Let’s Go Fly a Kite!

Children at Ravensbury Community Primary School were delighted to be given the opportunity to make their mark on the school building as part of a vibrant new work of art.

I was commissioned to work with the school to create “a flotilla of high-flying kites” based on the school kite logo, representing the high flyers who are enabled by the inspiring education that they receive within and outside of these school walls.

Prior to my short residency in school, all of the pupils had created designs using a wide range of media: pastels, collage, gum paper, coloured pencil etc. The Headteacher, Maureen Hughes, and I had the challenging task of selecting nine designs to be made into mosaic kites.

Grouting the completed mosaic kites

Pupils from Y1 up to Y6 worked in teams to produce the mosaic kites using frost-resistant glazed porcelain tile onto exterior grade cement board. Two extra workshop sessions were arranged for parents to contribute and, to the delight of their proud children, they made the bee kite, based on a pupil’s design.

Together with the steel signage and kite strings, these mosaic kite features combine to form a very welcoming and cheerful permanent work of art that embodies the spirit of Ravensbury Community Primary School.

We Create, A Flotilla of High-Flying Kites

The feedback from staff, parents and governors has been enormously positive.

Magnificent Marble Mosaics

Y3 Tackle Roman Mosaic Techniques

It was the first day back after half term and the energy in the school was palpable. To enrich their topic about The Romans, I was there to work with the Y3 pupils to help them each make their own mosaic.

We kicked off with a brief slide presentation to introduce the history of mosaic making and how it was adopted and progressed by The Romans for their villa floors. Then we examined a marble mosaic that I made last year, observing the use of specific shapes, ie. ‘keystones’ to form curved lines for lettering and triangles where a diagonal line meets a horizontal line.

detail from “The Girl Who Fought For Education”, Tracey Cartledge, 2016

In preparation for the day, the youngsters had already planned their designs using a limited palette of black, white, green and red – the colours of our marble. They had also had some fun making printed mosaics with square dowels. Finally, they could now get their hands on the authentic material and they were raring to go…

 

I’m sure you will be as impressed as I was to see how rapidly these bright pupils applied so much fresh knowledge to their own work to create these mosaics in not much more than one hour…

At the end of the school day I showed the class teacher and TA how to grout the mosaics  and left them a big bag of grout and tips on cleaning and waxing afterwards. I’ll post some pictures of the final results once they’re all complete.

This workshop was booked from my website, where there are also kits available for class mosaic projects.

Stepping Stones for the whole class!!

Mosaic is a wonderful medium for any age group to enjoy but its tactile qualities have extra special appeal for youngsters. By including a creative, physical activity as part of a school topic you can bring the subject to life and make it extra memorable for everybody. This must be why so many teachers are asking for advice to deliver mosaic projects to their classes.

“I’d like my class to have a go at mosaic, where do I start? There are so many different grouts…what sort of tiles do we need…can you use glass tiles outside?”

Not all schools can afford to bring in a mosaic artist to help. That’s why I’ve devised these fabulous project packs for schools.

Each pack contains all the essential materials and instructions with extra tips based on my experience of working in schools for 20 years. The kits simplify the process to make sure that everybody has a great time – teacher included. Its bags of fun and very rewarding.

The net price for this package is £300.00 + P&P @ £27 + vat @ 20%. ‘Refill Kits’ are available to use with this equipment next time. Find out more here.