Buttons and Beads

While buttons and beads are not the most traditional mosaic material, they do provide a great alternative to tiles. Like mirror and glass they can add something unique and special to a tiled mosaic.

Most people have many buttons lying around the house, left over from old shirts or even the spare buttons from new coats. If you are anything like me I always forget which 'spare' buttons are supposed to go with which shirt and I end up finding them in a spare drawer years later!

Beads are very similar in that everyone always has some in their drawers or old jewellery boxes, but never really use or wear them often. Beads add a lot of dynamics to a simple mosaic piece and when combined with odd bits of tesserae like buttons, glass, mirror, cork and wood you have an eclectic collection that will create a fantastic mosaic spread across any base without necessarily holding any pattern!

Old beaded necklaces, bracelets or belts are great to chop up and collect the multicolored and different sized beads. Combine these with your odd buttons, and every time you find an old and spare one, pop it in little jars or plastic pots until you have enough to create a mosaic!