getting started

It has begun! Panels are off the wall and on the floor. Tools and tiles are delivered. A small group of students have been trained.

panels laid out on the floor

our tools

I worked with 7th graders today. I taught them vocabulary words: "Everyone repeat after me: andamento! tesserae!" There will be a test and they will be doing a unit on the history of mosaics. Warnings about eye protection have been made. Tiny hands in big gloves turn out to be both adorable and hilarious. 

my sample work

Overall the kids did great. Better than I hoped, although of course there is a learning curve. We started with the smashing of ceramic tile and the learning how to crazy-pave...which is the careful arrangement of random shapes of tile into a cohesive color field. The secret to crazy-paving is to do the edges first, and then fill in the middle sections. It will take some time to master the technique. They like smashing the tile...a lot. Tile was pulverized. We'll have to work on that concept too.

They had fun. In this culture that values math so much, I notice a marked difference in the spacial arrangements. For the most part the kids today (my first group) were detail oriented and simply adorable to behold. We won't start gluing until I'm satisfied, though...