Tedooo draws your design in about a minute; the panel itself is made within two weeks of your approval, then posted. The crate is double-walled, foam-cornered and tracked end to end, and the shipping time on top depends on where you are; checkout shows the estimate for your country.
How long does the design take?
About a minute. You upload a photo or describe what you want drawn, and Tedooo draws it in mosaic while you watch. It is free, there is no card to enter and no account to make first.
If the first design is wrong, swap the words or the photo and draw once more; nothing is owed until you say yes to one. The minute is the only quick part of the whole thing, and it is quick because it is a drawing. Everything after it is glass, clay and mortar, and none of those hurry.
How long is the panel in the studio?
Within two weeks of your approval. Every panel leaves our US studio within two weeks, cut, set, grouted, waxed, signed and crated; nothing is cut until your checkout clears.
| Stage | How long | What is happening |
|---|---|---|
| Design | About a minute | Tedooo draws your photo in mosaic; free, as many runs as you like |
| Approval and checkout | When you say yes | Nothing is charged before you check out; nothing is cut until the checkout clears |
| Cartoon, cutting, setting | Inside the two weeks | Traced full size, cut with a hammer and hardie, set in lime mortar |
| Mortar, grout, wax | Inside the two weeks | The mortar cures, the joins are grouted, the surface cleaned and waxed |
| Crate | By the end of the two weeks | Double-walled, foam corners, tracked end to end |
| Delivery | The estimate at checkout | Depends on the country; shipping and any duties are calculated there |
The making is the same two weeks for a 30 cm panel and a 50 cm one, and the same for a shop piece and one drawn from your photo. What each stage involves is in How a mosaic portrait is made.
What can make it take longer?
Two things: the mortar and the post. Lime mortar cures slowly and slower in damp weather, and a crate crossing a border can run past the estimate.
One spring a panel waited an extra week for its mortar to cure before we would crate it. We would rather hold a panel than crate it damp; it was worth it, and we should have said so sooner, so now we say so as soon as we know. On the post, a crate to the Netherlands once took twelve days against an estimate of seven, and we raised the Netherlands to ten to twelve days at checkout, since an honest number beats a hopeful one.
When should I order for a date?
Allow the two weeks of making plus the shipping estimate checkout shows for your address, and then some room. We do not publish a holiday cut-off date, so the sum of those two is the date to work from.
If the date is a gift, the gifting guide covers the photo, the name on the panel and what to do when the date is close. The short version: order as soon as you have a photo with the eyes in it, because the design is the only part that is quick.
How do I follow the order?
The crate is tracked end to end, and we message along the way. Buyers rate us on whether we kept them posted and on whether the panel arrived when promised, and we read both.
One buyer whose crate ran a week late still wrote that we had messaged her twice with updates, which she appreciated. We would rather the crate had been on time; failing that, we would rather you knew. Ask us anything along the way; one of the artisans replies, normally before the day is out.
Questions this leaves
Is two weeks a promise?
Every panel leaves our US studio within two weeks of approval. That is the making; the post on top is the estimate checkout gives for your country. Where the mortar needs longer in damp weather we hold the panel rather than crate it wet, and we tell you.
Do you ship worldwide?
Yes. Every crate is double-walled with foam corners and tracked end to end. Checkout works out the postage and any customs charges, and shows the delivery estimate for your address; where the post has run slower than we first said, as it did to the Netherlands, we have put the estimate up.
When am I charged?
Only at the finish, after a design is approved and paid for through Tedooo. Designing costs nothing however many runs you make. No money moves before checkout, and the hammer stays down until the payment lands; the two weeks start from there.
