Making Your Own Glass Mosaic Tiles
If you are a serious do-it-yourselfer who is willing to try any project that other people say is easy to do, you may want to try making glass mosaic tiles out of recycled glass. This will allow you to choose the precise glass tile color you want or to embed any additional material into the tiles.
Glass is made of three basic ingredients –silica sand, soda ash, and limestone. While other glass applications may require additional materials, your food containers usually include only these three. For this reason, home-based glass recycling should use only discarded glass food containers. Also, since glass colors remain with the glass even when broken and molten, it will affect the color of your recycled glass tile. It is advisable therefore to use only plain jars with no colors.
You will need glass shards from used containers, metal pot, oven, mitts, tile molds of your desired sizes, and refrigerator. You can begin your project by crushing the shards as small as possible, putting the glass inside a thick sack and pounding them with a mallet or hammer. Use thick working gloves to prevent cuts or abrasions.
Pour the glass shards, called the cullet, into the metal pot, and pre-heat the oven to 500°F. Once this temperature is reached, place the metal pot into the oven. Be sure you are wearing thick oven mitts, as 500°F is very hot and can burn your hands and arms. A pot with a long handle would be advantageous in this situation.
Keep a close watch on the metal pot and pull it out before the molten glass begins to bubble. Add the color you want using food coloring and any other item such as glitters that you may want in your personalized tiles.
Pour the molten glass into previously prepared tile molds. A drip spout on the metal pot could be a lot of help while pouring. Once this is done, put the molds into the refrigerator to cool and harden the glass, after which you can remove them from the molds and start preparing for their installation in your bathroom, kitchen, or any other place you wish.