Giant mosaic insects – together at last!

There is so much to say about the community mosaic project with the Wandsworth Early Years Centre…like how amazing, dedicated and enthusiastic the kids, parents and staff were. But for now, I will let pictures do the talking.

Bugs all together!

Ladybird

Butterfly

Snail

This week, the insects have been scrubbed, scraped and re-scrubbed so that they shimmer (hard to avoid cement plopping on top of tiles when working with such little ones) but all the elbow grease (ooohh…and back ache) has been worth it, don’t you agree? I have to say a huge thanks to my lovely student, Izabela, who has joined me in scrubbing!

Dragonfly

Tulip

As the insects will be spread out across several walls of the centre garden, I decided to take the opportunity to group them all together in my garden and take a picture from the top floor of the house as it will be the only chance to capture all this beautiful work in one photo. All that remains is for the insects to be screwed into their final home and the screw holes covered with tile and grout. Spring will come early..!

Children & parents from Wandsworth Early Years Centre

At our last workshop, all the children, parents and helpers did their own mosaic projects with soft glass, nuggets, tiles and frames. They worked as hard as Christmas elves (I do believe some presents were being made!) and the atmosphere was such fun. We finished with making two giant tile pictures to hang in the centre. Here are some of the group (pic published with parents permission).

For the mosaicists amongst you, my reflection on working with cement board is that it is heavy! My back is sore from moving the pieces in and out of my workshop to grout and scrub, but my heart happy to have been involved in such a wonderful community mosaic project. I will do a post with pics of the whole process (and the bugs in their new home) soon!