How to Make Mosaic Drink Coasters
by Joey Pebble

Description: Creative idea for making drink coasters to accentuate your living room decor.

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Building a set of mosaic drink coasters is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to create a personalized and highly functional addition to your home's décor. You can even recycle old pieces from around the home to cut down on your costs. Best of all, it will be a unique expression of your own creative inner beauty.

To start, you will need to get a small wooden frame, roughly 4" X 4" in size. These can usually be purchased at your local craft store in various colors or in unfinished wood.

Remove the backing and glass from the picture frame and set them aside. You won't need these now, but they might be useful pieces for a future craft project. You should also remove any metal hooks or snaps that might be embedded in the wood.

Next you will want to get or cut a 4" square of wood to cover the back of the frame. Using finishing nails, hammer the wooden square over the back of the frame, being careful to drive the nails in straight up and down. Once you have finished, inspect the back, sides, and edges of the piece. You may need to use some sand paper to smooth over rough edges, or get rid of splinters.

At this point if you used an unfinished wood frame, you can choose to apply a lacquer or other staining agent. Read the instructions on the can before applying the stain, as it may take several hours, or even a full day to fully dry. Some people will also want to apply a finishing agent such as polyurethane to ensure that the wood colors remain glossy and in tact.

Next you will have to find something to use for the individual mosaic pieces. Colorful glass tiles can be purchased at any arts and crafts store but if you want to get creative you can recycle old materials from around the home for this purpose. Broken dishes, ceramic pieces, old discarded tiles, and small pebbles or stones from the garden are all good candidates. The only restriction is that you should try to use pieces that are relatively uniform in thickness, so that it is easier to end up with a flat coaster at the end.

If the pieces are too large you may have to break them down into more manageable sizes. To do this place the various pieces in a pillow case, and use a hammer to smash them down into smaller pieces. Be careful to constantly monitor the size of the pieces, as it is a lot easier to break them down than it is to mend them back together.

Before you set the individual mosaic pieces into the frame, try to lay them out so that you can get a rough idea of where everything is going. This is especially useful if you are trying to make a particular pattern or design.

Once everything is set up it is time to get the glue. Using a trowel spread an even layer of tile adhesive over the inside of the frames surface. Be careful to maintain a uniform thickness, and to make sure that none of the adhesive gets on the frame itself. You may want to cover the outer frame with newspaper if this proves to be difficult.

Be as precise as you can when setting each individual tile piece into the glue, as it is difficult to move them later on. Some people find that using a pair of tweezers helps them to be more exact when setting them in place. You should start by creating the focal pattern first, and then filling in the background colors with leftover pieces.

Once everything is in place you should let it sit overnight, to allow the adhesive to take hold. The next morning, grout over the surface of the coaster to fill in gaps that are left between the individual pieces. Then wash the grout off of the surface, and let the coaster sit for another full 24 hours. When complete, you will have a completely unique set of beverage coasters, that were designed and crafted by you.

This article was produced on behalf of PebbleZ.com - manufacturers of a line of absorbent stone drink coasters, and natural stone home accessories. The article itself was written by artist, and style philosopher Joey Pebble.

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