If I want to commission a piece of art........

[Katymac]

...can I ask on MN if anyone does that sort of work?

Or is that not allowed

It depends of what type of work of art you are looking for but there are quite a few artists in Mumsnet, Whymummy is not around very often now but she does contemporary style paintings of children.

Well it is actually a mosaic.....

For outside

But that would be "art" wouldn't it?

That's definitely allowed

Ask in the Employ A Mumsnetter section

What kind of thing are you looking for? I have seen a photograph reproduced with mosaic in one bathroom showroom in town. It was really nice... and pricey. Definitvely art though.

I do mosaics.

What are you after and where do you live?

The council won't let me advertise my childminding outside my house...but they said they couldn't stop me putting art up outside on the wall

So I can't have a commercial sign - but I thought a mosaic would be lovely

Sort of 3ft square and it needs to be outdoor-proof

Good idea! Your logo would be perfect in a mosaic

I have no idea (btw) how much this would cost

I'm assuming I couldn't manage it myself?

Have you ever done any tiling?

Lots - I'm quite good actually

Crap at cutting tho' (it takes me 3 or 4 goes)

I wondered (now I think about it) if I could get those pebbles on a sheet (if you know what I mean) pick them off and put the back together in a patten

I normally do my mosaics with broken tile. If you can tile you can do this. It will work out much cheaper if you can do it yourself this way because the main cost is labour. Next is the cost of tesserae if you use them. Using broken tile is much cheaper. You buy a few tiles in the colours you want, wrap them in a cloth and break them up with a hammer. Make a base for your mosaic and draw your design onto it. Fill the sections with pieces of broken tile which you butter on the back with adhesive rather than spreading it over your pattern. When it's all dry, grout it - you're done!

My best tip would be not to use too many different colours, make your design stand out.

Oh and make sure all the tiles are the same thickness - unless you want colours to stand proud as a feature of the design.

What could I use for the backing?

Is there a special grout/adhesive I should use?

BTW thanks for your help & advise - it's done you out of a job

Where do you think you would place it? In a wall? Or would you make a plinth for it?

An outdoor waterproof adhesive/grout will be fine.

I was hoping to screw it to a wall?

You could do that. You would have to use a piece of plywood and you would have to seal it first to make it waterproof. Painting it with a couple of coats of diluted pva would probably do it. It would end up quite heavy when you'd finished and would require really strong fixings.

Otherwise you could work directly onto the wall, which would be stronger but means you have to stand there and do the work.

I guess you could use the 'indirect method' and tile it onto the wall. This way you trace your design back to front on brown paper and glue the tile pieces face down with water soluble glue. you then spread adhesive on the wall and apply your mosaic paper side up. When the cement is set you soak the paper in water and wipe it off before grouting the mosaic.

Using the indirect method you can cut up the finished mosaic stuck on paper into manageable sections before mounting it.

Wow make your own mosaic in one easy lesson

.....can I come back and ask if I get stuck?

Most certainly!

Happy to help.

By the way the indirect method is the usual way for doing larger pieces with tesserae as well. By larger I mean too big to handle, which 3ft sq would certainly be.

Are tesserae square?

I like the smooth round tiles

Tesserae are the small square tiles often used in mosaics. If you're talking about glass beads then you can use them in the same way.

No I was thinking of the pebble tiles on a sheet

But I don't think I can get them in the right colours