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Home  News Latest Amazing two year mosaic project is ready
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Amazing two year mosaic project is ready |
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Wednesday, 23 May 2007 |
 YOUNG ARTISTS – The Roadster mosaic that now adorns a wall at the museum had over 50 students work on the project that covered two years of time. Some of the students who made the project possible are, from the left, Maria Buttgereit, Sarina Gebhart (front), Jacklyn Hanson, Maria Chalfon, Angie Grubb, Savanah Engeby, Norman Vanderbush, Brittnee Wittmier, Jessica Grubb (front), and Ashley Fetters. Photo courtesy of Wayne Anderson
The official unveiling of the special artwork will take place on June 18 when the museum opens for the summer.
To start the project, an initial drawing of the Roadster was done. Then Conrad High School art students began the project by projecting transparencies of the roadster’s sketch onto 4x6 plywood panels which had been attached temporarily to the high school art room wall.
Students used permanent felt tip markers to complete the transfer of the true-to-life roadster. When that phase of the project was completed, a giant cartoon was made with sheets of tracing paper. This was then cut into panels; a massive jigsaw puzzle was the result.
With the 34 panels in hand, students rolled out three-eights inch slabs of clay with rolling ins, laid their pattern on top of the clay slab and began cutting and numbering the clay into pieces. As each panel was completely cut out, the individual pieces had to be hand cleaned and placed on a shelf to be loaded into the kiln for bisque firing.
“This accomplished,” explained Wayne Anderson, CHS art instructor, “Pieces were placed into a box, numbered and set aside until all of the sections for the mosaic were cut out. After the entire mosaic had been cut out, cleaned, and bisque fired, students began the awesome task of glazing the single pieces.”
Each piece had to be color coated and placed into their boxes to insure the proper color of each piece. The pieces then required wetting, and the application of three even coats of glaze each; students loaded them into the kiln and they were fired a second time.
Once again, as the pieces were taken from the kiln, they had to be sorted and separated into individual containers. With the completion of glazing and firing the pieces, specific portions on the care were embossed with the names of donors and the pieces returned to the kiln for a third firing.
With the end of the project in sight, the final pieces were fired and students in the Advanced Art Class took a field trip to the museum and spent an afternoon carefully gluing the mosaic to the wall. A handful of broken pieces of mismatched pieces had to be re-cut and re-fired. Finally, after several weeks, all of the mosaic pieces had been glued into place.
After the glue had been given proper time to cure, a process of grouting the massive mosaic began. At the end of the grouting process, the students took time to add their names to the bottom of mosaic.
All that remains for the project to be completed is for a frame to be installed.
Aside from the time, nearly two years, approximately 50 Conrad High School art students dedicated their talents to the completion of this amazing project.
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