Glass Mosaic

Glass mosaics allow the extra element of light to be added to the traditional opaque mosaic. By using high quality clear glues, stained glass pieces can be affixed to a sheet of clear glass allowing for light to penetrate the mosaic and illuminate the glass in a similar way to that of a church window.

Here you can see an image of a stained glass mosaic held up to the light. As you can see the light makes the colors vibrant and luminous.

Here you can see a photo of the same glass mosaic, but this time held up against a dark wall. The vibrancy of the colors has totally gone and the work  does not have the same energy or life to it, i think you will agree.

Well if you like the style of stained glass mosaics, then there is really no reason you shouldn't have a go yourself.  They are much easier to master than traditional stained glass work, which requires soldering equipment and the use of specialist tools. With mosaic the tools needed are fewer and as long as you wear safety goggles and take your time, the process should be safe.

The great thing about mosaic is that there is no problem if you break a sheet of glass!

In fact, that's what you will do to start off with - either literally smashing it or else taking a more controlled approach by using specialist glass nippers.

of course you could always buy precut glass mosaic tiles like these:

 For a comprehensive guide to stained glass mosaic go here.

When producing a glass mosaic a great tip for finishing the piece off, is to get hold of an old picture frame, remove the glass and use this to frame you work. It saves time creating a frame and you can even use the clear glass from the frame to make you mosaic on!. Alternatively for a really classy finish use zinc 'came' - this is a rigid edging metal used in traditional stained glass windows to make the window rigid, where lead is too soft. This zinc came polishes up like silver and can even be bent into curves or circles using a special hand tool known as a came bender. Yes its a strange tool but its a great tool!