Monday, April 11, 2011

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.

8 comments:

  1. Awesome! Congrats on your first day.

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  2. Thanks, Kat! It was strange how right it felt, which I choose to see as an indicator of being on the right path.

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  3. congratulations, johannah! this looks and sounds amazing!!! i'm so glad that it felt so right!

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  4. Congrats! What a great feeling.

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  5. I am SO excited and happy for you and Kyle for your bravery, and even happier you got the universal indication that you are on the right path. JOY!!! YES!

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  6. What Amy said! I really enjoyed reading the series of posts about your project with the school. I'm proud of you guys and inspired myself at the same time.

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  7. It's so wonderful to feel supported by you all. Thank you. xoxo

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