Whilst on holiday on the Isle of Wight we visited the Roman Villa in Brading.
It was absolutely fascinating.
This was one of the largest complete mosaics showing the four seasons. It's one of the best preserved Roman mosaic floors in Northern Europe.
The hypocaust.
Not only did it have a very nice cafe with a good cup of tea, there was also a art & craft tent on site - Jeannie heaven.
Being a Roman Villa, the craft on offer was mosaic related, making a coaster.
I decided on the design before gluing the tessere to a tile.
Using sticks as spacers the tesserae were glued to the back of the tile.
We left the glue to set whilst we had another look around the villa site.
Each tile was supplied with a bag of grout to finish off the coaster at home.
I mixed up the grout in an old container.
It was spread over the tiles & rubbed in a circular motion to encourage the grout into the gaps.
Next it was left to dry for 10 minutes and the excess grout wiped off with a damp cloth.
Left for another 10 minutes and then wiped with a dry cloth and left to dry for 24 hours.
24 hours and a polish later, my new coaster was ready to use.
A great reminder of my holiday.
