Mosaic Worlds - Mosaic tips

Mosaic Tips

These tips are designed for new comers to the medium of mosaic. Hopefully enough to get you hooked...

Tip 1. Cutting Basics

• The way you hold your tile and nippers is very important if you want to avoid waste. Cutting is not difficult but you have to do the right gestures to obtain a result close to your expectations.

• Placing more the jaws over the tile will make it very difficult and will most of the time result in the tile breaking into pieces

• Hold the nippers with the side of the jaws facing away from your hand. If you want to obtain a straight cut, place the jaws of your nippers over slightly less than half of the tile. You only need to put the edge of the crockery a few millimeters into the jaws of the nippers and squeeze. The handles should be held as near to the end of the handles as possible giving you better leverage. A gentle squeeze produces high pressure in the jaws and will help cut the tile more precisely.

• Circular shapes can be achieved by nibbling away the corners of your tile by following the line you would have drawn. With practice you can get the line of the cut to go where you want, although it is difficult to get it 100%.

Safety goggles should always be worn! Chips can fly off at high speed over surprising distances!!!

Miscellaneous Tips

• To avoid chips flying around you can place your hand and the nipper in a bag while you are cutting your tile. Similarly a dust mask will protect you from breathing in dust from broken ceramics etc, or when mixing cement grout.

• Use rubber gloves and a face mask when mixing Concrete, Grout, Thinset or Mortar. The powders are toxic and can harm your lungs and make your hands itch. If you get these on your hands, rinse hands in brown vinegar to return skin to its normal PH balance.

• Saving ice-cream, yogurt and margarine containers would help you when you need to mix grouts, cement etc in them. Then you can throw them away when finished.

• Don’t throw grout, concrete or mortar down a drain, it could cause blockages !

Copyright © 2002-2011 Nathalie Vin. Images may not be copied or reproduced without written permission from Nathalie Vin. Text articles on this site may be redistributed under the following conditions: You must give the author credit, you may not use this for commercial purposes, and you may not alter, transform or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution of text, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Any other purpose of use of text must be granted permission by author.


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		Mosaic Tips


		These tips are designed for new comers to the medium of mosaic. Hopefully enough to get you hooked... Tip 1. Cutting Basics • The way you hold your tile and nippers is very important if you want to avoid waste. Cutting is not difficult but you have to do the right gestures to obtain a result close to your expectations. • Placing more the jaws over the tile will make it very difficult and will most of the time result in the tile breaking into pieces • Hold the nippers with the side of the jaws facing away from your hand. If you want to obtain a straight cut, place the jaws of your nippers over slightly less than half of the tile. You only need to put the edge of the crockery a few millimeters into the jaws of the nippers and squeeze. The handles should be held as near to the end of the handles as possible giving you better leverage. A gentle squeeze produces high pressure in the jaws and will help cut the tile more precisely.


		• Circular shapes can be achieved by nibbling away the corners of your tile by following the line you would have drawn. With practice you can get the line of the cut to go where you want, although it is difficult to get it 100%. Safety goggles should always be worn! Chips can fly off at high speed over surprising distances!!! Miscellaneous Tips • To avoid chips flying around you can place your hand and the nipper in a bag while you are cutting your tile. Similarly a dust mask will protect you from breathing in dust from broken ceramics etc, or when mixing cement grout. • Use rubber gloves and a face mask when mixing Concrete, Grout, Thinset or Mortar. The powders are toxic and can harm your lungs and make your hands itch. If you get these on your hands, rinse hands in brown vinegar to return skin to its normal PH balance. • Saving ice-cream, yogurt and margarine containers would help you when you need to mix grouts, cement etc in them. Then you can throw them away when finished. • Don’t throw grout, concrete or mortar down a drain, it could cause blockages !




		Copyright © 2002-2011 Nathalie Vin. Images may not be copied or reproduced without written permission from Nathalie Vin. Text articles on this site may be redistributed under the following conditions: You must give the author credit, you may not use this for commercial purposes, and you may not alter, transform or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution of text, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Any other purpose of use of text must be granted permission by author.