A mosaic table is born! The making of a live brand element

When customers visit Lather Unusual they can't help but encounter the large mosaic table that greets them when they first walk in. This was not an original part of the design when I was first envisioning what the store would look like back in Nov. of 2010. As a matter of fact it didn't become a concrete idea until the start of January, just a month before the scheduled opening date. But fate stepped in and it became obvious that something big had to happen.

Budget drove the first decision to transform part of a partition wall in the front of the shop into some kind of table/counter elements. Once we took that down (Pookus was a huge help) it seemed a shame not to re-purpose the frames which were still in good shape. After securing some clean backerboard, via freecyle, I went in search of tile and lucked out big time with a listing for free tile on Craigslist. What I didn't expect was that the tile was actually three big containers of new mosaic tiles (which I had never worked with); most of which was still glued to backing paper and easy to sort by color.

Thus started my journey into mosaic work! I researched designs online and found an amazing artist named Tiffany Miller whose work was a complete inspiration for the table design. I knew I wanted something that incorporated circles (like soap bubbles) and a few of her fine art pieces helped me see just how to make that happen.  My other bit of luck came from discovering an amazing product called No Days Mesh. It allowed me to create a 6'x4' sheet of mesh on which to build the design and fuse all of the tile down as I worked. When it came time for two of us to move the mesh and lay down the thinset cement I think we lost 4-5 tiles in total..which is stunning considering the size of the piece. There's no way I could have done this in 3 weeks w/out this product.

I also have to give thanks to my friend and experienced mosaic maker Angel for her help with the moving and grouting of this huge piece plus the loan of her tile cutters and endless advice. You saved me Angel! Plus Carrie at Streuter Technologies (makers of No Days Mesh) and Joe Moorman of Mosaic Art Supply for talking grout with me.

All in all not bad for a first time mosaic project. It has made for a wonderful brand element and conversation piece. I'm looking forward to using it to stage future classes and we're even considering adding wheels to the base to make it moveable for store events (buffet baby!). If you haven't been in yet, do stop by and see the table for yourself.

Cheers,

Logan,

Soap Siren 
Lather Unusual