Mosaics Made with the Stone Mosaic Tiles When we opened Mosaic Rocks, we got a shipment of marble mosaic tiles. These are the same stones but are on mesh sheets. Some stones are 7mm thick (like the ones we are now offering) and others are 10mm thick. The thicker stones are a bit more difficult to work with. I mainly used the thinner ones which also meant that I had fewer colors to play with. During this past year, I experimented with recreating ancient Roman and Byzantine mosaics using these marble tiles. Most of the photos here are those mosaics, but don't get the impression that these stones are only good for ancient looking mosaics. They can be used in modern abstract or representational mosaics just as well as ancient reproductions.   This is a mosaic of St Luke the Evangelist. It is based on a 14th century mosaic found in St. Marks Basilica in Venice. I used the Stone Mosaic Tiles for Luke; the background is made with Mosaic Rock's handcut marble. The colors used are: Botticino, Light Emperador, Dark Emperador, Brown Red, Gold Travertine, Rojo Alicante, and Yellow Cream. This mosaic is 14" h x 12" w. I cut the stone tiles in thirds and then each piece in either half or thirds again. You can see how small the pieces are in the next photo. I cut the stones and used the raw inner surface for the portrait. This offered a wonderful textured surface and provided a richer color palette than using the tumbled surface. This piece was not grouted and the pieces were placed tightly together. I did use the tumbled surface of the Brown Red stone for the line in his garment that runs next to the solid black line in the lower right part of the photo. This is the same stone that's used in his beard (along with Dark Emperador and Rojo Alicante). You can see a few lines of it in the photo. Notice the difference in color and texture with these two uses of the same stone.   This is a reproduction of a Roman floor mosaic found at Piazza Armerina in Sicily. Colors used include: Crema Marfil, Gold Travertine, Rojo Alicante, Red Travertine, Mugwort Green, Pure Black, Pure White. The body of the fish is primarily Mugwort Green. This is an interesting stone. Sometimes it looks like it has a greenish tint to it; other times, it looks like a bright gray. This mosaic is 18" x 18". I cut the stone tiles in quarters and used those pieces for most of the mosaic. The fish are made with smaller cuts. This is a simple mosaic based on a typical Roman geometric pattern. The colors are: Botticino, Light Emperador, Gold Travertine, and Rojo Alicante. The uncut tiles used for the two rows of the border are Gray Black and China Beige. This mosaic is 11" x 11". I cut the tiles in quarters and then trimmed them as needed. This is a detail of a mosaic which I am currently working on. It contains a mixture of handcut marble pieces and the Stone Mosaic Tiles. I am making the piece very textured as you can see from the photo with pieces that are on their sides as well as standing on their ends. This detail has some pieces of Mugwort Green, Gray Black, and Yellow Cream.   Stone Mosaic Tiles 1. Color and Texture 2. Coverage 3. Cutting and Adhesives 4. Mosaics made with these tiles   [ Return to Working With Stone Menu ]