No, that's not a typo. I really did mean to type what you just read. Ever since Plaid came out with their line of Dimensional Magic and mosaic patterns printed on paper, it seems that everywhere you look there is something else that has a mosaic pattern. Here's a rundown of the items we showed on the air today and information on the projects made:
The original mosaic prints on paper are from Plaid. Some were reproductions of small square tiles and others were of broken tiles. Both were meant to be cut and glued to a flat surface such as a box top, tile, table top, etc., and then covered with clear, colorless Dimensional Magic. Dimensional Magic, a liquid in a bottle is applied to each tile so that when dry, the surface is raised and shiny. It is truly dimensional.
Next came the colored Dimensional Magic with black and white prints. The same effect as above, but the products are in reverse. These prints also made a break from the mosaic look with a variety including drawings of fruit and vegetables, like the carrot and eggplant I showed (figure A ).
Now, a photograph of a mosaic (figure B). This "authentic" mosaic was composed of broken china that had been grouted. We cut it up (a VERY time-consuming task), then treated the paper cutouts as if they were real china pieces. We painted a tray using the Liquitex texture gel to look like grout, then glued the cutout pieces to the gel after it had dried. By adding clear Dimensional Magic to the photo pieces, they now had shine and dimension, and the tray almost looks like a true broken china mosaic. The gel was also used to apply more pieces to a vase, but this time the Dimensional Magic was not used.
Mosaic tile patterns are available in rubber stamps, too. These can be printed and then enlarged and treated like the already printed patterns from Plaid, or they can be left small and used to decorate cards. Another product on the market, called 3D Crystal Lacquer, was applied to these prints. The lacquer is very much like Plaid's Dimensional Magic, but it comes in a bottle with a very long neck with a very tiny opening, so it is easy to perform some very detailed work.
I ended the segment by showing a picture that had nothing to do with mosaics, but since we were showing the Crystal Lacquer, I couldn't resist. It was a large picture of a country kitchen scene (figure C). The folks at Crystal Lacquer wanted all of the objects in the room (curtains, stove, refrigerator, table, etc.) to be dimensional, so the items were coated with the lacquer. The outcome was DEFINITELY three dimensional!
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