Moonscape recycled mosaic...and a free mosaic material for you!

Moonscape is a commission which I have made almost entirely from recycled material. The base and background is made of tiles in the local Tile Store breakages bin. The coloured tile is from the client and the silver glittery tiles are a material you may well have in your home and throw away! Read on to find out more...

 The client wanted me to use thick ceramic tiles left over from his bathroom decoration. He liked the design of another of my mosaics (From the Rising of the Sun). The rest was up to me as long as it 'had some glittery bits'. Me? Glittery?!

Spot the unusual material? All will be revealed at the end!

The ceramic tiles given to me were really thick so I used cement adhesive (thinset) to build up the base so I could use coloured mirror (much thinner) within each moon. This was the only non-recycled material used,

  The three moons are finished.

Doing the background.

Ready for grouting.

Voila! Mounted on whitewashed wood - also recycled.

I get a few days to enjoy Moonscape before my client comes to collect the piece. Can you see the shiny silver bits in the background? Believe it or not, its an everyday object that gets thrown away. Can you guess?

 

Yup, halogen light bulbs. If you use them, keep them when they are spent. If you don't, ask your friends to save them for you. It is a source of beautiful, reflective material which you can make into tesserae (mosaic term for small tiles) .  Here's how to do it :

I wrapped them in a tea towel and bashed them. Please, please don't try this unless you are wearing protective goggles and gloves as the shards are sharp. Once you have cracked the bulb open, remove the clear glass disc (mmm...what can we use this for??). Using tile nippers like these...

...or two wheeled cutters like these, carefully cut the shiny material into workable sized tesserae.

You need to break the curve of the glass sufficiently so it doesn't stick out too much when stuck down. Here's what you end up with.

When you come to stick them down, make sure you stick them with the curvy ends pointing up to the sky (like a flat 'u' shape). If you stick it the other way round, the adhesive wears away the reflective film and you end up with clear glass (as I tried and discovered!). The results are beautiful, almost holographic tesserae that really sparkle and catch light like a rainbow - tesserae which embody the spirit of recycling and re-purposing rather than throwing things away. And its free. Happy days.

 

If you want to see another use of halogen light bulbs in mosaic, click here and look at my award winning Owl mosaic. It all started one day when I was just about to chuck two light bulbs away and said those immortal words "I wonder if there's anything I can do with these...."