Not all tile is rated for wet areas, and the difference between a tile that works and one that fails in a shower is not always visible on the surface. This is a guide to the ratings and material properties that matter most when you are choosing tile for a bathroom floor, a shower wall, or an outdoor pool surround in California. Read more →
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.
Every project at Pure Mosaic Hub starts with a hand drawing. Not a sketch, a scaled drawing on graph paper with the tile dimensions worked out in pencil. Ruth has been doing this since the studio opened in 2017, and she has no plans to change it.
Grout covers 15 to 20 percent of most mosaic surfaces. On a dense geometric pattern it can be higher. Choosing the wrong color does not ruin the tile, but it can flatten a design that should have had depth, or create a visual noise that was not in the plan. This guide covers how to approach the decision properly.
Older mosaic surfaces in Los Angeles homes and commercial buildings are more common than people expect. Craftsman bungalows from the 1920s often have original tile in the bathroom. Mid-century apartment buildings sometimes have lobby floors that have never been replaced, just covered. When those surfaces come back into view, the question is usually: can this be saved, and what does saving it actually involve?
Outdoor mosaic in Southern California faces a different set of conditions than indoor work. The thermal range between a summer afternoon and a winter night in the San Gabriel Valley can exceed 30 degrees Celsius. UV exposure is high year-round. And while hard freezes are rare at lower elevations, they are not impossible in parts of Los Angeles County. Getting the material choices right at the start saves significant trouble later.
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