When I saw my first jars of millifeori they reminded me of the jars
of penny candy that brought on such excitement when I was a child. I
couldn't decide which ones to buy with my nickel just as I can't decide
which millifeori patterns to buy as a adult. So I try to buy them all!
I guess that childhood excitement has never left me.
Used with glass, ceramic, or other tile, Millifeori will add a lively and interesting sparkle to your borders
Split and whole millefiori can be used together to form a very rich and opulent border.
Each pattern and color combination is rich with possibilities and I
have many ideas about how to use each design. I don't even need to use
them in a mosaic to enjoy them for just having them on my shelves makes
me feel rich with potential. Millifeori is Italian for "One Thousand
Flowers" for they often look like and are used as flowers.
Split, they work well as dragonflys and other animals.
How Millifeori Is Made
Glass globs or blocks are built up in layers by dipping them or
coating them with different colored molten glass. somewhat like old
fashioned hand dipped candles are made. When molton, a blob of glass
can be pushed into a metal die similar to a cookie cutter to achieve a
pattern such as a star, or a flower and then another color of glass is
applied over the patterned shape or else the original blob is simply
dipped into different colors of glass to create a "bulls-eye" pattern
of concentric color rings. The now thick stubby rods are then heated
and stretched to the desired diameter and finally nipped or cross-cut
into thin colorful glass disks with an identical patern on each disk.
These are sold as millifeori tiles. The creation of millefiori is done
by hand which accounts for the variation in size and pattern as well as
minor color variations within a bag of tiles.
Some of the millefiori tiles in this small mosaic were cut in half with
tile nippers and placed into the tile cement with the round edge down
so only the striped pattern shows while others were simply nipped in
half and used in pieces.
How To Apply Millifeori Tiles
As glass tiles, they are no different to apply than any other glass
tiles and they have the same long lasting color fast scratch resistant
qualities as any other glass tiles. Due to their small size they are
less likely to shatter if hit with a hard object than a larger tile.
Millifeori
are much smaller than most mosaic tiles and tweezers can be a geat help
in applying them. They can be pressed or placed into a bed of adhesive
or you can apply a drop or dab of adhesive to the back of each tile as
you apply it to your mosaic surface. Some popular adhesives are
Thinset, Liquid Nails, Weldbond, Mac Glue, silicone, all purpose
ceramic tile mastic, and epoxy. Any adhesive that you use for your
other mosaics will work with millifeori.
How To Use Millifeori Tiles
Many professional mosaic artists place their millifeori tiles close
together or touching in the same traditional manner they would apply
smalti. Used in this manner, millifeori are usually left ungrouted.
Cleaning the leftover grout off of many small millifeori tiles can be a
tedious and time consuming process. I place my millifeori close but not
touching and I do grout them after they are set. Advances in the
practice of cleaning mosaics after grouting (dry cleaning) have been
developed that make the challenge of cleaning much less troublesome
than it once was. You can learn more about this method of cleaning your
work after grouting in the Mosaic Artists Org. (MAO) website on Yahoo.
Traditionally millifeori was nipped onto chips or disks about the
size and shape of an aspirin and then melted onto the surface of a
large vessel such as a vase, bowl or paper weight as a decoration.
Millifeori is also drilled and fire polished to make beads. Only
recently has millifeori found it's way to the main stream mosaic trade
where it is used as a wonderful decoration for borders, designs, eyes
on fanciful creatures and other embellishments. The millifeori trend in
mosaic making has grown so much that there are classes and workshops
devoted to their use as mosaic tiles. I sometimes nip my millifeori
tiles into two half circles to achieve effects that would be almost
impossible to achieve any other way. Below are some examples of
millifeori being used in several different ways. I will add more
pictures here as you send me photos of your own creative uses for
millifeori mosaic tiles.
The most obvious use for millifeori tiles is as
flowers such as these simple blue and white millifeori pieces in this
antique micromosaic. The round blue and white tiles were not considered
millifeori in the late 1800s or early 1900s but "multi colored mosaic
tiles" as were the three colored leaves in this mosaic. (The leaves
were made in a similar method to millifeori; as long rods containing
the leaf pattern which were nipped into leaf tiles).
As simple embellishments or parts of a decorative
border, millifeori can add a fresh dimension to your work as
demonstrated in these light switch cover plates and plaque made by
Laurel Skye and Joshua Lowell
I have been playing with different ways to
use millifeori such as these wooden drawer pull insets. Here are some
examples of millifeori flower petals and millifeori nipped in half for
the same use. The green abstract drawer pull is part of a set that is
meant to go with the switch plate in the preceding frame of the same
colors and tile pattern.
