Watch a Mosaic Mural Emerge from Scratch

This year I’m posting three times per month: WORDS on the 3rd, PICTURES on the 13th, and SOUND on the 23rd. This is my second installment of PICTURES.

Ever wonder what 500 pairs of hands can create together? Here’s a peek inside the recent mosaic mural project All Hands Art led in San Luis Obispo, California, over a one-week span.

Let’s Get Started

Composition

5th graders arrange border tiles, balancing for color, shape and image, and explain their choices to Principal Schmidt.

Laying On Hands

First graders spread thin set mortar to apply the clay hands, which the teachers made by tracing their own hands and arms on clay slabs.

Breaking Things on Purpose

Getting permission to wear goggles and use hammers was a highlight, as you can tell by these gleeful faces! (We broke salvaged colored tiles, not the ones students made.)

Mirror, Mirror

With the right tools and strong forearms, cutting mirror into little rectangles works like magic.

Setting the Design

Elena (my daughter and right-hand gal, known as “Ms Ramos” to the kids) and I dulled many pencils and wrecked several Sharpies to get the design drawn onto the cement board panels.

Panel Flow

The goal was to have each panel flow seamlessly (despite the small gap) into the next.

Circles and Swirls

Roundness matters! With good eye-balling skills, intention, patience, erasers, and other tricks, we work to get the curves right.

A Job for Every Age

The Transitional Kindergarten class stuck down hearts, stars, and sparkly circles with thin set mortar and help from parent volunteers.

Practice Mosaics

These youngest artists also practiced fitting tile pieces together like a puzzle, building their mosaic skills.

Piece by Piece

6th graders did their puzzle piecing directly onto the panels.

It's Been a While!

4th grade Los Ranchos teacher Ms Smiley was our connector person for this whole endeavor. She was both of my daughters’ 4th grade teacher in Oakland way back when, and a veteran of several mural projects there.

Work in Progress

Here’s what a mosaic looks like, mid-stream. We color-coded the sections, to be filled in like a paint-by-number, but with colored tile.

Grown-Up Time!

After working with 15 classes, TK through 6th grade, 20 - 32 students each, all in 3 days, it was time for some quiet adult work time. Thank you, parent volunteers!

A Family Affair

Besides parents and staff, here we had Ms Schmidt’s brother and Ms Smiley’s mom helping out.

Bring in the Power Tools

When it comes to hanging heavy panels, I defer to the construction pros. A parent-owned company pulled through for us big time.

The Night Crew

With just one week to get this project from zero-to-hung, there were some long hours. Cheers for the installation crew, laser levels and all!

Now We're Getting Messy

My friend and co-conspirator Cindy drove down from Oakland to join the grouting dream team of parents, staff, and family members.

So That's How We Got from This ^

Design on a little piece of paper…

Drumroll, Please!

(Veiled, so we can unveil it.)

To This!

Details...

details...

details!

New Look, Newfound Pride

The school quad has a whole new feel, and hundreds of folks earned bragging rights.

I’d like to thank:

• Principal Marlie Schmidt, for championing this project with humor and despite any odds

• Marlie’s husband Rob and brother Derek, for your many hours of good-natured hands-on help

• Chelsea Smiley, matchmaker extraordinaire, for envisioning me as the person who could make mosaic murals happen at Los Ranchos School

• Bonnie Johnson, for jumping on board in a tight schedule and leading the creation of all the handmade tiles—they add loads of character to the mural

• Elena Ramos, for helping me think when my brain was mush, and for staying positive through the daily exhaustion—what a team!

• Cindy McCann, for driving three hours each way so that I could put you to work; a Girl Scout through and through

• The school staff members who worked on the mural during short breaks, after school, and on Saturday

• All the parent volunteers who assisted in their children’s classes—not sure how we would have managed without you!?—and during adult work time :)

• The construction crew, for the very solid and professional installation of the artwork; you make us all look good

• Heath Ceramics in Sausalito, CA, for furnishing yet another mosaic mural project with donated boxes of beautifully imperfect tile

• The entire Los Ranchos community, for donating tile, showing up, and welcoming me in when you had only a vague idea what was in store. I hope to return for more creative mischief.

I am honored to collaborate with those who value the transformative impact of art, on both our physical spaces and our souls. For more information about mural facilitation look here.

Until next time,
- Pam

P.S. If you’re someone who would read The Mosaic Mural Handbook: a Guide for Facilitating Community Mosaic Mural Projects (or maybe I’ll just call it “The Accidental Muralist”), let me know. You could motivate me to take the nearly-complete-but-years-old manuscript sitting in folders on my computer, and get it to the finish line. ;)