What is Cube Mosaics?

Modern life is significantly influenced by Rubiks. They have a significant presence in pop culture films and shows, and are part of modern art too! Rubik's cube mosaics are a way for speedcubers to portray their artistic side using Rubik's Cubes.

What is a Mosaic?

Traditionally, a mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic. Mosaics are often used as decoration on floors and walls and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world.

Mosaics today include artwork, hobby crafts, and construction forms.

Nowadays, mosaics are made by people all around the world, with materials such as shells, beads, coins, and more recently, Rubik's Cubes.

Mosaics have developed into a popular craft and art, and are not limited to professionals. Today's artists work with stone, shells, beads, and even odd items like doll parts, pearls, or photographs. 

While ancient mosaics tended to be architectural, modern mosaics are found covering everything from park benches and flower pots to guitars and bicycles. 

What are Rubik's Cube Mosaics?

Rubik's cube mosaics involve the art of portraying a picture through the medium of Rubik's Cubes. 

The most basic idea is breaking down a picture into each pixel and using each piece of the Rubik's cube to represent that pixel. This can simply be done with the help of a website such as twisttheweb.net, which helps break down an image into a mosaic friendly format.

Similar to resolutions in images, the more pixels you have, the better is the quality of the image. The mosaic too works better with more pieces. 

Twist The Web Website Page

Ways to make your own Mosaic:

1. With multiple cubes - The complexity of your mosaic can vary with the number of cubes you have. More the number of cubes, the better the quality.
2. With 10-15 cubes - You may start out by making simple, small words.
3. Small images, such as emojis and logos can be made with 40-50 cubes. 
4. For larger and more detailed images such as portraits, 100 cubes or more may be used. 

Here's how to create the mosaic.

1. Choose an image and upload it to the website.
2. Adjust the color scheme according to that of your cubes 
3. You will get a detailed break down of the mosaic from the website. Divide your cubes into parts as per the instructions and start creating!
4. Lastly, arrange your cubes for display either on the floor or a wooden display.

Mosaic of Erno Rubik made by Cubelelo

Single Cube Mosaics.

Single cube mosaics can be made with multiple photos of a single cube, creating a "digital mosaic", or with a big cube. 

Single Cube:

Start by choosing a design for the mosaic and break it down part by part, same as the previous steps. Once you have the plan laid out, arrange your cube as shown in the plan and click a photo. The best software would be a document scanner app such as adobe scan, however a regular camera works too. Make sure to save the files in order to make compilation easier. 

You can now use a collage creator or other similar software to compile the image into one complete mosaic!

Big Cube:

Larger puzzles such as 6x6 and onwards have more number of pieces and can this be used to create mini mosaics, such as emojis, flags and more.

Buy Cubelelo Mini Mosaic Cubes

Cubelelo Mosaics

Cubelelo's YouTube channel has a collection of mosaics on famous actors, movies, tributes and more

Here are some of Cubelelo's famous Rubik’s Cube mosaic creations.

1. A tribute to Erno Rubik, the inventor of the most famous and bestselling puzzle of all time. It was made using 1350 3x3 cubes in 2 hours!

2. India Flag Mosaic on 73rd Independence Day. This cube-art was made using 570 Rubik's cubes in 30 minutes !

3. 5th International Yoga Day - Team Cubelelo celebrated International Yoga Day by creating a mosaic using 1600 Rubik's cubes to promote yoga. 

4. Amar Jawan- This mosaic is made to pay tribute to the brave soldiers who were martyred in Pulwama terrorist attack by using 1800 Rubik's Cube in 2 hrs.

5. Children's Day Chacha Nehru Ji Mosaic - This mosaic is made to pay tribute to the First Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru on the occasion of Children's day, as a token for his love and affection towards children. It was made by using 1440 Rubik's Cube in 2 hrs.

6. Neeraj Chopra, who won the first Olympic medal in Athletics. Team Cubelelo celebrated his success by making mosaic art with 1350 mini Rubik's cube.

7. Lionel Messi, winner of Ballon d'or 2019 for the 6th time. This mosaic art is made using 1000 rubiks cubes.

And many many more mosaics like Aamir Khan, Saina Nehwal, Sachin Tendulkar, New year

About Author

Avani Sood

Avani Sood from Bengaluru has won 12 female national records overall and has been competing for the past 4 years. She started cubing when she was 11. Her main event is Megaminx. Apart from cubing, she loves to cook and read. She has participated in 10 competitions and won 1 podium.