Super Mario Brothers mosaic

Mahr

I had a lot of free time while visiting my parents in San Jose for Christmas so I made this Super Mario mosaic. It's about 14.5" square and weighs a lot (it's made of cubes of marble). There are 1118 stones in all.

Early on in the project I decided that I wanted to go for a Roman mosaic look but with a video game character. The natural stone really worked out great, though I think I should have used a bit more sealer to make the colors pop a bit more.

Red_Arremer

That's pretty sweet. What did you set the stones into?

Metalbourne

If there's anything you can do to give it more contrast, I'd do it. Otherwise, it's looking good.

NightDragon

I think it's hilarious that you used real marble tiles for this.

Yeah, more contrast and color would be nice, but I'm sure you're limited by the materials.

Betelgeuse

I actually like the subtlety. It makes it less "haha hey here is a goofy cartoon!!" and more "I say, this is a very classy design."

exfauxsure

I wouldnt change a thing with the color. It has an awesome subtle look going for it. Mad props.

Tam

It's defnitely got the patina of a real old mosaic.

Major coolio :^:.

Angel_of_Bacon

I like the subtle color too, it makes me feel like it would look good as a tile on a garden path amongst similarly colored tiles...so people would walk around and not notice it for awhile, then do a double take when they look at it more closely.

NakedZergling

i was bored and counted..i only got 992 tiles...now i feel lied to.....

i totally agree with bacon..i like that you don't see it right away. sometimes subtle is more fun.

Loomdun

Yup I counted to 992

Godfather

That's awesome. You're awesome.

Obs

That's really cool, where did you get the stones?

TehSpectre

wow

:^:

ManonvonSuperock

Yeah, the subtlety of the colors definitely works well.

I tried to do this back in '03 with a megaman sprite until I saw how much tile cost. Yeesh

Where did you acquire your tile?

also, is it made out of 'cubes' or tiles?

desperaterobots

Totally awesome and I want you to tile the bathroom of my new house in whatever parallel existence where I can afford one.

Mahr

Sorry for the late response, I thought I had email notification turned on

It does look better in person, though I agree that it could use a bit more pop. I only used one coat of stone sealer as I didn't want it to get too shiny, but I think that the rock absorbed a little bit of the grey from the grout. Next time I think I'll put on 3 coats of sealer and rough it up a bit with some really fine sandpaper to cut the gloss.

As for the count of the stones and a little about the construction. I mounted the cubes of marble on a piece of plywood. There is a row of stones down each edge of the plywood so that the wood can't be seen. I used grout to bevel the edge so the stones can't be seen directly from the front. I took the new picture from the diagonal so you can see the side a bit better.

I got my stones from this place. The selection of colors is very limited as they only sell natural stone.
http://www.mosaicartsupply.com/stonemarblemosaictile38.aspx

Here's a better picture

Shiboe

Really cool idea man. I now have to do this someday, pixel art seems to work so well with mosaic tiling. ;D
What do you plan to do with it though mounted on plywood? I would assume it's too heavy to hang on a wall?

Mahr

Thanks! I have it hung on the all at the foot of my kitchen table. It's great. I used two metal (brass/copper?) drywall anchors. It's not going anywhere. The plywood isn't nearly as heavy as all of the marble and grout. From what I've read, it's best to use plywood as it'll last forever and it won't warp too much. For outdoor pieces (the stepping stone idea above is great!), the plywood should be sealed thoroughly.

Godfather

So is anyone gonna report this for awesome?

I'd do it but I haven't posted enough to do so.

NightDragon

Godfather wrote: »

So is anyone gonna report this for awesome?

I'd do it but I haven't posted enough to do so.

Really? I didn't know they limited that function.

[edit] I was thinking about it, but I figured somebody else would do it, haha...

I'll do it! Anything to avoid my homework further...(also, this deserves Awesome).