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deedeeminn

shipping mosaics question

deedeeminn
11 years ago

For those of you who ship mosaic works - how do you keep the grout from falling out? I sent a friend a piece of my work and she reported that some of the grout had "dusted away" as she put it. Thanks in advance!

Comments (6)

  • texaswild
    11 years ago

    Grout should not fall or dust away if you properly grouted it. What kind of grout did you use on what kind of project?

  • anneinva_2009
    11 years ago

    I once bought a beautiful bowling ball mosaic but the grout just disintegrated right away in my house. I think she used grout from an art store and not hardware store grout. more like craft grout. I was so disappointed.

  • anneinva_2009
    11 years ago

    I have had more of a problem lately with it breaking. I recently shipped a concrete bird bath and the place packed it for me. It still broke. I don't plan to ship those again

  • loribee2
    11 years ago

    Ooh, darn. I'm starting up a shop to sell my concrete flowers and mushrooms on line. They'll be shipped. I'm curious to know if anyone else has had problems with breakage.

    I'd planned on bubble wrapping them, then filling in the gaps with styrofoam peanuts. I'd assumed that would be good enough.

  • silvamae
    11 years ago

    Grout should not turn back into powder and fall off the piece. There are several reasons why this might happen.

    If the grout is mixed with too much water, it might fail because it's weak. Another possibility is that the grout ingredients have separated and settled within the bag and the proper proportions weren't mixed. The way to ensure that this doesn't happen is to mix the entire bag of grout while it's dry before you scoop some out to mix with water. Not a pleasant thing to do, I know. I buy the smaller bags of grout so it's less trouble, and then you can dump the entire bag into a bucket, stir it up (dry), and then scoop out what you need for your mixture. I do this outside. Take care not to breathe it.

    Lastly, I seal the grout with grout sealer made for outdoors. I wait 24 hours after grouting, then apply it with a spray bottle, then wipe off the tess.

    As for shipping, use bubble wrap and when you think it is packed well enough, use yet another layer of bubble wrap. Tape the bubble wrap so it can't move. I would not use peanuts because of the way they shift about. I would rather use crumpled paper, packed tightly.

  • loribee2
    11 years ago

    Silvamae, thank you for the tips on shipping!