MMS 8th Grade Art Students make Tile Mosaic Murals

It may sound like a BIG project for 8th grade students but more in the sense of scale. Each of my two 8th grade classes made a 5'x3' mural to be displayed in the MMS Sculpture Garden this coming spring. Here is how we did it:

Phase I: The Design
I tried to make sure every student had a voice in this project and the design process gave each student that opportunity. They began working with two basic ideas: geometric and organic. I had the students create a positive/negative design using Notan, a Japanese design concept. The first day they worked on geometric, the next day they completed their organic designs.

When students were finished the class chose the top two designs in each category. I photocopied the designs and gave copies to each student to color. Again, another class discussion and design eliminations and finally, as a class, the favorite design was chosen for each mural. This process was very interesting to me as I saw strong maturity and democracy within the students; I was very impressed.

Phase II- Enlarging the Design

Home Depot was kind enough to donate cement board for our tile project; they even cut it for us which  was a HUGE time saver. Each 5'x3' board was cut into 1'x3' pieces. I divided each class into five teams. Each team was responsible for 1/5 of the tile mural.

We initially transferred the design onto a transparency, projected the image onto a large piece of paper, and transferred the image using a charcoal transferring method. It was a bit tricky dividing the design, enlarging it and transferring each section onto the cement board. We had some fine-tuning to do after each piece was transferred but all in all we made it work.

Once the designs were on the cement board the students began applying the tile. The Masonry Center donated some tile (thank you Masonry Center!) several of which were a variety of different color glass tiles both  cool and warm. We made a group decision that one class would use cool, and the other class use warm.

Phase III: Applying the Tile

The students cut their own tile pieces using a stationary tile cutter and various hand nippers. Each team was responsible for cutting their own tile pieces. The students took turns so everyone could learn the process. It was amusing how the students became excited when they came up with a "more efficient" method of cutting. Accolades were frequent as each student learned from the other.

Students are using the stationary tile cutter to cut various sizes of tiles.

 Student are applying cool color tile pieces to the cement board using Mastic.

The black areas you see have been darkened with charcoal to help students see their design;

this was wiped off before applying the black tile.

 

This tile board has warm-color tile pieces.

The large orange dot is one of the areas that a screw will be inserted for later installation.

The students have been briefed to leave these areas free of any tile. We planned on six for each board.

Here, the students have completed applying the cool-color pieces 

and have made good progress applying the black tile in the larger areas.

After the black areas are filled in, the students will begin to apply the white areas.

Phase IV: Grouting the Mosaic

It was a huge goal for the students to complete their mosaic project before they left for Christmas break, and they were able to do it just in the knick of time. For your entertainment I  put together a little video which shows footage of the students throughout this project.