Beginning the mosaic - Stair Riser No. 16 (the bottom)

Closeup of the glass in the center of the long piece:









Two pieces: On the left is the short side piece; on the right is the long piece. Holes for mounting are visible.












Photo of both pieces of Plexiglass.







In my first post, I asked "What could go wrong?" Well, cutting the Plexiglass did not go as smoothly as I envisioned. When I called to verify that the hardware store could and would cut the pieces for me, I did say "one-quarter inch" Plexiglass and I was quoted a price of $60; however, when my husband took my note in with the measurements, she called me and said she was quoting on the thinner stuff, and the price jumped to $140. I said okay to that; then when they got into the job, they were going to have to go to another piece in order to get all the pieces cut, and they called again with another price increase, so at that point, I decided that I could use the scrap to piece together what I needed. I have a nice scroll saw that I thought I could use. Wound up having the scroll saw blade melt the Plexiglass and become frozen in the melted area and we used a jig saw. Anyway, it was a hassle getting all the pieces ready but it finally came together.

Before photos of the stairs

Mosaic stairs

This is the largest project I have tackled to date. I am going to mosaic the stair risers. I will use stained glass, broken plates, and a few pieces of jewelry and glass globs. The colors will be blue, purple, green, brown, white, cream, and a few bright accent colors. The theme will be nature, with a river meandering into the distance. There are 16 risers and they are not exactly the same size. Some are 7" in height, some are 6 3/4" and some are 6 1/4". Here's my plan: I had Lowe's cut 1/4" Plexiglass in the size and shape of each riser, and I will mosaic sitting comfortably at the kitchen table. I will drill a hole on each end of the rectangle and then install with screws, which I will cover with a bead or marble. I will grout and seal before I install. Will this work? What can go wrong? Well, I foresee that the grout might develop hairline cracks; even though the 1/4" Plexiglass is hefty, it still has a tiny bit of flex and with grout, we don't want any flex. If it does have some cracks, I can repair them after installation; it will still be much easier than grouting in situ! I will post photos as I progress.