Pacman corner desk of joy: mosaic

Here we go, the story of the first mosaic I ever did. Obviously, I went for a gigantic one straight away, why start with something small. 😀 Granted, making a Pacman mosaic is actually very easy, because it’s all just squares.

First of all I had to get supplies for making mosaics. I went for tile adhesive and grout one gets in the DIY shops, because I needed quite a lot. It’s waterproof, just in case I spill anything on the desk – which has happened since then. I got the first batch of mosaic tiles in a bundle off eBay, then soaked them off the paper. At this stage I didn’t know yet what kind of mosaic I wanted to make.

  

I played around with the tiles, until I decided that this was not what I wanted to put onto my desk.

    

So, after I found out what I didn’t want, I had a brainwave of what I might want, and the net was full of it: 80s video games! Easy-peasy because it’s all built of squares. At first I had a play with Space Invaders.

  

And then I got it: Pacman! With those cute ghosts and Pacman itself. Which meant I had to order a LOT more tiles. I also went for mats to put individual designs on, which was a brilliant idea and made the large area mosaic much easier. In the end I used over three-and-a-half thousand tiles.

     

Having decided what I wanted to do and liking it, it was time to make the proper design. It had to fit perfectly everywhere, and so I did a possibly crazy thing, but honestly, I don’t think it would have worked out otherwise: I dry-set the mosaic in its entirety onto the desk surface. Then I drew the desk and the mosaic and coloured in every single tile. From there I made the proper mosaic by setting it into tile adhesive and finally grouting it. Yes, it took a long time, but it was so very much worth it.

  

I snuck a Mario mushroom in, then then that would be covered by the monitor stand and monitor. And here it is: the Pacman desk mosaic of joy.

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