Just before Christmas I was given a wooden picture frame to have a play with, and here's what I did with it. It's perfect for mosaic as it has a recessed groove to take the tiles, leaving a neat edge. The frame is available here if you would like to give it a go: http://www.mosaicsupplies.co.uk/product/grooved-pine-picture-frame/
Here's the materials I used. There's a selection of tiles in rose, plum and bronze colours, as well as vintage jewellery that I dismantled to get at the useful bits. The outer frame will be treated with a glaze and painted.
The frame comes ready to use, but benefits from a light sanding. I mark the frame out to keep my lines straight, and apply metallic wax to the narrow edges that would be hard to get at after tiling.
I start the mosaic with ball chain to delineate the sections. This was cut to size using tin snips and glued into place, then left until the adhesive had set.
The glass tiles are then cut to size and fitted to the frame. I prefer to butter the back of each piece with adhesive rather than setting into a substrate as it gives more control when positioning it, and is easier to move if you change your mind.
I make the corner pieces using polymer clay. The clay is conditioned, rolled and stamped. I then emboss with mica powders and embed pieces of vintage jewellery and chain. The tiles are cut to size, baked and varnished once cool.
The finished corner tiles are fixed into placed then protected with tape while the piece is grouted. The frame edges are painted in acrylic, and once that has dried the upper surfaces are given a layer of transparent crackle glaze.
Once the glaze has hardened the painted surfaces are treated with antiquing paste, and the edges with a little metallic wax. The vintage jewellery pieces and glass cabochons are then fixed in place. To finish, the back of the frame has been given a coat of jacobean oak woodstain.
And here's the finished article. The image in the frame is of one of the stained glass windows by the wonderful Irish artist Harry Clarke.
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