64: First Day of School

Today I worked in my capacity as the mosaicist for Phoenix Handcraft for the first time. Phoenix is a company that my husband and I founded about a year ago. For the time being, my husband, a metalsmith and woodworker, is the mainstay of the business. As our two children and the business itself get older, we'll be incorporating more of my mosaic work. This month we are working with a local elementary school as they create a beautiful courtyard garden. My husband is building a bridge, and I am spending two weeks working with the art teacher and her students to create four large mosaic murals.

The mosaic will consist of tiles handmade by the students. The first step in creating these tiles is cutting clay from the large block (on the left) and rolling it out into slabs (on the right).  These are two parent volunteers helping out with the project.

Some of the cut out tiles: leaves, flowers and snowflakes above, letters to spell out the names of the seasons below. 

Once the tiles are cut out, they will be fired in the kiln.

Next step is to apply the glaze and fire again. More on that tomorrow.

A few glazed tiles that have gone through the final firing.

The students created these beautiful tiles to use as a border around the water feature that was built in the garden as part of the project. The water feature and landscaping incorporate local plants and other efforts to conserve water and curb erosion.