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Cutting Antique China Dishes into shards for Mosaics
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By Melissa Miller
Melissa's Motifs
From the soon-to-be-published book, 'Mosaic Lifestyle,
copyright 2007
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Chapter Six: Cutting China with Tile Nippers,
Note: Always wear protective goggles when cutting
shards. Nipping shards inside small plastic bags provides additional protection from flying shard bits.
Cutting up dishes with tile nippers is not difficult, but it does take practice, and there are
a few tricks to it. The most important direction on this is proper placement of the cutting part of
the nippers…you should go in just about ¼ to ½ of the way in to the nippers. This will usually allow
a clean cut, and less muscle power. If you go too far in with the nippers, the dish will be harder to
cut, and is likely to shatter in unpredictable ways. Proper cutting will give you some control of your
shapes, and with practice, many types of china will be as easy to cut as paper. Homer Laughlin is the
easiest I’ve found for this….I could spend all day cutting around the flowers that run around the borders
of Homer Laughlin plates.
There are two types of tile nippers: New, in many different price ranges,
and old, which are nearly impossible to find. I have two pair of old ones, and I guard them with my
life. There’s no marking of any kind on them, they’re just dark gray nippers with a smooth, easy-to-use
handle, and they’re far superior to any of the new ones I’ve bought. Old nippers can sometimes be found
at tag sales where the contents of an entire household are being sold off, including the basement workshop.
If you come across these, you’re lucky. A set of old nippers. Otherwise, purchase a mid-range priced
set at any hardware store; they are usually around $12 – 16.
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