So yesterday I wrote about vitreous glass, the first material I use. Today I’ll write about all the rest. First, we have stained glass, everyone knows what it is. There are different kinds of stained glass, the more textured, the harder to cut accurately. the flat colored are usually used for fused glass and it’s more expensive.

The others are ceramics. I don’t use that much because I like to mix different materials, and the ceramics that are sold in USA are all thicker than the vitreous glass. So I only use the ceramics that I brought from Chile, which are just slightly thicker than my vitreous and I can just add them to the composition. They come in a lot of colors, but I only have a few, that are also very special because were treated with glass paint and colored glass, then put in the oven (or kiln) and the glass melted so it sticks to the ceramic. That’s why it has dots and texture. I love them! They come in a 6″x6″ format, so they allow for bigger cuts, just like glass.
Finally, I use mirror, glass gems in different sizes, and fused glass tiles (last picture). I also have another things waiting to be used but I haven’t found their place in the world, yet.

So, i decided to start a more educative kind of posts. Today I’ll talk about different kind of tiles and my tools.
90% of my mosaics are made from vitreous glass. This material always comes in little squares and the most common size is 3/4″. There are other sizes, here in USA you could find 3/8″ and in Argentina I’ve found up to 1-1/4″ (I have those in yellow and turquoise, I use them in my coasters On Fire and the Aqua). There are also different origins and qualities. Back in Chile I used to buy Argentinian, Mexican and Chinese tiles. Argentinian tiles have a rich texture, and normally when you grout the mosaic, some of it gets in the tiles, very noticeable in the Coasters On Fire (yellow tile and black grout). Mexican tiles are smooth finished, both sides of the tiles are flat (all the others have a “grooved” back to enhance adhesion) and looks more like stained glass. They don’t sell it here in USA.
Here, they sell Italian and Chinese tiles. They both look kind of the same, except that some chinese tiles look and feel more “plastic”, and the Italians just look fine. Italians are also easier to cut. The pictures show Chinese tiles (horizontal sample board) and Italian tiles (vertical sample board). When I got here I bought chinese tiles (they are cheaper) but I’m using mostly Italian now. Anyway, mosaic artist always buy from different brands because each brand carry different shades of colors, so if you want to have a wider palete (which is the obsession of any visual artist) you have to buy from more brands. Even for the black color, for example, all are black, but have different textures ans shines, so I still want to have more than one type of black.
There are also vitreous glass with a metalic blended effect, or iridiscent. And theres also little tiles in the same format but that are not vitreous. For example, clear glass with the solid or metalic color on the back (the tiles in the middle and bottom of the last picture) that give more depth to the mosaic.

I guess I’ll leave the rest of the materials for tomorrow…