Enhancing your Garden or Patio with Mosaic Art

Mosaic artwork is such a lovely way to enhance anyone’s outside garden or landscape! The materials needed are easy to find, and within a short period, you too can create something beautiful and long lasting to look at.

You can design a simple piece of mosaic artwork and lay it into cement. This is easy using pebbles in different shapes and sizes that you can buy at your local garden centre or stones for bigger designs. If you are using ceramic tile and want to create an outdoor mosaic, make sure you consider the temperature in your area. If ever it freezes, you should make sure to buy tile that is resistant to frost and is good to be applied outdoors along with the adhesive cement, which must also meet the same vigorous conditions. By following these simple rules, your works of art will last forever (just like the Roman and Greek mosaics still standing today.)

Mosaics are lovely to place in rock gardens, anywhere’s on your property, around trees, pools, fountains, water. You imagination is the limit.

You can also integrate them into a patio made of cement or stone or even wood for that matter.

Another great way to decorate the outside of your home is to make cement stepping-stones and inlay them with pebbles, crystals, glass and crystals! You can buy stepping stone moulds at your local dollar store, using the plastic plant holders that are used to prevent plant pots from spilling their water onto your furniture. Sometimes, to make big stepping-stones, I ask friends and family to keep their buffet food covers when they have parties and I make amazing creations for the outside with these.

Once you have your moulds, decide on a design and prepare your pebbles, stone, glass or crystals so that when the cement is poured you can quickly put them into the wet mixture. Make sure you press them in evenly and to at least half their depth to make sure they stick well and not fall out in a few months.

Cover your cement stones with plastic wrap so that they do not dry out too fast and crack. Spray with water for at least 3 days so that the cement will dry out evenly. After 48 hours, remove the cement carefully from the mould and allow it to keep drying. Sometimes the cement may have a whitish crust, but after 7 days, you can take the stone and brush it clean with cold water and a toothbrush to dislodge this crust. Wait for at least 3 weeks before placing them outside to allow them to cure properly. If your stepping-stones are to be for decorative purposes only, use glass (stained glass) and place them in your rock garden. If you are to be walking on them, use pebbles and stones. You can also colour your cement in shades of terra cotta and black to give different visual effects. Check at your local hardware store for coloured powder that is added to outside cement.