Colored Glass Tile Mosaic “Quilts” #1-4

These art pieces, essentially faux stained-glass windows, are perhaps my favorite thing to make whenever I find an old picture frame. Typically, I sand and restain the frames and sometimes need to reinforce them for strength and structural integrity. The small square tiles don’t lend themselves to creating fancy scenes or depicting real objects, but abstract art is possible; clustering them in different sized squares and rectangles mimics the look of a quilt. Black grout takes the place of the lead in actual stained-glass windows. I discovered that the grooves on the back of the tiles and the air bubbles that form in the glue under the tiles make the tiles look like really, really old stained glass, which was made in small pieces and had similar imperfections. Also, some of the grout gets under some edges, making the squares look a little rounded. Because they are metallic vitreous glass tiles, these pieces look pretty good even when light isn’t shining through from behind; light in front highlights the sparkly gold streaks on the front of each tile. I gave these as Christmas presents to family members. The final pictures were taken on a cloudy day, and don’t do justice to the bright colors that will shine on a sunny day.

Some Before/During Pictures

Related Items: Colored Glass Tile Mosaic “Quilt” #5.