The planet-themed tabletop is completely glued now, and I’ve been contemplating grout colors.  Since this is a table that will be used heavily, I plan to use epoxy grout, which dries hard as a rock, is impervious to liquid, and never needs sealing.  My color scheme is still in the experimental stage.

Making a few sample boards to try out different grouts is always advisable.  Also, my friend and fellow mosaic-artist, Dianne Sonnenberg, is an ever-generous font of information on all things mosaic.  Here are scenes from the sample board department:

My mom glued black tesserae onto a scrap board.  After I grouted it, I didn’t like the effect, so no white or white sparkly grout over the Milky Way portion of the sky.

Left side is grouted all in black.  Right side- upper corner in black with silver sparkles, just right for the Milky Way.  Bottom right is grouted in red- looks pretty good for a red planet.

Making one last planet-shaped sample to grout in colors, just to make sure I like the way it looks.

The grout color scheme is a make-it-or-break-it deal for any mosaic piece, so I am doing my best to anticipate the final look before I smear epoxy all over my work!