Mosaic Making

At Roman Vision we take pride in the fact that all our mosaic making, irrespective of size and style are hand-crafted.

We use traditional methods of mosaic making, that have been passed down from generation to generation, ensuring that each individual mosaic is unique.

A brief introduction of How To Make A Mosaic . . .

All our mosaics are made from hardwearing marble and natural stones, that have been hand picked from different countries.

The artists have to travel many miles to source the stones and marble, for each region is known for their quality marble and different coloured stones.
The heavy boulders are cut into blocks, and brought back to the workshop, where they are cut into smaller pieces.
These slabs are then cut into tiny pieces (known as “tesserae”) by hand, using tile cutters.

Our artists use these tiny tesserae, some as small as 2mm, to create the fine details and curves in the mosaic picture. This method of mosaic making was used by the Romans and is a sign of a quality mosaic.

In order to speed up the process, the tesserae are sorted into their respective colours, and put into tumblers.

Once the artist has drawn the picture of the mosaic onto a canvas, the flat side of each tesserae is glued onto it.

Piece by piece, tiny bit by tiny bit, the tesserae fills up the canvas to make the mosaic.

Once the canvas is filled up, a resin is poured onto it and left to set.

When ready, the canvas is taken off to reveal the flat side of the mosaic and then grouted.

This mosaic looks very rustic and Roman style, and is very easy to lay and fit, and then can be grouted.

The other type that is used is called the Marble mosaic.

A slab of marble is carefully selected.

These slabs are extremely heavy, and spaces are dug out by hand using a chisel to remove the marble so the tesserae can be inserted.
At this point, great care has to be taken as you could make a mistake and either cut out too much marble or crack the marble.

That would mean that the whole slab of marble would be ruined, and have to be discarded.

The tesserae are then put into the marble with the flat side up and grouted.

To obtain a really smooth and glossy finish, a machine is used to polish and smooth it down.

Both types of the mosaics of this calibre, can take many hours, weeks, months and sometimes years depending on the project.

The mosaics that are produced by Roman Vision are of the highest quality and can be likened to the masterpieces that you see in the museums.