This must be the season for floor medallions. Ginger Terry (Arkansas) is an incredible artist and avid natural stone fan. She recently started a commission to extend a marble bathroom floor into a huge dressing area, office, and exercise room. Big rooms, big mosaic medallions.
Here's a photo of the medallion in it's current state: Says Ginger:
Right now it’s about 17 inches across. It will be 44 inches across. Those strange looking things in the center are aluminum “checkers.” Up until now I’ve put the medallion on that new sticky mosaic contact paper I got at SAMA, which would be fine if the work were no larger than, say, 18 inches across. But the heavier it gets, the more I wonder if it will be possible to flip this thing over!
Ginger also goes on to ask:
What would you do—would you do this thing in sections? Would you lay it indirect so it will be perfectly flat, and if so, how would you go about it? Would you lay it direct on mesh? I’m thinking that I should go ahead and “flip” it onto mesh now, before it gets any bigger, and maybe consider doing it in sections, which will require more technical expertise than I have right now.
If you have any suggestions for her, you can email me and I'll pass your email on to Ginger.
Aside from the medallion, the main part of the floor will be done in 12x12 St Laurent and Pink Petal floor tiles. Ginger loved our pink petal cut marble so much that she ordered 50 sq feet of it from our source in Boston and had it shipped to Arkansas. The shipping almost cost just as much as the tile itself.
1 comment:
Having been a carpenter in my former life and having been through similar situations, I may have some suggestions, but since I don't have any experience with the "sticky mosaic contact paper" nor the "mesh" mentioned in the post, I have a few questions.
I assume the problem is that you need to first lay the entire piece out and then move it to the actual installation area--before putting thinset on the floor and laying the finished work into place? Also, how heavy do you estimate it will be? You can calculate this by weighing the current piece, determining the area of it, and then multiplying the current weight by the number of times the final area can be divided by the current area. I'm thinking that the final weight will not be too bad if it is a 4' x 4' piece. I mention this because there are two problems here: the eventual weight and the logistics of getting the final piece installed in the floor.
Having said that, here are some ideas that might help...and feel free to customize them to your liking:
I think mesh is a good idea, but I personally don't know how you stick the tile to the mesh. I assume you have a known way of doing this, though, in the mosaic community. What I suggest is to make a "sandwich". You first lay down a 1/4" piece of plywood the size of your final piece. You then lay a non-stick paper on it, such as wax paper. You then lay mesh down on this paper and lay out your piece on the mesh, which leaves you with four layers at this point: tile on the top, mesh, a non-stick paper, and 1/4" plywood. When you need to move the piece you then take another 1/4" piece of plywood the same size of the finished piece and attach a layer of spongy foam to its entire surface (on one side only). You can then cover the entire piece with this plywood and foam (foam side toward the tile), squeeze the sandwich together, and flip it or turn it sideways, depending on your needs. The foam will put pressure on the tile without damaging it, keeping everything in place (much like the slices of bread of a sandwich).
When you get to the installation site, you flip the piece upside down, take off the piece of plywood and non-stick paper, and put the plywood back. You then put the thinset down, flip your "sandwich" right-side up and hover it right over the opening, and slowly slide it off the bottom piece of plywood until the piece falls into place. The piece may not fall perfectly, but you should be able to slide it a bit on the layer of thinset--and, in fact, assuming that you will only need to adjust it a bit this is a good thing because a slight twist/slide of the tile will help it bond with the thinset.
One thing to watch out for is during the process of slipping the piece off the plywood and into position. The mesh might be a little "sticky", and since that is in contact with the plywood it might not be so easy to slip the piece off. You should be able to use some new non-stick paper to help you with this step. I say "new" because I assume that the original non-stick paper gets a little messy in the process of laying out the tile and sticking it to the mesh. If you put this new paper into place right after removing the old paper (prior to flipping the piece right-side up and hoving it over the installation area), it will help.
I hope this makes sense!!! If not, share other information that will help nail down a solution.
~Steve Seymour
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