By Max Humphrey Roman Mosaics

Mosaics were popular in Roman times Mosaics were popular in Roman times. Wealthy Romans had beautiful mosaics on the floors of their home Mosaics

How they were made Mosaics were made of small black, white or coloured tiled called tessarae which were around 1 cm square. They were cut from stone marble or glass Romans in Britain used materials found here like sandstone, limestone, chalk, slate and marble

How they were made The tiles were placed together on a base and the gaps were filled with cement called grout. To make a mosaic would take a long time and could have 100,000 tiles !

Designs Some mosaics were made from standard designs but the very wealthy Romans had artists who would design mosaics especially for them. They were often very complicated designs and would sometimes include pictures of their gods

Patterns Geometric patterns can be found in most roman mosaics, but complicated patterns were set in a wider pattern with designs often repeated many times on mosaics used in long corridors or rooms

What were they used for ? Mosaic were used for many different reasons. They were used for decoration They provided a strong surface for walking on They were sometimes even used as advertisements or signs

Mosaic Makers A Roman mosaic maker was a very skilled job. They had to be very good at maths to calculate the size of he pictures and borders. If a pattern was repeated they needed to work out if the whole pattern could be repeated without running out of space.

Where to see them Fishbourne Roman Palace and Bignor Roman Villa which are both in Sussex have some very impressive mosaics. https://sussexpast.co.uk/properties-to-discover/fishbourne-roman-palace

How I made my own mosaic I arranged the tiles into the pattern of the mosaic on a piece of paper I glued the first row of 18 tiles across the top of the board , then the first 18 tiles down making sure there was equal spacing between each tile. I used PVA glue to glue them onto the board. I ended up with the outside four edges stuck, then glued the rest row by row

How I made my own When all the tiles were stuck to the board I let it dry overnight. I then mixed the grout mix with some water to make a cement First I spread the grout round the edges to fill in the gaps between the tiles and the base Then I spread the grout over the surface of the mosaic making sure it went into all the spaces

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