300+ Mosaic Tips, Techniques, Templates and Trade Secrets Paperback – September 26, 2012

This book is an essential guide to any mosaic enthusiast, of all experience levels. The author organizes the book by topic for quick and easy reference, but beginners will especially benefit from reading the book from start to finish, as it provides an excellent tutorial and discusses all the important considerations in creating your own unique work of mosaic art - from setting up a comfortable working environment, to cutting techniques, and ideas to expand your creative vision and find inspiration. I especially love the "jargon-busters" which explain common definitions or methods you will hear often in the mosaic world, but may be afraid to ask what they mean exactly... (I've been there!) The author is very generous in sharing her lessons learned and "trade secrets" in the valuable "try it" and "fix it" boxes throughout the book. It really is like having a master mosaicist, with all her insightful advice and instruction, at your finger tips! Although the book is primarily a technical guide, it also showcases how much FUN it is to do mosaics, and it's beautiful pages will inspire you and ignite your creativity!

I found this book to be excellent at providing instruction and advice for those wanting to learn how to create mosaics. The author has organized the book with the total novice in mind. They provide quite a bit of detail on supplies, substrates, tiles, grout, color choices, and so forth. They also provide good information on how to set up your work area and safety precautions. It is easy to read and well organized. The templates are very basic and I have chosen not to use them, however, they could be good beginners projects that only take a few hours to create.

For the most part, this book covers all the basics a beginner through advanced mosaic artist would need to know...leaning a bit more to the beginner. However, it falls short in some areas. Grouting seemed to be skimmed over, with no good explanation of when to use sanded vs. unsanded grout, etc. I do like the book's charts on substrates, adhesives and tesseraae, though there is an error (or a very confusing contradiction) on the tesserae chart...some typos throughout the book as well. The templates seem mostly for elements that you might want to include in a piece, which is fine. The templates are attractive and of a style that would intermix nicely (though you would need to do a lot of work scanning/resizing etc.) The book is very well illustrated, but does NOT include scads of inspirational pictures of others' work. If you were going to do a very complicated installation or comples project, you do well to not rely solely on this book. I purchased this book at the same time I purchased Mosic Techniques and Traditions and found that to be a more detailed and comprehensive book (for a bit less $ no less). However, having both books to compare opinions and instructions is worthwhile.

I have been trying to keep notes from YouTube tutorials, but keeping them organized was difficult. This well written, well organized book is the best of the books I have on mosaic. Highly recommend.

This publication covers it all! It explores the many different materials and techniques involved in mosaic-making. Every aspect is explained in detail, whether it is substrate, glues, mastics, grouts, glass, ceramic, shells, tesserae of all kinds, cutting, etc., etc. It discusses color theory, as well as composition and many other designing techniques, plus provides sources of inspiration and creative process. Each page is loaded with illustrations and pictures, and projects are very clearly and simply laid out. All the sections are easy to access for reference. This is one publication that every mosaicist should own. What else can I say? I love it and highly recommend it.

I love this book! I bring it out quite a bit after a sketch an idea in my journal to review design options and visualize it for that design. The only thing I wished the author spent more time on was the indirect method for mosaics. I learned direct method for un-grouted, grouted, and thin set, but I think that the indirect method might have worked better for some layouts. In the book, the written directions are still confusing and I would need either step-by-step pictures or a demonstration to understand it. I would definitely recommend this book.

I was looking for an introduction to creating mosaics. This book covers every topic in easy to understand language - types of tiles, adhesives, tools, backings, etc.. There are examples of each technique and concept. Several beginner projects are included. There is a resource list at the end so you know where to purchase the supplies you've learned about. I highly recommend this book.

It's great to see a new mosaic book on the market, as a tutor, I'm always on the lookout.The content of this book is very sound. The section on doing community projects was excellent.The table formats for technical information, as opposed to wading through pages of text- very useful and very practical.I have the following observations:The format of the book is way too small: this makes the content difficult to read, and doesn't do the layout justice. Future editions should be adjusted to a much bigger format.Some of the visuals, in this day and age of digital perfection, are not of the greatest quality.I was disappointed to see that some of the content from Rosalind Wates','The mosaic ideas book' had been transplanted into this book, as opposed to new content being generated.