Color Cement Handicraft

by Pedro J. Lemos; Reta A. Lemos

POURED TILES FOR FLOOR USE made from a strong mixture of sand and cement and with a small proportion of color will be found to be durable. One or two coatings of shellac and a covering of floor wax will further increase the durability of the wearing surface.

PLAIN TILES FOR FLOOR USE can be used with decorated tile and various interesting patterns can be made (a few of which are shown) by interspersing the tile in different arrangements. A glazed tile can be made and used as a variation in combination with mat finish or dull finish tiles. Several small tiles may be used to fill a space and produce patterns in contrast to larger tiles. It will be found that with a little design arrangement many interesting floor arrangements can be made with tiles.

WHERE A LARGE NUMBER OF TILES ARE TO BE MADE several molds in plaster-of-Paris should be made and a large quantity of color mixed at once, and the first color placed in each tile consecutively and then the next color, until all the colors have been placed in the six, eight, ten or whatever number of molds is being made at the same operation. After the color has set, the backing mixture of concrete is made and poured into all the tiles.

A TEMPLET PATTERN MOLD for floor tiles is made by cutting templets from either cardboard or linoleum with slightly tapering sides and gluing these into position to produce the design. The templets should duplicate the portions of a design and the design should be the first step in the problem to be solved.

THE DESIGN FOR TEMPLET PATTERNS should be simple in form and division. Geometric patterns and straight line forms are the best for use. Good divisions of squares and rectangles and these divisions changed slightly to floral or leaf shapes should be as far as any elaboration should go.

AFTER THE TEMPLET PATTERN IS CUT it is assembled and glued into position on another card or glass surface and given two coats of shellac. It is then placed within the retaining bars and a cast is made in plaster. This cast in plaster is afterwards shellaced and becomes the mold for casting the cement tile.

TO CAST THE CEMENT TILE the colors selected from parts of the design are first mixed and placed into the mold. After the colors have been all placed and permitted to harden, they are backed with a mixture of neat cement and color which is next backed up with a concrete mixture and then permitted to dry for three days. After being hardened in water for several days after its removal from the mold, it is then ready to be cemented in position for floor use.

THE BACK FINISH OF WALL TILES should have countersunk spaces to permit a good grip or hold of the mortar that will be used to hold the tile in position. These grip holds can be made by cutting four small rectangular sections of cardboard and pressing them closely together into the back of the tile after the last layer of cement has been poured. After the cement has dried thoroughly and the tile is ready to be removed from its mold, these cards can be easily removed.

TO USE WALL TILES they should always be immersed in water before the mortar is applied. This prevents the moisture being absorbed out of the mortar by a dry tile and assures better sticking of the tile to a perpendicular surface.

TO MAKE GOOD MORTAR, building lime is placed in a mixing box or bucket and water poured over it. Next day it can be taken and mixed with sand until a rich, thick plaster results. To this add one-quarter or one-eighth part of Portland cement to make it strong.