Creative Mosaics

Rating:
Summary: Quaint English translation; ho-hum projects
Review: When I first opened this book, I was unimpressed with the projects, in fact I thought some of them were ugly and poorly done, but the more I peruse it, the more I see that some of the ideas can be useful and appealing to some people, especially if one takes the time to tweak the designs and colors, and is sure to do neat work.

Creative Mosaics does not use the typical materials found in most mosaic books, in particular glass tiles. There are sections dedicated to applying the following materials: cork board and balsa wood which you paint and cut and apply without grouting between the pieces, clear glass which you paint, broken mirror, marbles and glass chunks, broken ceramic tiles, broken terracotta pieces, rocks, pebbles, shells, beans, seeds, sheet metal which you cut into shapes and apply to glass, wax which you pour into a tray and cut into small squares and apply to candles or wood, tiles cut from colored plastic bottles (interesting use of recycled materials), and paper tiles applied to paper objects. Some of these projects are attractive, others not.

There are instructions on how to apply each type of material with photos of additional ideas you might try on your own. The problem with the instructions is that the book was apparently translated from Italian, and the grammar is often incorrect and awkward. In one list of materials, the word "Dimensions" is listed as a material. What's that? A quote from the section on wax tiles: "put the candles at the bottom of the pan...and let the wax melt at a bain-marie". What's that? Another quote: "clean the pan thoroughly and continue with the realization of the blue wax". As in many cases, it's awkward, but I can make sense out of that one.

Since my interest lies in glass and ceramic tile mosaic, I will probably never use this book. I would not even use the designs as inspiration for traditional mosaic projects. The one thing that seems most useful to me is the idea of cutting up plastic containers into tiles as a mosaic project for children in art class. I could envision the children applying them to glass jars and bottles to make something pretty to take home.