Those with mosaic designs on sheets that are far larger than the original chips of marbles used by the Romans and Greeks are also included in the term. Even mosaics made with small tiles that are hand-painted can be qualified as one. The size of the tile has become less important than the mosaic look and feel that it creates. The use of the word tile and tesserae is almost identical these days. The obtained results had shown that the white and pinkish tesserae were exclusively made of local (from the Caltanissetta province) limestones, while the black ones were cut from an obsidian, likely of a Liparote origin the turquoise and gold-leaf tesserae were exclusively made of glass manufactured according to the Roman and Byzantine traditio. Now, they can be sheets of different materials, that include a mosaic design that includes stone, glass, mirrors, mother-of-pearl, and pebbles, amongst other choices. A classical tessera is a small piece of mosaic material, but this was prior to the invention of backings that allowed you to create your mosaic outside the job site. This is just a small list of the many different types of tiles out there that you can use to create a mosaic effect. This Silo tile, for example, shows mother-of-pearl cabochons embedded in marble. You can still create your own mosaics using shells, but tiles today use inlays of mother-of-pearl, rather than the whole tiny shells. Cloister was peaceful, serene the Duomo - decorations of gold tesserae mosaics in Monreale Cathedral, designated UNESCOs World Heritage site stunning. They can easily be imbedded in clay and have a beautiful repetitive motif that can create fantastic patterns. Some of the original mosaics seen in Pre-Columbian times were made with tiny shells.

So much so, that, in some cases when larger mosaics are premade or on a grid backing, the word 'tesserae' is now synonymous with the word 'tile.' Here are some of the different materials and types available to the prospective buyer. Types of tesserae today include larger tiles and some made of glass, hand-painted stone, and even metal. Tesserae, the plural of tessera, thus was an appropriate word for the 4-sided colorful cubes of stone, shell, or ceramic that were used for many mosaic materials of the period. A tessera, to the Romans, was a 4-sided tablet made of wood, stone, or bone and it was used for a variety of purposes, from ticketing to identification. This produced a golden reflection emanating from in between the tesserae as well as their front, causing a far richer and more. The Byzantines used tesserae with gold leaf, in which case the glass pieces were flatter, with two glass pieces sandwiching the gold. Evidence indicates secondary production of Islamic mosaic tesserae in Egypt. Group structure of glass mosaics from Damascus suggests large-scale commission. The word 'tessares,' meaning four, is thought to originate from the Greeks and eventually became 'tessera' in Latin. Later, tesserae were made from colored glass, or clear glass backed with metal foils. Gold compositions disprove use of coins for the production of gold leaf tesserae.

Gold tesserae