What Happens in the Mosaic Fundamentals Workshop
The Mosaic Fundamentals Workshop runs four hours on Saturday mornings at the Silver Lake studio. It is designed for people who have never worked with mosaic tile before and want to understand the process before starting a home project, or who simply want to make something with their hands. This is a walkthrough of what the session covers.
The first hour: nipping and layout
The session starts with tile nippers. Every participant gets a pair and a pile of vitreous glass tile in a limited palette. The first exercise is simple: cut a square tile into a triangle. Then into a smaller square. Then into a rough circle.
Most people find this harder than it looks. Tile nippers work by applying pressure at a specific point on the tile edge, and the break direction depends on where exactly you place the jaws. Ruth demonstrates the technique and then walks the room while participants practice. By the end of the first hour, most people have reasonable control over basic shapes.
Designing the panel
Each participant designs their own 12-by-12-inch panel. Ruth provides a few reference patterns, ranging from simple running bond to basic geometric, but participants are free to design their own layout. The constraint is the tile palette available that day, which Ruth selects in advance to keep the color combinations manageable.
The design phase is where the session gets interesting. People who came in thinking they would follow a reference pattern often end up doing something different once they start arranging tile on the board. Ruth encourages this. The point is to understand how the material behaves, not to reproduce a template.
Adhesive, setting, and grouting
Once the layout is set, participants transfer it to a cement board substrate using a white polymer-modified adhesive. Ruth demonstrates the back-buttering technique and the importance of full coverage, then participants set their own tiles.
Grouting happens in the final hour. Ruth mixes the grout to the right consistency and each participant applies it to their own panel, works it into the joints, and does the initial cleanup. The panels go home with the participants, wrapped in paper, with a note about the 24-hour cure time before the final wipe.
Workshop dates for autumn 2026 are posted on the studio's contact page. Sessions fill a few weeks in advance, so booking early is worth it if you have a specific Saturday in mind.