Custom Mosaic-Grouting

First of all I want to thank all of you who have commented on my mosaic.  I appreciate your taking the time to do so and to let me know that you like my work.

I got the OK this morning from my customer and have grouted the mosaic.  It took about an hour which includes the 10 minutes of letting the grout set up.

I got a little carried away with mixing too much this time, but since I normally have a mirror in the middle I wanted to be sure I had plenty.  I guess too much is better than too little.

My supplies gathered to grout. I always wear a mask but the gloves usually come off because they catch on the tile edges.

My grout is mixed and I am waiting for 10 minutes for it to "set".
It should be the consistency of a brownie mix.

Photo just before I grout.

This is how it looks once I finish getting the grout in all the crevices. I don't like to leave all of that on for too long as it just gets harder to remove it.

This is how it looks after my first cleaning.  There is still a lot of residue but the clumps are removed and I smooth out any lines created from the sponge.

Later tonight before the grout becomes too hard I plan to clean the residue off all the tiles and gems with a toothpick.  I do this while it's still slightly damp so that I can smooth the grout back out should it leave a crevice or marking.  If you wait until it is totally dry and you find that you have a few tiles that are still partially buried in the grout you end up with a "ledge" where you scraped it away if one tile sits slightly lower than another.

I try to keep my tiles thickness as consistent as possible when I make my pieces but sometimes the dish tiles are thicker than the glass tiles and the variance can cause a problem when grouting.   To  make the transition as smooth as possible I clean the bulk off of it right away.

Tomorrow will be the final post on making a custom mosaic.  I will have a few photos of the finished piece.

Until Next Time. :)