DIY Mosaic With Broken Dishes - Koi Pond

so for this project you're going to need a hammer, some piping bags, you can get them at Walmart, some tile tongs, I think that's what they're called. I bought them at Hobby Lobby, a paper plate and paper bowls, or you can use Tupperware containers. You're going to want to get yourself some nice gloves and for the love of all that is holy, don't skip this, get gloves. Next, you'll need some tile adhesive. You can get it at Lowe's Home Depot. You will need a small spatula. you can use this instead of the piping bags okay so first step draw your design whatever you want simple easy the next thing i did was take some inspiration from pinterest just things i liked now you go I'm going to take your design and I'm going to draw it on your base.

This is the foundation I bought at Lowe's. I'm lucky to have a mom who orders tons of party clothes online and a lot of them break, so she gave me two of these full boxes. with

broken

party pieces okay so if you're going to use this exact brand of tile adhesive it's been driving me crazy that the lid won't stay on like it won't break so I've just been taking a piece. of Saran Wrap covering it and then putting the lid on and that prevents it from drying out. Another helpful tip is that when you cut pieces of tile, I like to keep a plate with the smaller pieces and as I cut the pieces, lay them out. on the plate it seems to make it a lot easier since you are actually laying out the

mosaic

and making the

mosaic

.

If you've ever used tweezers before that's great, if not I'd just play with some pieces, it's nice. easy once you get the hang of it just put it right on the edge and just cut it um and this is where you really want to use gloves trust me I've had a lot of little cuts on these little pieces of tile so to make a little area like This is why I loved having the piping bag, it was so easy to get into those little areas, much easier than just using the spatula. If you've never used a piping bag before it's pretty easy, you can look up some tutorials, but I think you'll get the hang of it once you've put the adhesive on, just start sticking the little tiles on, you don't really have to worry too much about the little gaps or just because of the small gaps because you're not really going to To see them, if I were to grout this later I would pay more attention to the tile adhesive that squeezes between the gaps and the size of the gaps, but since I'm just going to apply a clear coat of epoxy, um, I'm not really worried about it, as long as it doesn't get to the top of the tile, then I'm not really worried about anything else, so if you're going to grout it, I would pay more attention to the sides of the gaps, but if I'm going to do what I do, okay, it's also always a good idea to just vacuum the area you're about to tile just because there are always all kinds of little dust or pieces of tile, still, vacuuming is always a good idea. idea once. you already have everything tiled, the next thing I did was take a little wipe and just check and make sure there wasn't any of that adhesive on the top of the tile, so I just scraped it off where it was dry. and I have a little tool there in case it sticks out too much in any of the cracks, so this is a good step to just wipe it all down once in a final step and clean it up and prep the tile is just slightly. vacuum it up just to get all the dust in small pieces and I will warn you that your vacuum might suck up pieces that aren't completely stuck together which is what happened to me so be prepared to dig into your vacuum or have backup. pieces to prepare it for the epoxy layer we are going to do on top.

I just got this masking tape and I put it around all the edges and made sure it was pressed very firmly against the wood and I'll say that plan. It didn't work very, very well in the end, the resin ended up leaking out the bottom a little bit, so I would say that if I did this again I would use a much stronger tape, maybe something that is thicker, industrial or rigid, but I mean , overall it still works so I'm still happy with it now, moving on to the fun part of mixing the epoxy so for this I just had a plastic spoon, some obsolete cards, two containers and then of course the epoxy, which I think was $20 or so at low levels it comes with two of these different bottles and we're basically going to put one in a container and then pour the other one into that and then stir it for 6 minutes.

The instructions mention that it was important not to stir vigorously. just stir gently make sure you get all the edges and the bottom and make sure you scrape it all over but yeah don't skimp on this you really have to stir it for 6 minutes here okay once your time is up. pour it into this container, take it all out, pour it into this one and then you'll stir this one for another 6 minutes. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of pouring it into the second container is, but that's what it says. I admit I did this for 12 minutes.

It's very fascinating now that you're done with the 12 minutes of shaking. You're just going to pour this into the center of the tile. Okay, after you have everything, the next step is to just smooth it out now. I just used a slightly old fashioned card, which I won't really recommend because it started to chew up the card too much when rubbing it against the tile, but like a plastic putty knife or really anything a squeegee would do. it works great you just want to make sure you get it on all the edges and all the little crannies and crevices and it stays workable for about 20 minutes so you want to be safe as the clear coat seeps into the little cracks through the what are you going to get little bubbles coming to the surface, so to get rid of them, simply use a hair dryer on low heat and gently go over the entire tile.

I had to do this several times. I just set a timer for 20 minutes and I would go out and check it to see if I needed it again and I think I had to do it maybe three times. I just went out and gave him an Easter with the hair dryer and that's it. I think it looks great. I added the clear coat and it gave a really nice finish to the top and you can add a second coat if you want an even thicker finish but I just did one and I'm really happy with the result.

I think it looks great.