Description
12mm Recycled Glass Mosaic Tile by MORJO Mosaic Tile™ are sold on removable paper sheets of 49 tiles glued face down with chalky-backs showing. (Remove by paper and chalky mold release by soaking for about 1/2 hour.) Each sheet covers approximately 1/11 of a square foot assuming a grout gap of 1/16 inch. These tiles have a glossy finish, and the glass has solid color throughout (and not just on the tops or bottoms.) Opaque when mounted on an opaque surface. Back sides are chalky, but they wash clean when the paper is soaked off the faces. More details below:
These wonderful tiles cut cleanly into tiny pieces with minimal waste, and so they are an ideal material for micromosaic artwork. They are hard and durable and UV-resistant and can be used for the exteriors of commercial buildings. The fusing process for making these tiles from powdered recycled glass is referred to as “warm glass” or “enamel glass” or “pate de verre.” Mounting grids are available.
Soaking To Remove Paper
Soaking to remove paper is NOT extra work! Why not? Because you should always rinse loose tile to remove glass dust created during shipment. These tiles are glued with starch glue, which turns to jelly in water and is rinsed away. Please do not order if that is a problem. These are a premium material intended for artists wanting the best colors at a competitive price. Soak for less than 1/2 hour to avoid turning the paper to pulp.
White Chalk on Bottoms
There is factory chalk on the bottoms of the tiles, which rinses off easily in the soaking process. The tiles look as photographed on our website once soaked free of the paper.
Morjo 1/2-Inch Recycled Glass Mosaic Tile
- tile size: ~1/2 inch (12mm)
- thickness: 1/8 nominal (4mm), but runs slightly thicker than most other brands nominally 4mm
- sales unit: 49 tiles temporarily mounted face down on paper.
- sheet size: 3.625 x 3.625 inches (~1/11 square foot).
- material: glass
- variety: recycled glass
- pigments: colorfast, UV resistant
- durability: frost-proof, impervious to liquid
- usage: suitable for indoor and outdoor use
Coverage
Each sheet of 49 tiles is 3.625 inch x 3.625 inch and covers 1/11 of a square foot assuming a standard grout gap of 1/16 inch. Use our tile estimator to calculate how much you need for your grouted project. For no grout gap, you will need about 13.2 sheets to cover each square foot.
Grout Gap?
Note that dry indoor mosaics do not have to be grouted (and thus you can simply mount the tiles tightly together), but outdoor and wet mosaics must have grout to prevent water from penetrating behind the tiles. The best way to ensure that the gaps between the tiles is to leave a 1/16-inch gap instead of pressing them tightly together, and this point seems counterintuitive to some people. Consider this: you can never mount them so closely together that water can’t penetrate it, but you can accidentally put them so close that grout doesn’t get adequately pressed into the crack during the grouting process.
Compatibility
These tiles have a NOMINAL thickness of 1/8 inch (4mm), which is the same nominal thickness as most of the glass tile we sell, but these run slightly thicker than Elementile and vitreous.
Cutting Morjo 12mm Glass Mosaic Tile
The MORJO brand cuts like butter into tiny pieces using a pair of Mosaic Glass Cutters. You can make tiny cubes without a lot slivers or cutting waste. This makes them ideal for micromosaic or rendering small details in larger work.
Use in Mosaic Art
The color palette of the Morjo Recycled Glass Mosaic Tile is rich in hue and tint, and this makes it a professional rendering tool suitable for portaiture and murals. The 12mm (~1/2 inch) size is sufficiently large for conventional applications, but the material cuts very cleanly into small pieces that can be used for micromosaic artwork.
