Mosaic Terminology

1. An individual piece of mosaic
2. Rubble layer beneath floor mosaics
4. Handmade Italian rectangular bricks of opaque glass used in Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna. Left ungrouted due to its naturally occurring bubbled surface
6. A mosaic panel featuring a figure constructed of small tesserae worked away from the final installation site
8. Marble slabs used to decorate the walls into which feature mosaics were inserted
10. A hand-turned grinding wheel used to shape tessera
12. A full-scale design of a mosaic. Often traced onto a medium which tesserae are added
15. / Sectile Thin geometric mosaic slabs bedded into a mortar of lime and pozzolana
16. Roman geometric mosaics made up of handcut cubed tesserae of stone and marble
17. Wall mosaics made from glass paste and marble
18. A method of transferring cartoon designs to the surface to be mosaiced. The shape is pin-pricked and dusted with charcoal leaving an outline of the design

1. To build or inlay a mosaic
3. Round handmade Murano, Italian feature tesserae of 'a thousand flowers' dating back to 15th century
5. A reduced to scale design of mosaic art suitable for customer inspection
7. Mosaics made of minute tesserae
9. Small Italian moulded, glass tesserae with rounded corners
11. The gap between tesserae
13. Glass Mosaic glass tiles in a wide range of colors with a flat smooth surface. Frost and UVA resistant. Ridged on reverse for better adhesion
14. The direction or flow of the tesserae within a mosaic