Mosaics can be found all over the world in a variety of different mediums including glass, ceramic, stone and even mix media. This versatile artistic approach can be used to express many different styles. Most often this form is reserved for classically inspired expressions in part because of its ancient origin. People have assembled artwork from tiles for centuries so of course there are many different approaches to achieving a brilliant piece of art.

Probably the most common hobbyist approach in creating a one of a kind art piece is recycling old dishes by braking them up into smaller pieces and using them as your mosaics. For a more conventional approach you can purchase small square or rectangular tiles which gives you a cleaner geometric grid to work with, not like the irregularly shaped pottery fragments. Both approaches can achieve organic design elements, but give a very different feel to the final piece of art.

The material used for tiles themselves can vary depending on what the artist wants to achieve. Stone is a great medium because it is a natural material, but can have some challenges because it is hard to find uniform color. Ceramics work well for tiles because of their uniformity and variety. You can get almost any color or combination of colors that you can imagine in a glazed ceramic. Glass mosaic tiles can also be great because they are either partially or entirely see through so if you’re looking for some depth or translucence in your tiles glass is the right choice. When you combine the materials with the approach you choose for your tiles it has a huge impact on the expression of your final artwork.