Someone has suggested getting a glass place to drill the holes in the blocks for you - anyone done this? At what cost? I promised to make several of these for friends at work and thought my hand-held drill with a bit I use for ceramic tiles would work - now, not sure it will (and, my husband won't let me do it and will not be happy if it takes 10 minutes per block!) I know a woman who did these with the battery lites and used them as a centerpiece for a 50th anniversary party.

You can try to wax them. Every shell mosaic manufaturer after they polished the mosaic chips and stick in a sheet,they have one step is waxing. After waxing,the chips will become very shiny. After construction,there will be having some dirty thing on the surface.That's the reason that is dull. Hoping this is useful for you. And the right way for installing that kind of shell mosaic is following: Construction way of our mother of pearl mosaic and tiles. We can lay glue or adhesive (We suggest to use tiny granule glue or white grout) on the wall and then put the mosaic on the wall by hand until the gap is filled with glue or grout (the hand pressure should be well-proportioned). After 30 minutes (for tiny granule glue 20 minutes is okay), you can clean the surface of the mosaic by dry soft cloth. 3.Shell Panel Application & Installation Commonly use to the backing such as MDF, Marble, Ceramic, Calcium Silicate Board, Plasterboard, Acryl and Metal. Using AB adhesive or all-purpose adhesive, apply even coat of adhesive to the panel and wall, and waiting for 5 to 8 minutes, then press it carefully to the wall. Immediately wipe off excess adhesive with a soft wet cloth, and dry with a clean soft cloth afterwards. 4. Protection and Cleaning 1. Please wipe the surface with charpie to reduce the nick; 2. Please clean the surface with neutral detergent; 3. Please wax shell mosaic surface regular time; Please Attention 1.Do not irradiate the surface with 100W above light. 2. The detergent should be faintly acid,because the content of shell mosaic are CaCO3; 3.Would better use tham soft cloth clean the surface,and wax them regular time for keeping the shiny. Hoping giving you some help! Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Shell Decorative Material.,Ltd

Breezy- opps! sorry to be silent about the bench - i think there just wasnt much to tell. The carpenter is making a new one.. well, he's rebuilding it to give it more seating and fill the space better. It comes tomorrow! along with the last few doors. Pendants are next week- got some cool school house lights from Rejuvenation - great place - great quality hardware (latches) too. Today was BS Range day! Very fun and man!, that thing gets hot! lol... im gonna have to re-learn to cook! I cant wait for you get as close (to being done) as i am - it still seems not real!!

Really do appreciate the advice, but the grout will be white. I've given thought to using a gray, but it just looks too "eh" for me. The contrasting look is why I chose gray tile in the first place. I love it. I don't care for matching the tile color with the grout - at least not for the type of tile that I have. And for the record, it is a very medium-gray. I had samples of darker gray and lighter too, both, when I was deciding on the tile. The medium was just right.