January School Special Offer for Mosaic Stepping Stones Project ends in 2 days

Spring is on its way and we’ll soon be able to enjoy the sunshine and spend some time in the great outdoors. Now is the time to plan projects and activities for school grounds improvements, maybe creating new garden areas – a sensory garden, perhaps – and this special offer might just be perfect for your school.

Dragonfly Mosaic Stepping Stone being cast in the plastic mould

The project involves having me (Tracey) in your school for three consecutive days to facilitate the design and making of a set of 15 large mosaic stepping stones, involving up to a maximum of 30 pupils. It’s great fun, completely absorbing and an excellent project for encouraging team work skills.

Y2 pupils making mosaic stepping stones at Templemoor Infant School in Sale, Cheshire

This month I was in Grange Park School in Kent to work with Y7 and Y8 pupils who made a beautiful collection of mosaic stepping stones for their new sensory garden. For each of the three groups making stepping stones we had a team of four Y10 mentors to assist us. This worked very well and is a model I would encourage other schools to consider.

The usual price for this package is £1200.00. It includes a day and a half for essential pre-project preparation as well as the three days in school and all the materials and safety equipment provided. However, as my monthly special offer to schools, orders placed in January will be at the discounted price of £950.00. Please note, I take bookings for schools outside of Greater Manchester but will provide a very reasonable quote for travel expenses and accommodation, if necessary.

School Mosaic Projects, Spring 2012

February Half Term saw the installation of our project “Story Telling Stepping Stones” along the nursery path adjacent to playground 2 and the playing fields at Chorlton Church of England Primary School.

Laying the "surround", photo by Matilda Wigley

The whole school was involved in the project, helping to devise ideas during the “Novel Ideas” workshop, as part of the literacy themed Super Learning Day. We wanted to make a game in the path that could be used to create stories with so children from all year groups dreamed up a series of characters, locations and significant objects and produced images of them in collage mosaic.

Tortoise Stepping Stone

Later, during workshops with Year 3 who had been learning about the ancient mosaics of The Romans, 15 images were settled on to be depicted in permanent mosaic for the path. The class worked in pairs to produce the images using Cinca frost resistant ceramic tile pieces on templates. With help from small team of dedicated parent volunteers, the class enjoyed brandishing trowels and setting their mosaic designs into concrete stepping stones. They worked very carefully, paying close attention to the demonstrations and instructions given and picking up some great skills in the process.

Setting in the pebbles

The stepping stones were left in the school basement to fully cure until a date for installation was arranged in the half term holiday. Don’t they look fantastic? The Year 3 class is very proud of their colourful contribution to the school’s lively and varied outdoor environment and are happy in the knowledge that this will be a lasting legacy of their time at Chorlton C E Primary.

 

 

The finished Mosaic Panel on the Wall at the Front of the School

More recently, I have been working with children at Brookacre Community Primary School in Warrington to produce a mosaic mural for the outside of the school building. Here, too, Year 3 took the lead – they designed the 2 metre high x 1.5 metre wide panel with me and then the rest of the school came out to in groups to work on the mosaic. The weather was so good, we did the whole job outdoors – in March!!

 

Roman Mosaics Class Pack with 20% discount – Our March Special Offer To Schools

Roman Mosaics Class Pack

Every month the website features a special offer on one of the school mosaic products . This month, its a whopping 20% off the Roman Mosaics Class Pack, which is one of the best bargains we’ve ever offered. Instead of £245 – which is actually amazing value anyway when you cost out what’s included – it is just £196 if you place your school’s order this March. We hope you can take advantage of this very special offer.

Step into a Colourful Story

Year 3 have created a new game for the whole school to enjoy along the nursery path: a story telling game made in mosaic!!

freshly installed this half term

Each mosaic square features one of the circular stepping stones made by Y3, working in pairs. There are 15 in total. They designed images of characters, objects and locations for the Story Telling path that other children can weave into new stories each time they play, as they leap from one square to another. Featured images include a castle; a beanstalk; a vortex (through which you might leap into a new dimension); a blood-stained dagger; a cute dog; a bolt of lightening and more…..

The children made up the designs on templates and then worked in small groups with me and Luke – who was chief cement mixer for the day – to cast them into concrete down in the school basement. It was like one big mud pie bakery down there, except the mud pies were masterpieces that set to perfection….

More images of the project and full report coming soon…..

School’s Made to Measure Mosaic Kit

You don’t have to make a round mosaic fit into a square hole………………………………..

Garden Angel Gabby Nickson contacted me  last autumn to request a bespoke mosaic kit for Golden Hill School in Lancashire. They wanted to make mosaic paving flags to fit into an existing paved area, which required made to measure templates and specially tailored instructions and diagrams……

Tracey,
Thanks so much for all your support and advice during the making of the mosaics for Golden Hill School in Leyland.  The kit had everything needed and the instructions were well written and easy to follow.  The children really enjoyed laying the pieces out on the templates and I got involved during the tricky bits, which was nail biting at times but great fun!  I will certainly be recommending the kits to other schools I work with!
Thanks again,
Gabby
—
Gabby Nickson

Garden Angel Garden Design Consultancy

Its always great to receive photos of completed projects and hear from happy schools!!!

Roman Mosaics Day Workshop for Primary Key Stage 2

This new workshop is a great opportunity for all the class to make their own individual mosaic keepsake using real mosaic tesserae, as part of a fun-filled day exploring ancient Roman mosaics that will bring the topic to life for all your pupils!!

The workshop package includes:

• Lively slide show presentation – “Classic Roman Mosaics”
• Handling sample mosaic works of art
• Every child designs and creates their own mosaic fridge magnet (max 30)
• Games and Roman Mosaic quiz
• All mosaics taken away, grouted and returned to school by courier

The price of the package is £350 + vat. For schools outside Greater Manchester, travel expenses will be charged at standard rates.

http://www.traceycartledge.co.uk/products/158

The Wise and The Prickly

Children from St. Helen’s joined me for a mosaic workshop in the recent October half term to design stepping stones that will form a trail up to the amazing Dream sculpture at Sutton Manor.

The mosaic designs reflect and celebrate local wildlife, including the owl and the hedgehog, and the area’s mining heritage.

Following this, we’ve just finished making a wonderful set of  ‘STORY-TELLING’ Mosaic Stepping Stones for a path between two playgrounds at Chorlton C of E Primary…..more on that very soon!!

Frost Resistant Ceramic Tiles for Outdoor Mosaic – 23 COLOURS in stock!!!

In addition to the various kits and community group and special school packages you can now choose your own combination of top quality CINCA frost resistant ceramic tiles from the website.

There are 23 colours in stock to select from, giving you plenty of choice. The selection shown above includes 5 of each of our most popular 10 colours, available to purchase on the website for £75.00 + p&p. Click here to view.

Thanks for your suggestions, here’s your new product…..

I love to work with community and school groups and lead them through the process of making mosaic for their space and these projects have huge benefits in all sorts of ways as well as the obvious visual results.

However, not all such groups have the funding to bring in an artist to work with them and face the daunting prospect of going it alone on their first mosaic. Fear not, for I have solutions!!

Due to recent conversations, I have added to my range of school mosaic project kits the new ‘Outdoor Wall Mosaic Kit For Groups‘

The kit has been designed for community groups and schools alike and is suitable for any age group, as long as you have an enthusiastic project leader or teacher to co-ordinate your project.

Pupils Sign their School in Mosaic

Year 6 children at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School in Knutsford have created a fabulous farewell gift for their school – a huge mosaic sign in the design of their school emblem!!

The project has been co-ordinated by Mary Johnson on behalf of the school’s PTA and has involved all of  the Year 6 children, with extra help from pupils in Y5, Y4 and Y3. Mary arranged for me to run workshops with the children over a couple of days. They all listened very carefully and worked diligently to achieve these wonderful results, grasping the techniques involved remarkably fast.

Also on hand to help throughout the making process, ex St. Vincent’s pupil Ishbel (who now attends Hull University) very kindly gave up her time to help and inspire the youngsters.

All fixed down, grouting next.......

On Monday the sign will be grouted and then installed in pride of place on the front of the school building. It is a lovely way for the children to show their appreciation for everything that St. Vincent’s has given to them during their time at the school.