tumbled finish with natural colors that can be greatly enhanced merely by sealing with a stone enhancer instead of a regular tile and grout sealer. Building material stores usually sell both sealers. Marble bars have one polished face because they are usually used as edging tile for mosaic floors made from larger stone tiles. Our artists use the marble bars as raw material for hand-cut tile. This photo shows just part of a two-ton shipment of stone being laid out for packing and crating.