Mosaic tile making in Rome

I apologise for being MIA. It has been a really tough three weeks of intense prioritising at work leaving me no time for either jewellery making or my blog. There is a lot I have been wanting to share with you, my readers, so watch of for a storm of posts in the coming weeks. I begin with my attempt at Mosaic tile making with a sort of “How to.”

Mosaic tile making in Rome

With the intention of packing some hands on  activities in my Europe trip, I opted for two workshops -Mask painting at Venice and Tile making at Rome. Since my only free day in Rome was a Sunday (my day of departure to India) and most classes were off, I approached fragrance tours to setup a class for me. They set one up at Mosaici, near Botanical gardens (Trastavere). It was very far from Roma Termini near which I was staying. While the tour arrangers were prompt with their emails they didn’t mention that the Instructor couldn’t speak English. So I didn’t read up on the process or go prepared. I assumed that it would be like POP mosaic craft that’s kids do. Though I was skeptical when the listing said “Stick tiles with Vinyl glue” when the fee was high ($89 incl tax) I let it go.

You might say “Big deal!” art needs no language. I felt so too for I had taught a jewellery class in Cambodia without knowing Khmer. But sadly this time it did not work out. The instructor offered to type each instruction in Google translate. However, I declined the offer as I felt that it would do more harm than good. In hindsight, I should have used the translate atleast for an initial explanation.

Mosaic making Process

Design and Colour selection

Mosaic making begins by sketching on paper, selection of material and colour of tiles. While booking this class, I decided that I wanted to make a meaningful souvenir. As I browsed through the usual suspects (on pinterest) I realised that I wanted the motif to be personal. The previous day,  during my Vatican Museo visit the guide spoke about families creating their own symbols using botanical forms. Keeping that in mind I created my pattern of a plant with two leaves leaves (signifying my parents) and a pink flower. There are two types of tiles used in Mosaic tile making. One is ceramic and the other glass. Since, I wanted bright colours and chose glass over ceramic.

Cutting the tiles

The tiles can be bought by the kilo (packet) in cuboidal forms of about 0.75 – 1 inch long as seen above.They must first be cut in half and then quarter to create a basic mosaic tile. Tools like a hammer or tile cutter can be used. I was scared of the tile cutter as it looked like industrial scissors with disc cutter in the end. I chose to go old school and break my tiles with a hammer over a tree stump. The hammer though small, is really heavy (3-4 times the weight of a chasing hammer). So if you have a bad neck/back/shoulder then this art is not for you.

My instructor, Nadia was patient and demonstrated each step atleast 2 times. Ceramic is easier to cut than glass and there is less wastage. Glass crumbles if your hammer’s blow is too hard. If you ease your hold on the tiny tile or get scared of the hammer then the glass bits will fly everywhere. Even straight into your eye as it happened with me. I had taken a mask along anticipating the dust. But, I hadnt taken glasses with me. As the instructor wore reading glasses, she didn’t have the need to stock them. Thankfully, the piece did not do any damage other than causing some stinging sensation. But I did the rest of the cutting wearing power glasses of my instructor, stopping every 3-4 minutes to avoid getting a headache.

Gluing the tiles

Next, you glue the tiles starting at the border and going inwards. Tiles go one after the other in a planned motion, so if you design curves, you must trim your tiles accordingly. It was harder than I thought as you need to apply the glue on the rice paper and glue the tiles using tweezers. It is a pain if you get glue on your fingers as tile dust will stick to it.  Believe me, I am speaking from experience. Once you have aligned all the tiles, you must fill the gaps with extras. Here comes my fifth mistake. I was gluing the tiles so that the nice cut (broken) side faces me and the rough, hole ridden side faces the back. You will understand why this was an epic fail in a second.

Cement it

The next step is to mix gypsum, sand, and a third ingredient which I don’t know with water. It was a ready mix; so all I had to do was add water and stir it to a thick consistency. Pour it onto a mesh tray that you see in the third picture on this post. Then you take your rice paper with tile and turn it over the cement and press it down with a wooden block. You dampen the paper and peel it. You add more cement mix and level the surface 3-4 times until it is flat.

Up until this point, I did not realise that we would reverse the image. My motif was flipped and my precious even front got hidden leaving the raggedy parts visible. If you have seen the above image you would understand that there is cement everywhere making the piece look very dirty. Had I attended the class on a day when I had the afternoon free, I could a spent an hour cleaning the tiles as they dried. But I was flying out of the country the same day. So we sun dried the mosaic for 30 minutes and packed it. On my mile long walk to catch my bus to Termini, I held it on my hand like a waiter carrying a pizza try hoping that I wouldn’t take to take wet cement on an international flight. By the time, I got home and opened it, there was cement all over.

The Moral of the story

Mosaic making is an interesting technique to learn but read up before you go to class. Ask the tour operator or the instructor for a handout before you go. Go prepared with a mask, eyewear, bandages, and lots of time and patience. My tour company was quite accommodating so when I wrote to them about my experience, they refunded a portion of my fee. Considering that many workshops that I took in the past have gone awry, this was a positive outcome on many fronts. Frankly, it was nobody’s mistake. However, I still feel sad that I could not make the piece that I wanted too.

Have you tried mosaic tile making before? If so, please share your experience with me. If you have had workshop experiences such as mine, please share it. I am curious to know how you handled it.