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92 CommerCial ConstruCtion & renovation — January : February 2014 During the art deco defned 1920s, glass tile was specifed for walls on retail storefronts, train stations and more, offering a trendy commercial look. Then, roughly three decades ago, even more advances in production were introduced, eliciting an even greater awareness concerning glass tile just about everywhere. By now, designers, developers and end-users know why glass mosaics are in demand. The color palette is brilliant, limitless. And the glass body of each tile refects light, further enhancing these colors, adding bright energy to any interior. Glass tile has zero porosity, making it ideal for myriad applications, including kitchen backsplashes, commercial signage, shower tile, pool tile, and outdoors fountains, et al. This is why Miami-based Surfaces Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of glass tile material, decided to bring the Crayola Glass Tile Collection to market. "The name 'Crayola' is synonymous with bright, cheerful colors," says Albert Claramonte, president of Surfaces. "It has 99 percent name recognition in U.S. consumer households." A decision was made to create a glass mosaic mural in Crayola's national headquarters in Easton, Pa., using these materials. After a number of creative ideas were submitted, a whimsical illustration of a dancing crayon was approved. Next, the image was scanned via a spe- cial software program that elicited a gigantic pixilated grid, indicating which color of tiny mosaic tile would go where in order to make this glass mural a visual reality. "The actual size of the mural was 8.5-feet x 8.5 feet," says Nauro Rezende, marketing man- ager for Surfaces. "Thousands of half-inch glass mosaics were mounted via hand on 1 square foot mesh sheets by our artisans. They followed the computer-generated grid perfectly. It took a lot of time, but the results speak for themselves." There were questions relative to which grout material should be used. Rezende says a number of products were considered from various sources – all of which were good materials. The fnal decision was to utilize Bostik's Dimension™ RapidCure™, Glass-Filled, Pre-Mixed, Urethane Grout, a patented, refective, water based, urethane grout. Dimension contains micro glass beads and a translucent, urethane binder that both refect light as well as allow- ing it to pass through. This creates a totally unique refective, three-dimensional effect within glass tile installations, which was very attractive to the decision-making team. "We took this grout for a test drive at our facilities before it was fnally selected, seeing how it worked with many of our glass mosaic tiles," Rezende says. "It was really easy to use and was extremely hard once cured. It was also easy to clean up, which is not always the case with grout after application. Because of its glass properties, it worked in subtle harmony with the glass tiles rather than overpowering them." It was important to all involved that a local contractor was se- lected to handle the installation of this one-of-a-kind glass mural. As a result, Art Belf from Philadelphia-based Belf Brothers was selected to handle the installation. His work was by all accounts, fawless. "Glass mosaic tiles refect both natural and manmade light resulting in a visual experience not unlike when one watches beams of sunlight glistening on streaming water," Claramonte says. "By combining these color-drenched, exquisite products with a grout material that actually enhances their visual properties, which from an aesthetic standpoint performs similarly to glass tile, the result couldn't be better." CCR Ron Treister is president of Communicators International, A Jensen Beach, Fla.-based marketing frm. He can be reached at rlt@communicatorsintl.com. "Glass mosaic tiles refect both natural and manmade light resulting in a visual experience not unlike when one watches beams of sunlight glistening on streaming water." – Albert Claramonte, President, Surfaces Inc. Glass mosaic mural sparkles with refective, glass-flled grout By Ron Treister larger-than-life H istory tells us that mosaic tiles debuted more than 2,000 years ago, when talented Byzantine artists created decorative glass tiles used for adorning the walls and ceilings of churches and public buildings. Throughout the world, this continued to be a very expensive material for centuries. It wasn't until the mid-1800s, when new mass production techniques resulted in glass tile being less costly, did this product fnd a place within private residences. CCR-JanFeb.14_48-.indd 92 2/7/14 2:27 PM