totem poles at St Bernards Primary School

here are some links to other artists who have made totem poles.
Below: Julia Sanderl's website, where she has made some very interesting totem pole pieces with school children, using coils.
http://juliasanderl.com/2008/01/01/ceramic-sculpture/
below: the picture of the final poles. They are made from vitrified stoneware clay with oxides. She says she filled a tyre with cement as the base and fixed them onto a basketball pole.
http://juliasanderl.com/2008/02/29/heron-totem/

Here are the finished totem poles at St Bernard's Primary School in Coburg.

The children of the school made the parts in groups of two or three.
The theme was the school's birthday and the children decorated their sections to celebrate school activities such as maths, music, lote, sports.

The assembly of the poles was done by Debbie assisted by students.

The ceramic pieces are made with earthenware clay and are decorated with underglazes, and glazed with an earthenware gloss glaze.

Bellevue Hill Preschool half-way there!

The mosaic is half-way there. It has most of the animals on it except for a few birds and two new animals that I made last weekend.
The rain has been wonderful but it has made progress slow.


Above: A green tree frog made by a parent.


Above: close-up of the snake and platypus that were made by parents.


The kangaroo and the emu are now up on the wall.


Here are some tree animals close-up. The wall has not been grouted yet, and they will be easier to see after its completed.

Bellevue Hill Preschool Mosaic

This mosaic is currently in process
we have just completed all of the workshops
Details can be seen on the Bellevue Hill Preschool Mosaic Blog: http://bellevuehillpreschoolmosaic.blogspot.com/

THe kids made hands and leaves out of clay.
The kids also helped Debbie make life size trees and a kangaroo.
The parents made creatures.
Here are some photos of the work done so far.

finishing touches of giant baby blue bunny mailbox

The finished rabbit after it has been mosaiced and grouted.

designs for the Overnewton Artist in Residence Project

Here are some designs in process by groups of students. They are making actual size designs for their mosaic panels.
The first picture is an example design made by Debbie Qadri. It has the rabbit template on it. The template is a piece of paper cut out the same shape and size as the rabbit in the design. It will be used as a pattern when Debbie makes the rabbit out of clay, so that she can be sure it will fit into the actual mosaic.

To see the blog dedicated to this project go to:
http://yr8overnewtonmosaics.blogspot.com/
or click on: view my complete profile ( below right) and go to the blog from there



below are more designs in process, by the yr 8 students at Overnewton who are doing the mosic project.

Overnewton College artist in residence project

Debbie Qadri is undertaking an Artist in Residence Project at Overnewton College.
The project is to assist students make six 1X1 metre panels of mosaics with ceramic features based on the theme:Alice in Wonderland.
The first part of the mosaic process is to work with students on their designs. The theme is Alice in wonderland and the students are working in groups of four to design their mosaic. The detailed parts of their mosaic will be made out of clay as low relief sculpture. In their groups they have drawn pictures and cut them out. As a team they must arrange their pictures to compose their design. here are some designs in progress.

Have a look at the blog dedicated to this project:
http://yr8overnewtonmosaics.blogspot.com/








Here is a link to the overnewton college newsletter with a description of the project:
http://www.overnewton.vic.edu.au/whispers/_download/www.overnewton.vic.edu.au/whispers/_pub/wizard_newsletter/Whispers100907web.pdf

mosaic sculpture by other people

please note this is a post about other people's artwork
I use it for reference

for example here is a blog by two artists in USA who make public artworks and on their blog there is some great information about the technical side of their work and the processes they go through:
http://www.deepcraft.org/deep/archives/category/current-projects/abundance



Nikki also has made a tarot garden
http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/


this is by NIkki st.de phalle. who is french, but this sculpture is in the USA




This sculpture is by a person called jyna, below is a link to their website
http://www.jynja.com/mosaicsGallery.htm




Fred Smith is an american guy who made a sculpture park

Nek Chand

2nd steps of making the giant baby blue bunny mailbox

Here is a detail of the ears. I have put a piece of wire across the ear to hold it in place while I add the concrete. I will snip the wire off after I have added enough concrete to hold it in place and it is dry.


You can only add a little bit of concrete at a time. So I built up half the rabbits ears on saturday and then on sunday I can add some more. Patience. What is that? What you mean I have to stop and wait till tomorrow!
I have been putting in two or three hours a day. This blog shows what I have accomplished by the third day.





By the second day I was able to put the top coat onto some parts of the rabbit, which is a mixture of mortar mix with a little bit of cement thrown in for strength.

The whiskers of my rabbit were made at the Blacksmithing barn in Bundoora park. They are pieces of iron, heated up in the forge and bent into shape by using a hammer on the anvil. The other ends are bent to so that they stay locked in the cement and can't be pulled out. However well I planned to have them locked in place, it didn't work out that way, so they are a bit wobbley. I put too many little bits of foam above them and the concrete never made it down to lock them into place as well as I would have liked. So it is definitley think and plan all you like but learn as you go, by your mistakes.

giant baby blue bunny mailbox first steps

here is the first sequence of photos and instructions for how to make a giant baby blue bunny mailbox.
you will need
a metal chair skeleton
10 metres of wire netting
8 bags of mortar mix
1 bag of cement
ceramic features ( unglazed on the back, but glazed on the front)
star pickets
metal whiskers
crushed rock / screenings
buckets gloves etc.
a pot of tea
an empty piece of land


Then you begin mixing up the concrete: 5 cans of mortar mix, 1 of cement, 2 or 3 of screenings. And begin rubbing it through the wire. This is my third concrete sculpture project, but I am still working it out. You have to play with putting supports inside your sculpture so that its not entirely full of cement ( because then you might need 16 bags of mortar mix) but also you need some of the concrete to be able to grab onto your support structure. I spent a fair while fiddling with these problems. I ended up finding a foam box and breaking it into small pieces and shoving it through the wire to fill large areas so that the concrete didn't just fall down to the bottom.



Here I amillustrating the construction apparel. A shirt is good to wear because it closes tight around your wrist and allows the glove to cover it. The skirt is a bit silly. Don't wear a skirt. Gumboots are great because you don't have to worry if you get cement on them.


as you can see it has to be well constructed with bits of metal and star pickets driven deep into the ground. I have made some spaces for the mail to go using plumbing pipe and garden pots. Also I have wrapped up a huge ball of leftover plastic and put it in the centre underneath to stop that being an empty hole where concrete gathers. I have also put bricks around the base to make the sculpture heavier at the bottom and to act again as a filler.

An Under the sea mosaic at Keilor Heights Primary School

This Under the Sea Mosaic Mural was made by Michelle Barry and Debbie Qadri at Keilor Heights Primary School. The ceramic features of the mosaic were made by the children, teachers and parents of the school.
The mosaic is seven metres wide and two and a half metres high.
All of the classes in the school participated in workshops to make the ceramic features for the mosaic of fish, mermaids and mermen, boats, shells, a treasure chest, corals and seaweed, swimmers and deepsea divers.
All of the ceramic features were made using white earthenware clay and liquid underglazes. They were fired in the school kiln.


This is a view of the mosaic from the opposite angle.


The features were glued onto the wall and the background filled in with a mosaic of broken tiles to suggest the sand, sea and a stormy sunset above.


Near the centre of the mosaic is a black rock that reaches up to become an island with a lighthouse.

Autumn 2010 Under the sea Mural at Keilor Heights Primary School

The Under The Sea Mosaic Mural was made by Debbie Qadri and Michelle Barry, featuring ceramic features made by the children, teachers and parents of Keilor Heights Primary School.
Autumn 2010
Above is a view of the top of the mosaic with a stormy sea crashing towards a lighthouse.


Some boats and a merman made by year 5/6 boys


A mermaid, boats and fish all made using earthenware clay and underglazes as decoration.


See the treasure chest in the bottom right corner made by Debbie and 2/3K students.
The many fish were made by grades 3/4 and the prep students with their buddies.
The shell and treasure were made by grade 1 and 2 students


Here you can see the many tubs of broken, coloured tiles that were used to make the mosaic.