Jag Parts

Jag Parts

How do I make a mosaic towers out of pieces of broken plates without the ends being jagged?

I'm doing a project. It's going to be a castle, but only problem is that its going to be made out of broken plates. How do i make the mosaic towers when the pieces are jagged? My teacher said that i should use some clay and push the pieces into the clay so it takes the jagged parts away. What clay would I have to use in order to complete this project? I also don't want to put the clay into the oven want the clay air dry.

Generally, "mosaics" are made with various kinds of thick glue or cement rather than "clay" to initially hold the pieces ("tiles") in place.
After drying, the spaces between the tiles are filled with "grout" and that's what will bury the edges of each tile. Grout comes in at least two types depending on much space between the tiles needs to be filled (one type has sand in it).

You can use anything you want though if it fits your needs (including how long it needs to last, etc), so you could use an air-dry clay or a polymer clay (but that kind must be heated to harden), or you could use a plasticine "modeling clay" in some situations but that would never harden. The problem with air-dry clays is that they shrink (various degrees) while they're hardening since the way they do that is to lose their water and dry.

Air-dry clays come in various types, strengths, characteristics, etc...some are usually purchased, and some can be made at home.
Earthen clays can be purchased or dug out of some kinds of ground, and will air-dry; they will be fairly brittle though unless they're fired in a high-temperature kiln.
Purchased air-dry clays also include those that are based on paper-products (with some other things in them sometimes), and range from the very smooth and excellent Creative Paperclay all the way down to Celluclay (add water to that one).
Homemade air-dry clays can be grain-based or paper based. The grain-based ones usually contain flour (salt dough clay, bread clay, etc); the paper based ones contain some kind of paper product plus water (some use glue or other starches in the recipe or other additives--those would be papier mache paste, paper pulp, etc).
Air-dry clays may crack if they're dried too fast, as well.

You don't mention size or waterproofness needed either, but my best guess is that you might just want to do a regular "mosaic" technique and check out sites on the materials and techniques for doing that (unless your item will be small and indoors):

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+mosaic+broken

HTH,
Diane B.

2002 JAGUAR X-TYPE 2.5 ENGINE PARTS CAR 9A0011