Question fro Bob from Alaska

Hello Brett

Being a novice I have created a mosaic that is not bad but I am seeing that grout color is going to be a problem. It’s of a light house that has a white lighthouse on a dark background.

I think black grout will be great with the background but afriad it won’t work so well on the lighthouse… could make it look too chopped up.

What are your thoughts on using two colors of grout on one piece of work?

Reply from Brett

Hi Bob

Thanks for your question.

Yes – the old grouting dilemma!

Your situation is one where I would have considered cutting the lighthouse out in one piece – or perhaps many pieces, but using the black groutlines to my advantage.

If you’ve already laid it though, using different colour grouts is a worthwhile option, but Warning!, it’s tricky & fiddly.

In your situation, you’ll need to grout the lighthouse first in white, let it dry, and then file the edges of the grout so that your lighthouse is grouted with nice clean edges – as if it was your entire mosaic.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to very carefully cover the lighthouse with masking tape so that there’s no white tiles or grout showing, but also so the masking tape doesn’t creep into the areas you want to grout black.

Then you can carefully grout your black bits.

If it doesn’t work too well, you should be able to file off any black that crept into your white.

Hope that makes sense. I’ve only done it once on this work https://www.mosaics.com.au/Members/free-gallery/Murals/Inthebushmembers.html – I just couldn’t pick one grout colour because the blue grout (in the sky), clashed badly with the red-brown bits & vice versa. Worked great, but was finnicky!

Hope that helps

Reply from Bob

Hello again Brett

Since this is my first piece I have learned now to give the grout color more consideration before laying the tiles. I believe that if I had even had smaller grout lines between the light house tiles it could have been workable. But here I am. Do you recommend that I grout the lighthouse allowing the grout to mush out past the edges into the grout line between it and the dark background, then Dremel tool it out? Or use some method to prevent it from spreading into that space in the first place? I do understand about not letting the light grout get onto the surface of the dark background tiles. I am just trying to find the best way to make that clean delineation in the grout line that separates the two fields of color.

I am attaching an image so you can see what I am talking about.

Thanks for your time

Reply from Brett

Hi Bob

Thanks for your mail.

Gee, you’ve done a good job with your first work! Well done.

As you’ve laid your white tiles neatly, I actually would be happy enough to grout the whole thing in black. In hindsight, you might have laid them a bit tighter (the white tiles), but I think the lines are neat & black won’t look too bad.

If you go with using two colours, then yes, use your dremel to clean up the edges.

Hope that helps & good luck!

Reply from Bob

Brett

Thanks for the kind words. I have always wanted to try my hand at this and was willing to put in the patience to try to do good work. I have spent endless time on the web looking at other people’s work and found yours to be some of the most inspiring I have seen anywhere. Plus your willingness to offer advice is just extremely helpful.

Today I am finishing putting the border pieces down. One last question though. I am still thinking to go with a medium gray for the lighthouse. (might as well get as much learning packed into this first project as I can). So for the light grout that squeezes out into the grout line between the light and dark tile should I use a fine tool to try to scrape out what I can before it sets up or do you think that might cause the grout to be weak at those little edges and potentially crumble at some point?

Thanks again for your time.

Reply from Brett

Hi Bob

You can certainly pull as much stuff out as you like, but it would be easier to leave most of that until it’s dried, then use the dremel.

Best,

More from Annette

Hi Brett

Have you ever used different coloured grouts in the one project?

My friends & I are in the process of re-creating one of your masterpieces the mermaid…..it will still take us a few more weeks/months to complete but they are suggesting that we use blue grout for the sea and black grout for the body/hair etc. I am not sure about this.

What coloured grout did you use and what are your thoughts?

Reply from Brett

With the Mermaid, I grouted it black as the two background colours are deep and the groutlines are more or less hidden.

There are some light colours too (hair and body), and this is where you take great care, using the groutlines to form your image.

So if I were to use any different colours (and I wouldn’t on this work), I’d use black & terracotta for the body.

Hope that makes sense