Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Of Mosaic Techniques: A Step-by-step Visual Directory, With An Inspirational Gallery Of Finished Works (Encyclopedia of Art Techniques)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Emma Biggs has used the "Encyclopedia of Mosaic Techniques" to share her wealth of knowledge and experience with us.

It doesn't fit the standard (and effective) format for beginner mosaic books (history, gallery, techniques/materials and projects). In fact there are no projects at all. Instead, the book is broken up into different topics. Here are a few selected at random to show how broad the scope of the book is: "Design Sources" (getting inspiration from tropical fish, fabrics, etc), "Colour in Mosaics", "Workshop Setup", "Cutting Techniques", "Borders", "Central Motifs", "Common Mistakes", "Indirect Method on Paper" (one of the many techniques covered), "Finishing and Fixing" (how to get a professional finish), "Gallery" (finished works with an analysis of what makes each one work, eg use of colour, contrast, light effects, realism).

Because there are no set projects, this is not the easiest book to start with. Unless you're really confident I would recommend Leslie Dierks' "Making Mosaics" instead. However, once you've tried a few of the step-by-step projects in that (or a similar book), this should be your next purchase. It will teach you to create your own projects instead of following someone else's.

The only think I really didn't like about this book is the way the topics were grouped alphabetically instead by theme. I imagine this is the standard for the "Encyclopaedia of..." series, but it doesn't work for me. If you're going through the book sequentially you go from "Double Reverse Method" to "Finishing and Fixing" to "Glass and Silicone" to "Grouting" to "Indirect Method on Paper".

I would have preferred to see all the methods grouped, all the material-related topics grouped, all the design-related topics grouped, etc. But this is a fairly minor niggle given the high quality of the book.

Highly recommended!

This book, as it's title suggests, is more of an encyclopedia than a project book. I would not recommend it to a beginner because it doesn't take you through a number of projects step by step as many mosaic books do. But I HIGHLY recommend this book for someone who has started doing mosaic and wants to increase skills and knowledge. I learned a lot about design, in particular: using colors effectively, including the grout colors, and how to place tiles in the design and in the background in directions that affect the flow of the design. An eye-opening section showed common mistakes, which if one studies before starting a project, can be avoided. There are a few projects that are given to demonstrate certain techniques, and there are photos of many incredibly beautiful works. The patterns are not given for them, so you'd have to attempt to draw them yourself, or let them serve as inspiration. The materials and equipment section is very extensive and helpful. This is a great book you would study to become a better mosaicist, but not use as a project guide.

In all seriousness, this is the best mosaic book out there that I have found. It explains materials, techniques and EVERYTHING you need to work on mosaics.

Wish I had found this before I bought other books.

While the book does offer the standard mosaic-making advice, the alphabetical encyclopedic format makes it frustrating at times. If you are a beginner, as I was, you won't know where to start. 'Planning', 'setting up your studio', and 'equipment' are all topics, but if you don't know exactly what to look up and in what order, it won't do much good. And if you're more experienced, you don't really need big color photos of safety equipment.

The book's strength is in topics such as borders, andamenti, and design techniques. As for nuts and bolts info such as the actual direct and indirect methods, I found Leslie Dierk's book 'Making Mosaics' to be FAR more informative.

Overall I found the encyclopedia 'gimick' to not really be very helpful.

as other reviewers state, this book is a wonderful reference work on mosaics-how to on many different types of mosaicing. BUT, if you are looking for lot's of beautiful pictures to inspire you or for projects, then I wouldn't suggest this particular book for that.

Also, as someone who does a lot of free form or "wacky" type of mosaics-like with broken china, 3-d objects, shells, etc-that is NOT covered in this book. For that, I'd suggest Backyard Mosaics by Sheerin or Crazy Mosaics.This book is more the "formal" style of mosaics.

Overall, for lots of solid Mosaic info-I'd give it a 4 stars and recommend it for your Mosaic Reference Library.

Even though I am a beginning mosaic artist, I want detailed information about design techniques, materials to use, and errors that are common to the craft. This book fills the bill - it's got first rate design information and provides examples of the discussion topics. The arrangement of the topics in alphabetical order may be something that others find less than desirable, but if you read the entire book before making any judgments, you'll find that this is a non-issue. I'd recommend purchasing this book, especially if you only want to buy one.

Of all the books about mosaics I have reviewed this is the most complete, detailed and hands-on techniques you can find.

I rented this book from my library and am now here purchasing it, because I loved it so much. It is a great collection of basics, supplies needed, various techniques, common mistakes, ideas and inspirations, instructions, classic mosaic artworks and lots of colored pictures, (which even have my daughter asking me when we can try to do some mosaics). Hobby store: here we come!
Even if you just want a new addition for your library, its definetly a great buy.

A great book full of wonderful photos and clear simple explanations. I only wish I had found it sooner.

This is the only "How to mosaic" book you need for starting your own tile mosaic projects. This has been very informational and most of all-practical. Choose this book.