A couple weeks ago, I posted about week twenty-eight of fun and crazy. In that post, I shared that one of the things I did that week was have a great time with my girlfriends making Mosaic Pendants.
Crafting with my friends in my newly finished craft room.
This was a very enjoyable project to do with many people in a matter of a couple hours.
As promised, here is the tutorial so you can make your own, and I saved an idea sheet at the very bottom of the post of many of the pendants made that evening.
Materials & Tools Used (all links take you to Amazon.com
to view costs):
You’ll need glass tile pieces to cut into shapes.
Tile Cutters
Pendant & Necklace
Tweezers can be used to place the tile pieces into the pendant if needed.
E6000 glue sets up pretty fast and adheres the tile to the metal pendant.
Regular tape.
We used a pre-mixed grout in Delorean grey.
One of my friends brought her tile-pieces the evening of the party. (She’s the real mosaic queen.)
I picked out pieces that evening to work on my pendant when I got the chance, as I created pendants for my friends who couldn’t make it to the party.
The tutorial you see here is of my personal pendant.
My friend, who co-hosted the party with me, purchased four lots of 10-pendants from Amazon. We had twelve ladies make at least two each, and some made three pendants. I made a total of four.
The links for the pendants and necklaces are:
Wadoy 10Pcs Black Leather Necklace Cord String with Lobster Clasp
The links for the glue, tile cutters and grout:
Goldblatt G02007 Glass Tile Nippers With Pro-Grip Handle
Custom PMG165QT 1-Quart Simple Premium Grout, Delorean Gray
As you can imagine, the basic premise was to cut the tile into small pieces into a pattern that you either planned in your head or just *knew* that was going to be the way you wanted it.
These were the original pieces of tile I had.
What you don’t realize when you start a project like this, is how hard it is to get smaller pieces from big pieces of tile. It’s obviously possible, but it takes patience and time.
I knew I wanted a checker board look to this piece.
This was the design in my head, and here it is unglued.
Place two pieces of tape together, slightly overlapped, wide enough to cover the pendant.
Place the tape over the design to keep it in place. This works great for small pieces!
Peel off the tape so the glue can be placed on the pendant.
The next step is to glue the pieces down.
I used tweezers to realign the pieces to make them even.
Place glue on pendant base.
Tweezers can make the placement of small pieces easier to move around if needed.
We waited about 20-minutes for the glue to dry during the party, and had snacks and talked, or just got another pendant done while waiting.
When I did this by myself (for this tutorial, I waited about an hour for the glue to dry.
Contrary to popular belief, if the glue isn’t dry, the grout will not keep the pieces in place. It’s all about the glue. Just a hint!
Once the pieces are dried, it’s time to grout!
I’ve done mosaic pieces before, and given many tips along the way in my tutorials.
See my Instructable for a Mixed Media Mosaic for more mosaic tidbits!
The most basic key to grouting is to have the time to do it.
Don’t pick it up thinking that you can be done in 10-minutes, unless you’ve done it before.
You’ll need a wet towel, a dry towel, and I used paper plates to keep my work space clear. My mother-in-love posed for me in some of these photos where you see a different pendant.
One cloth was wet down and then the water was squeezed out, and the other cloth is dry.
My mother-in-love and neighbor came over to grout their pieces with me.
We used tape to tape the top part of the pendant so it wouldn’t get grout in it.
One of the things we did to keep our pendant hole clean from any grout residue was to tape it up. When the grouting was complete and dried, about a day later, we removed the tape.
Because these pieces are so small, it takes a matter of minutes to grout them, but the key to getting them really beautiful is cleaning them after the grout is placed.
Add a couple fingers-full of grout to the top of the piece.
Press the grout into the holes in between your tiles, using your finger.
Let the grout sit for a minute, and continue pressing if your spaces are small.
After about a minute, initially wipe the grout off the tile pieces using your finger.
I placed the excess grout on the plate. Now it needs to be cleaned.
Using your moist cloth, rub the pendant in big sweeping motions to get the grout off the top of the tile.
Continue to wipe the pendant until the majority of the tile is clean on the surface.
You may need to place additional grout in a spot or two if the first placement didn’t get into the small nooks and crannies.
After wiping the grout off the top of the tile, take the dry cloth and continue to wipe the tile.
You may have to repeat the wet-towel, dry towel process to get the top of the tile pieces completely cleaned. At some point, hopefully you will be satisfied with the cleanliness of the tile and let it sit to dry for at least a day.
My finished pendant without the embellishments.
My pendant seems pretty plain so I added some bling.
One of the last things I did was add some scrapbooking jewels to the tops of the black squares for extra depth and sparkle. I liked the sparkle of the pink tiles and I think the jewels add flair!
I hope this tutorial sparks your interest in both making mosaics and possibly making these little gems. They would make personalized Birthday/Christmas gifts or anytime gifts for that matter. My mother-in-love gave two away, just because!
Here’s the finished products of our Pinterest Party Mosaic Pendants in PDF form. Thanks for reading!
Mosaic Designs
