The very first thing John and I did for the new house was make an updated house number sign. The existing number was one of those jaggedy wood jobs which was a complete eyesore.
Soooooo I found some inspiration pictures on Pinterest, like this one from Etsy, made by Nutmeg Designs:
I also really liked this one from Pinterest, also on Etsy at Wise Crackin' Mosaics' shop:
This group on Flickr also has some amazing inspiration images like this one:
John and I went to the local art studio place, the kind where you go to paint your own pottery--ours has mosaic materials, glass fusing, and some sculpting stuff. It's pretty awesome. I thought it would be easiest to do the number shapes like this second picture, but they didn't have those forms. So we went with a traditional house number plaque shape, and imitated the color gradients in the first image here. We basically winged it. I was inspired by the moon-shaped ceramic tiles they had, so we made a sun-and-moon tableau at the top. That's right, a tableau.
IT'S ADORABLE.
I can definitely see why those mosaic number plaques for sale on Etsy are so expensive; this took us a total of at least 8 hours to make (and maybe closer to 10). We stenciled the numbers onto the form, then cut and placed the yellow tiles and glued them down.
Then I did the tableau, then the edges, then filled in the middle blue. I had to wait at least 24 hours for the tile glue to set before grouting, and I decided I wanted to grout in two different colors, so I had to wait 24 hours between rounds of grout, too. Here it is before grouting. This is the best representation of the pretty colors in the glass.
I really like the two-tone effect of the grout, though, and I think the white helps the numbers stand out a lot more than doing the whole thing gray. So, if this inspires you, just make sure you budget enough time and don't rush! We spent a lot of time on our new number sign, but it turned out *perfectly*.
We plan on keeping this sign after we move out. It'll make a nice keepsake of our first home. Plus it's REALLY ADORABLE.
~S
John and I went to the local art studio place, the kind where you go to paint your own pottery--ours has mosaic materials, glass fusing, and some sculpting stuff. It's pretty awesome. I thought it would be easiest to do the number shapes like this second picture, but they didn't have those forms. So we went with a traditional house number plaque shape, and imitated the color gradients in the first image here. We basically winged it. I was inspired by the moon-shaped ceramic tiles they had, so we made a sun-and-moon tableau at the top. That's right, a tableau.
IT'S ADORABLE.
I can definitely see why those mosaic number plaques for sale on Etsy are so expensive; this took us a total of at least 8 hours to make (and maybe closer to 10). We stenciled the numbers onto the form, then cut and placed the yellow tiles and glued them down.
Then I did the tableau, then the edges, then filled in the middle blue. I had to wait at least 24 hours for the tile glue to set before grouting, and I decided I wanted to grout in two different colors, so I had to wait 24 hours between rounds of grout, too. Here it is before grouting. This is the best representation of the pretty colors in the glass.
~S
