Plastic Bottle Cap Mosaic Grouting Experiments - Eurhi Jones and Betsy Teutsch

Eurhi Jones working on grouting detail. Now we know we need smooth-top
bottle caps! The ones with designs got clogged with grout!

Today Euhri came over with grouting equipment. Our prototype had dried, and most of the bottle caps were well-attached to the thinset. A few larger ones were not and our first conclusion was: no deep big caps, even if they are visually fun.

Grouting is tricky, especially on an uneven surface like we created. So our next conclusion was that a few slightly deeper caps will add an interesting dimension, but we will try to be more uniform.

Grouting proceeded and then we hit a real challenge. We had included a bunch of bottle caps with a very cool citrus design. But the grout got stuck in all the crevises. It is much harder to clean grout of plastic caps than ceramic or glass. We will research alternatives. And possibly daub oil on the surface of the caps before grouting.

We resorted to using toothbrushes and toothpicks to clear off the
grout that stuck to the surfaces of the bottle cap tiles. Figuring
out a work-around!

Plastic Bottle Cap Mosaic Grouting Experiments - Eurhi Jones and Betsy Teutsch

Eurhi Jones working on grouting detail. Now we know we need smooth-top
bottle caps! The ones with designs got clogged with grout!

Today Euhri came over with grouting equipment. Our prototype had dried, and most of the bottle caps were well-attached to the thinset. A few larger ones were not and our first conclusion was: no deep big caps, even if they are visually fun.

Grouting is tricky, especially on an uneven surface like we created. So our next conclusion was that a few slightly deeper caps will add an interesting dimension, but we will try to be more uniform.

Grouting proceeded and then we hit a real challenge. We had included a bunch of bottle caps with a very cool citrus design. But the grout got stuck in all the crevises. It is much harder to clean grout of plastic caps than ceramic or glass. We will research alternatives. And possibly daub oil on the surface of the caps before grouting.

We resorted to using toothbrushes and toothpicks to clear off the
grout that stuck to the surfaces of the bottle cap tiles. Figuring
out a work-around!

The great news is that once the grouting is done, our caps look quite beautiful - my friend Mindy likened them to the sea glass that she collects. They really no longer look like plastic junk, but instead, beautiful circular tiles. See for yourself!

The left side has been grouted. See that some of the tiles are full of grout :-( and that the tiles on the left look much more mosaic/tile-y than the exposed bottle caps on the right. Success!

Bottle Brick Tamping Tools: 1/2" PVC Remnants are Ideal!

1/2" PVC scraps, cut to 12" to 16", are perfect tools for tamping down the
odds and ends of non-biodegradable stuff for bottle brick filling

FoodMoxie will be participating in the Mt Airy Village Fair on Sunday, 9/10. As part of the effort to ZeroWaste the event, we will be teaching people how to make bottle bricks by filling bottles with non-biodegradable waste. 

FoodMoxie will be using 1000 bricks to build a raised bed keyhole garden as part of their Hope Garden horicultural therapy program at Martin Luther King High.

Come by and work on brick filling. We'll have extra bottles for you to take home, and if we can find a source for PVC remnants, pictured above, we'll hand them out. Anyone have leftover 1/2" PVC piping? It is the perfect width for bottles, to compress the contents.

Let us know!