Making Mosaics: 15 stylish projects from start to finish (Step-by-Step Crafts)

Rating:
Summary: Helped this beginner
Review: A great beginners' book. Comprehensive, useful and well organised information. Enabled my 8 year old son and I to complete our first project and achieve a pleasing result. I particularly like the detailed guidance on basic techniques such as cutting. The projects start of simple and straightforward enough for the novice to be able to derive a sense of achievement from, and then increase in complexity.

I browsed several bookshops looking at books to help me get started, and have not regretted going with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Making Mosaics: 15 Stylish Projects from Start to Finish
Review: Having seen Martin Cheek's website, which contains an impressive and whimsical sampling of his own work, I was looking forward to a "projects" book by him. I am a bit disappointed. The projects are, for the most part, completely aesthetically unappealing to me. The level of the book is "beginner" (which I am), so initially I thought the images were overly simple in order to accommodate the reader's lack of expertise. At the same time, however, he suggests projects which would be out of the realm of most beginning mosaicists -- like making and firing your own decorative tiles, for instance. And although each project comes replete with a long list of necessary supplies, in some cases he never mentions any instructions for certain items on the list. Maybe his intermediate/advanced level books are better.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't WOW, but good for beginners
Review: The colorful fish design on the cover of this book attracted me, but most of the projects don't particularly WOW me. The first few pages cover all the same basic introductory instructions that all other mosaic books do, though not extensively.

The good quality of this book is that it begins with a very simple project which uses a pre-made decorative wall tile as the centerpiece. You simply frame it with small mosaic pieces. This is a great project for trying one's hand at mosaic to get a feel for the craft. The projects become progressively more difficult, yet remain fairly simple, so it's a great way to learn, even though the projects may not be all that appealing. The cover's fish design for a plaque is actually one of the more difficult pieces because of its more complex tile layout. A mid-difficulty project includes a couple of mosaic-covered boxes that I find attractive and would make with color modifications.

There is a tabletop at the end of the book which I think would be prettier with a change of color choices, but I would never try it using the author's technique, which is to create the mosaic top, then put cement on the table and turn the table upside down and try to place it over the mosaic. The instructions say "try not to panic", but I'm afraid I would, worried that, unable to see the mosaic top, I might not get it centered, and end up with a huge mess. There has to be a better way to do that one.

Often the instructions refer you to look at the list of suppliers for materials, but the problem is the list doesn't tell you which suppliers carry which materials. You'd have to call every single one (21 of them) to find out which of the suggested materials they carry.

All in all, I would recommend this book for beginners. For others, keeping the book in your mosaic library can inspire some ideas, and I think the more ideas on hand, the better.