The Mosaic

The end of the road.

2010-06-26T19:48:00.003-04:00

Two days before school ended our maintenance man hung each mosaic in it's final location. Millers mosaic was the one with the clock and was hung outside on the wall just outside the school entrance. It's visible to everyone who comes to the school. In the few days that it was up several students stopped to look and some were heard saying " I put those pieces there." or "That's the part I worked on." I think it's appropriate that it welcomes students into the school.

The second mosaic was hung in the Placentino hallway just outside of the office in a place where it's passed by everyday by lots of students going back and forth between class, lunch, or the library. It looks really wonderful hanging on the wall where our younger students can see the image.

The third mosaic hangs as it should in the library. It's the one that depicts the books and all the stories we enjoy reading.

It has been a pleasure working with the students and teachers creating these wonderful mosaics. When I originally wrote the grant, I had never, ever done a mosaic before. I knew the concept and how it worked,-but I had never tried doing one. In fact I thought they seemed a bit tedious to put together. The grant allowed me to study with a woman who was exceptional in mosaic-making and who passed on her expertise with ease. She also provided me with information on how to work with the students. It is largely because of her expertise that this project was successful.
The support I received from the Holliston Education Foundations was also wonderful. I am very grateful the members of the Foundation thought enough of this project to give it a try. The parent volunteers who joined me also were so incredibly helpful. I couldn't have done it without them.
I would also like to thank the lumber yard that donated the wood and the vocational students that made the frames. But most of all I want to thank the third, fourth and fifth graders who took to the project like ducks to water and showed an enthusiasm for trying something totally new and a willingness to learn along with me.

The last few steps.

2010-06-26T19:22:00.003-04:00

School is now over but in the last few months the students needed to complete the mosaics so they would be ready for hanging. Wood was donated by a local lumber yard and the frames were made by a local vocational school.
All three mosaics were grouted. We used three different colors to grout. Each has either gray, brown or black grout. All three mosaics are hanging in three different places in the schools.

Mosaic one represents some of the things we use or see in school. There are pictures of kids, a clock, scissors, glue, a computer, a pencil, and even an apple for the teacher.

The next mosaic took on the theme of the town and what students see riding the school bus on the way to school. This was really the one that took the most time. It was the one that had the most detail and if we choose colors that were too close the image became lost. So this mosaic was pulled apart many times and redone. I'm wondering now if it's not the best in the series. Viewers should see a school bus, a house, playground, and a couple of local buildings. The fire station and library have been carefully created.

Our final mosaic depicts all the great stories that are out there and the wonderful places we can go when we pick up a book. There are fish, dragons, horses, stories about other countries, and sports stories. All these things flow out of the book in the corner of the mosaic.

Math Night, January 28th 2010

2010-01-30T09:09:00.002-05:00

The iris mosaic was featured at math night just this week. Students and parents were asked to estimate the amount of tile they thought it took to make the mosaic. The size of the mosaic is three feet by two-and-a-half feet. Each square foot takes 225 tiles. That, however, would be uncut tile. We are cutting tile into smaller pieces to fit the design so that changes things. A very kind and patient parent came in to count the tile in the iris mosaic. The grand total of tile was 3,186. The winner received a gift certificate to local store.

The Iris design

2010-01-30T08:36:00.005-05:00

The iris mosaic was inspired by a stained glass window I had purchased ten or so years ago. It hung in my stairway in a high rectangular window. It was hung with 50-lb. test fishing line but what we didn't realize is that after several years the line can weaken. It snapped and the stained glass window came crashing down and broke into many pieces. I didn't know if I should repair the window or throw it away, so stored it in my cellar thinking I might have time to repair it someday. As the students and I were looking for another theme on which to base a design the stained glass window came to mind and we used the glass that defined the iris as a starting point. Again in this photo you can see the stained glass in the center. Tiles were placed around the stained glass and other irises were added. This is still viewing the mosaic before it's cemented and what you are seeing is the back of the tile.

In this photo the mosaic has just been cemented and flipped and the contact paper is still attached to the tile. Once the cement sets up a bit the contact paper will be removed.

After the contact paper is removed we can see the design.
The final step is then to put grout in between the tiles with a colored grout that accents the colors in the tile and that is shown in the final photo.

Beginning Again

2010-01-14T08:59:00.001-05:00

Over the month of December work on the mosaics has slowed down a little. Mostly because I (the teacher) needed some time to catch up on all the other things I needed to do. I also needed time to make sure the ones we had already cemented were stored and grouted. No one complained too loudly so I think the break was also needed by the students. Now as we begin again we are going to cement one this week and pictures will follow in a few days. We will also begin the creation of another one. So students will once again be going into the mosaic room to place tile on the design. If you are following this blog I expect pictures to be up by Monday.

New Designs

2009-11-06T17:37:00.013-05:00

The three mosaics that the students have been working on are almost complete. Two have been cemented and one is waiting for a few touch ups before it is cemented. So in order to keep everyone busy we are doing two that will be auctioned off to the public.

The Lighthouse

This Mosaic was inspired by a large bag of beach glass that was acquired at a local church fair. It just seemed like it would make wonderful water. So the students took it from there and we now have a New England theme.

The lighthouse is cemented but not yet grouted and the view is of the front of the tile.

Staying with a water theme the next one was fish. The background is still being worked on and once the design is flipped the fish will be facing the other way.

The good thing is that every student has worked on a mosaic at least once. Three fifth-grade classes have been able to assist in cementing the tile to the backer board. We even have video that we can show to the third and fourth-graders so they can see the cementing process.

The Next Step

2009-10-08T16:29:00.027-04:00

The first panel has had all the tile placed and was ready to be adhered to the backing. It was quite a production and more than a bit worrisome just because it's the first one I have done since I had taken the mosaic class. I was really hoping I hadn't forgotten something. For the most part all went well.
Since the tile is placed onto contact paper good-side down, the image is always being viewed from the back. The contact paper holds the tile in place until it is adhered to a backing.
Backer board was placed on the table and adhesive was smeared onto the board.
Once it was all properly spread the board was picked up and placed onto the tile.

At that point it was clamped and the whole thing was flipped over. This means the backer board is now on the bottom and the tile is face up. We had many hands to help flip the design. It's fairly heavy as the backer board is more of a cement board and the tiles are glass.

Now we can remove the original design and all that will remain is the tile set into the adhesive and the contact paper that was used to keep them in place.

In these photo's you can see the tile underneath the contact paper and the design is now right-side up.

Now we had to wait for the adhesive to set up a little before we could begin to remove the contact paper to expose the design.

Once the contact paper came off several students helped remove adhesive that had come further through the cracks between the tiles than was suppose to.
The next step in the process will begin in a few days and more pictures will follow.
Photography was done by a fifth-grade student during the whole process.

The first panel is nearly finished.

2009-10-03T08:53:00.012-04:00

Our first panel is nearly done. Here is how it looked in the beginning stages. In this photo the tiles are placed in the designs and all that is left to do is the back ground. There are three panels planned so far. The themes of the panels are based on the school day. This panel includes symbols that represent a school day. Keep in mind the image is reversed.

I placed the panel on the mirrored table in the classroom. The tiles are essentially right-side down. So the view is of the back of the image. This is why we reverse the image before laying tile. The image is still not yet attached to a backer board. The next step is to take tile adhesive and spread it onto a board. The board is then placed onto the tile and the whole design is flipped and will be right side up. A little tough to explain.

Here again is the image while looking into the mirror a handy tool as we can now see it straight on as if it were hanging on a wall. This is exactly what it will look like once adhered to a backing except all the ridges in the tile that are seen now will be in the adhesive and the smooth side of the tile will be showing.

Placing the Tiles

2009-09-25T09:20:00.010-04:00

We have begun laying the tiles onto the design. Four students at a time are in the mosaic room and are cutting and placing tile onto the outline. It's similar to coloring in a coloring book page but you're coloring with tile. I can also compare it to doing a puzzle but in this case you're cutting the puzzle pieces to fit the shape on the board. Students are serious about what they are doing and interested in the process. Not to mention it's lots of fun.

It's been going a lot faster than anticipated. The pictures here are of our first design. It's about 3 feet by 2.5 feet and we have two more designs of the same size ready to go.

We have Designs!

2009-09-11T18:57:00.010-04:00

I think one of the hardest parts of starting a project is coming up with the idea of what we want the design to look like. I often have students say "I can't think of anything" and I am there to inspire them. This time I needed their help with the inspiration. Each student made several sketches and we began to put them all together in a collage like image. These photos show the beginning, and we have many more images to add, but our design is off to a good start.

We Have Begun!

2009-09-01T18:46:00.011-04:00

Today was the first day of school and the mosaic project was presented to fifth, fourth and third graders. Each class seemed very excited about making a mosaic and we began by brainstorming some ideas on the theme.
In the image of my classroom you will see a black arrow. This is pointing to a large closet where the students will work on putting together the mosaic. I hope to have four students in there every class period placing tiles on the design. I would also like to have a parent volunteer that can help me with supervising the students that will be in the room. This part of the classroom is also the area where the teacher presents the lessons that the students will be working on. Those students who are not working on the mosaic that day will have an art lesson to keep them creative.

And once the technique is demonstrated students move to the tables to work while they wait for their turn in the mosaic room. Any parent that is interested in supervising a small group as they place tiles please call or e-mail me via the school web page. As a volunteer you have the added benefit of learning how to do a mosaic with this very simple technique.

The Mosaic Class

2009-08-02T19:00:00.017-04:00

July 31- August 2, 2009
This weekend I spent all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at a place called Snow Farm in Williamsburg, Ma. compliments of the Hollistion Education Foundation. For the three days I was in the Mosaic class learning how to put together a mosaic and all the elements involved. I was able to put together two pieces that measured about 12 x 12 inches and one smaller one about 5 x 7 inches.

The technique that was taught by the instructor was designed so that it will be reasonably simple to have the art students at Holliston put together one for our courtyard.

Snow Farm has a week long summer intensive art program for high school students that are interested in exploring art forms like mosaics. They also have classes in welding and glassblowing and other interesting art forms.

This little picture of the dog was done for a neighbor who happened to tell me that she's turning 84 soon. I did this small mosaic for her of her dog Fred.