There’s a phrase I use in almost every class: “I do zero resource guarding.” It sounds like something out of a dog training manual, and with three dogs in my home, that’s exactly where I got it. But it’s the most accurate way I know to describe how I teach. Here’s what I mean: ask me anything. Where do I buy my glass? Happy to tell you. What tools do I actually use versus what’s just nice to have? I’ll walk you through all my choices and reasoning. Why do I do a technique a certain way —...

The substrate you choose determines whether your mosaic lasts decades or ends up on a shelf. Here's what I've learned — and what I learned the hard way.

That's me holding my Silberschnitt pliers — one of my favorite tools in this post. More on those below. In Part 1, I introduced the tools I hand every student on day one — the kit that, once mastered, gives you everything you need to mosaic a church floor in Italy. If you haven't read that one yet, start there. This post is for what comes next. Whether you've taken a class and caught the bug, or you've been making mosaics for a while and are ready to invest more intentionally, these are the...