Just amazing!!!
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This is stunning. I never thought of doing something across multiple tiles. Rabbit hole here I come!
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Wow across several tiles is amazing.
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This makes me wonder if anyone has gotten a job doing custom tile for kitchen and bathrooms. Seems like you could make some huge murals with this.
This is really beautiful work! How will you go about resealing the tile?
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I’ve gotten asked about doing just that twice since I started engraving on tile. So far though, it’s just been to have something like every 5th tile be a playing card or a compass rose or something. Not mosaics like this.
That kind of horrifies me to be honest. It’s pretty hard to get the tone to be consistent between different sets of engravings (and I haven’t even tried splitting it up between my glowforge and my friend’s yet). I made 14 10x14 tiles for a coworker to give out as end of season gifts to all of his teammates and I had a lot of trouble getting them all to look uniform. Wasn’t a problem I had anticipated. On this one, I was a lot more careful about cleaning the machine between every cycle, mixing the ink very well, wiping with alcohol before inking, applying it the same way, letting it sit for exactly 3 minutes, etc. It seems like it worked on this one, so we’ll see if it works between different machines too.
Currently I’m just using clear coat to seal it. I have a few coasters that we’ve been using for about 2 months now that are holding up just fine with clear coat. I’m not sure what else to try though. I went to a tile store and a ceramic “factory” to ask for recommendations, but they didn’t have any for me. The ceramic place said that their normal process would probably cook all of the ink out of it.
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I was wondering what clear epoxy between tiles + acrylic + backlight backer would look like, but I’m actually more excited about having grout between the tiles than anything else. Who knows until I actually try it, but a “normal” tile job that has a crazy engraving on it carries a lot of the appeal for me. Also, I’m a little bit obsessed with trying to make sure everything lines up perfectly and having the standard process of 1/8 tile spacers seemed really reliable.
We’ll see though…I have a habit of beating something new into the ground twice over, so I’ll probably end up getting bored of the grout and trying your suggestion in a few months. 
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Wow. That is amazing!
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If anyone wants to try 8 of these tiles (or use my file as a template to do your own), I edited in a link and some quick instructions to the bottom of the original post. Let me know if any of it isn’t clear and I’ll spend a little more time writing it out at home.
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I thought you had been using the Norton white tile method until I read this response. I wonder if that would give more consistent results?
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What is that?
I’ve been sticking with my method using calligraphy ink because its been the best way to have variable shades that I’ve seen. I haven’t seen other methods work well with greyscale pictures, just solid colors.
A post I did back in Dec last year:
This is a porcelain tile from Home Depot. They come 9 to a sheet.
I applied 2 coats of Rustoleum flat white paint about 20 minutes apart then let that dry for an hour or so.
Speed = 250
Power = 30
Convert to dots
LPI = 340
Scrub off the excess white paint using paint thinner.
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Ohhhh thats gorgeous. No i haven’t tried that yet, but ill give it a go.
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It is very durable as well. you can’t scratch it off with a metal scraper.
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Do you want to try your technique with the file I uploaded containing 8 tiles?
Thanks but no, I haven’t got any tiles laying around now anyway.
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Great engrave and explanation.
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My friend and I are going to work on building tables on Sunday and I wanted to have another map ready so both of us could work on our own. Just finished engraving this one last night and I’m going to work on inking it tonight. It’s kind of an odd shape for a table, but I love this map and we’re just practicing right now anyways. (36in x 45in)
Ye Old Spanish Main (1933)
This was a test of the first 8 tiles to make sure it looked ok before I did the rest. It’s a little darker than the final 80 will be because I didn’t take the time to wipe off the excess like I normally would.
I’ve uploaded all 10 SVG files (80 tiles total) HERE in case anyone would like to make their own
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Tile is a fun medium … maps are cool. Great combo.
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Just for grins I downloaded one of your tile sheets and cropped it to one tile. I wanted to test the galvanizing spray again. I think it worked great! The advantages of this spray are that it’s easy to get a very smooth and even coat on the tile, and after engraving there is no need to ink up the engraving and cleanup is super easy (just scrub with a green scrubbie under water to remove unreacted zinc spray). I love the rich chocolate brown shade that you get.
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Does anyone know where to get 4in X 4in black slate tiles (without the footpad for coasters) in bulk?