Most people use a glass grinder for only shaping and smoothing glass.

Well, I’ll show you that you can shape and smooth pieces of ceramic tile in the same way when creating mosaics.

The Glass Grinder and Grinding Heads

There are all different heads that you can purchase for your glass grinder. To shape wall tile, you need a coarse head. To shape floor tile you need an even coarser head.

*Tip: Glass grinders and grinder heads can be purchased from a local stained glass shop or off Amazon.

It’s easy enough to change the head out on your grinder. They provide you with an Allen wrench and you remove one and replace it with another.

There are a variety of grinder heads that can be purchased for grinding holes in your glass etc.

Shaping Tile on Your Grinder

Before you begin grinding the rough edge of your tile, you’ll want to replace you splash guard and insert a wet sponge in the area provided behind your grinding head. It’s necessary for your grinding head to remain wet while you’re grinding the edge of your tile.

You’ll be marking your tile piece to fit and cutting the piece with your mosaic cutter.

Next, turn on your glass grinder, take the rough cut piece to the spinning grinder head and smooth the edge by pushing it against the spinning head.

Always make sure to wear safety glasses when grinding tile on your glass grinder.

Once the piece is smoothed, glue it in place.

Some tile pieces will actually need to be completely reshaped such as this one. The same process applies but instead you will be grinding both sides of this piece until it is shaped properly to be glued in place.

By using a glass grinder to smooth and shape your pieces of tile, you can not only create mosaics with larger pieces that have been sculpted to fit within your design, but can achieve greater detail within your design and will create a more professional looking mosaic. Below are a few examples of tile mosaics created using a glass grinder.

Danielle Fernandez

Danielle is the mosaic artist and teacher behind Mosaics Mostly. She has been creating mosaics for over 25 years, and has taught hundreds of people to create their very own mosaic DIY projects at home. She has been featured in multiple galleries and magazines, and has even had her own beginner mosaics book published! She loves crafts, and is always working on something new!