The final mosaic

above: there's only a little bit left to do!
The mosaic will be completed at the end of January 2011

animals

Above: The emu chicks and a swan with babies on the pond

Above: Mama Emu with her sunhat on

above: kangaroo with joey
and a long nosed bandicoot nearby

above: A koala in the tree with his sunnies on

Some animals having a picnic, a wombat, snake, echidna and some ants.

the mosaic half-way there

The mosaic is half-way there!
Half the wall has been covered with mosaic. most of the animals are up. I have made two new animals to fill in some gaps which are in the process of being fired


Here is our kangaroo and emu.


Here are the koalas, mum and baby in the tree and the possum, an owl and her three babies (which are from a storybook that you have at kinder)

the mosaic has begun

Above:Willeka's frog has settled into the mosaic wall surrounded by blue tiles and parts of the tree that was made by the children


The toadstool with its little frog has also settled into the wall
Thankyou to Lucy and Debbie who made it for us. Underneath you can see the turtle by Aumna swimming in the new pool.



The snake by Kathleen and Filize and the platypus by Mena are also on the wall.

Parents make features for the mosaic out of clay

Above is the cupcake that Irena made.



Above: The robin in flight that Liz made.

There is one ore photo to come of Willeka's frog

Other animals by parents

Above: A toadstool by Lucy and Debbie



Above: Turtle by Aumna



Above: The snake that Kathleen and Felize made
and below: Kathleen and Felize painting the snake with underglazes







Above: Lucy and Debbie making the Toadstool

More artwork by parents

Here is some more great ceramics work made by parents.
Many had no ceramics experience or last time they touched clay they were in highschool.
Given the challenge to make life size creatures - look what they did!


Above: Beatrix's swan and babies.


Above: The sugar glider by Desiree



Above: A small snake with bow tie by Nancy Bonetto



Above: Platypus by Mena



Above: Dragonfly by Kate

the parents make creatures

Above: Clayton making a possum


Shanfara made the magpie lark



An Echidna by Tanya



Above: Mamma and baby Koala by Denise Hackett



Above: a Blue-tongue lizard by Bruce McHenry

what happens after the workshops

Everybody's asking "What happens now?'

The pieces that we have made out of clay for our mosaic ( at least 108 leaves, 60 hands, two trees, letters that spell Bellevue Hill preschool and at least 25 creatures) have to dry out for about one or two weeks before they can be put into the kiln. Then they can be fired to 100 degrees centrigrade. This is called the bisque firing.

After this Debbie will need to glaze all of the pottery and put it into the kiln again. This firing it called the glaze firing and it is the part where the clayworks are made shiny. This time the firing goes higher to 1070 degrees. It's the same process used to make the crockery that you use at home - your cups and plates etc.
Hopefully at around Melbourne cup week, there will be enough clay works fired and ready to put onto the wall and Debbie will be able to start the mosaic. The first works to be put up will be the bigger animals like the emu and kangaroo, the swan, platypus, koalas, possum and snake. Then the rest of the mosaic will be built around these pieces.

It is envisaged that the mosaic will take about fifteen days to make. As Debbie also has a couple of other jobs, she won't be working on it every day. But she will be there at least once or twice a week and the mosaic should be completed before the end of the school year. If you want to learn how to mosaic, there is an opportunity to work with Debbie. Let Irena know, if you want to be part of this.




Here is the pottery room at the Boilerhouse in Sunbury, where the works will be fired. Some of the clay works are here on the shelves drying out. The rest are at Debbie's house E V E R Y W H E R E !!!



Here is the kiln that the clay pieces will be fired in. It is a lot bigger than an oven and can be heated to four times the temperature of your oven at home. A powerful oven.
On the bottom shelf are the grasses that the children made in the first thursday workshop.

Mena's Emu and Beatrix's chicks

Mena came in to kinder the day after the parent workshops and asked if I would like some help. "Yes I need to make an emu", I said. I suggested she start it and I would help her with it. But I spent most of the day running workshops and making a giant tree with the kids. So Mena made most of this life size emu. Well done Mena!



(Below)Meanwhile in the other kinder room, Beatrix also offered her time to make something else. Irena wanted emu chicks, so Beatrix set to work to make them. A difficult task because she also had a baby with her. Here's the photo of the wonderful emu chicks.

मकिनिग थे kangaroo

Debbie being a kangaroo


The kangaroo was made out of clay. The children rolled the clay out for debbie.

What did the parents make?

The parents have been working hard too!
They have been making animals and insects that will be in the mosaic.


Above: butterfly by Francesca Ross




Above: Barn owl by Debbie made as a demonstration to the parents in the afternoon workshop



(Above) Here is the dragonfly that Tania made.



(Above) Here is the caterpillar that Alexia made.



Here are two cupcakes for the animals to eat on their picnic.
Lily made these.

What will it look like?

Here's our design. The design is of a picnic scene with native animals in the pond, the trees and on the ground. There will be two trees and a rainbow. The design gives you an idea about what will be in the mosaic but the design will change as it goes onto the wall. It changes because it has to incorporate the animals that Debbie and the parents have made. Sometimes changes are made in composition ( where things go) and the colours to improve how the mosaic will look. Debbie works this out as she goes. Even Debbie does not know what it will look like in the end, but she tries her best to make it look good.



Here is a mosaic that Debbie made at Keilor Gatehouse Preschool two years ago. This is the mosaic that inspired Irena to have one made at Bellevuehill Preschool. Our mosaic is going to have a blue sky and a lot of animals in it. It is also going to have a border. It will look diffferent to this mosaic, but this photograph gives you an idea of what a mosaic with clay features looks like.


This is a picture of the blank wall.

Making the trees

To make the trees, the children rolled out slabs of clay and then pressed the slabs with various stamps. The stamps have been made by Debbie out of clay and then fired.
After the slabs are stamped, debbie joins them to make the tree shape. Then the children painted the tree with underglazes and slips - white, grey, black and brown. The black slip was watered down so that it would flow into the impressions made by the stamps.
After the tree is finished it has to be cut into smaller pieces to fit in the kiln. When it goes up onto the mosaic wall it will be different because the parts of the tree will be used where needed to form the tree. It will have leaves and animals covering up some of the areas where branches might have gone.

Four year old workshops

The four year olds are making leaves for the trees in the design.
They roll out the clay and then place a loquat leaf over the top. They roll the leaf into the clay and this imprints the vein patterns into the leaf. Then either Debbie or the child, cut the leaf and smooth the edges of it. Then the leaf is painted with underglazes.
Some of the leaves may also be used in the border of the mosaic.

workshops with the three year olds

the three year olds are making hands.
They roll out the clay and then Debbie traces around the shape of their hand. They then smooth the edges of the hand before they paint it. The hands will be going around the border of the mosaic.
After the children make the hands, Debbie takes them home to dry them. She also paints their names on them in the evening after the first coats of underglaze have had a chance to dry a little.



The hands are painted with underglazes. These are colours which can be painted onto clay before the glaze goes on. The hands will be left to dry for a week and then will be put into a kiln for a bisque firing. They will be fired to a temperature of 1000 degrees centrigrade. Then they will be painted with glaze and fired again. This time to 1070 degrees. The glaze will make the colours bight and the surface shiny.