the pipes arrive

We have been able to get the concrete poles from the Moonee Valley Council, thankyou to Jason and Edwin. Phil and Peter brought them to us on a truck.

They were lifted from the truck with a special crane.

mosaiced pavers

Here are two pavers that have been mosaiced.
In this photo they have not yet been grouted.

making the first pavers

A sunny friday and Debbie begins to make the pavers with four year old children helping and giving advice.

Debbie is breaking up the tiles with a hammer. She has to wear safety glasses so she doesn't hurt her eyes.

Here are some helpers pulling small tiles off the backing mesh.

a close-up of the feet that are going onto the pavers.

some fired birds

Here are three of the birds that have been fired in the kiln.
Now they are ready to put into the artwork.

making the ceramic footprints for the paving stones

Here are the children rolling out the clay ready for their footprint. Their foot is then traced and the shape cut out. Then the children decorate it using coloured underglazes. The clay feet will be fired and then glazed and fired a second time. Then they will be ready to be glued to pavers to decorate their garden and play area. The gaps between the ceramic feet will be decorated using mosaiced tiles.

As I am writing this, the feet are actually in their first firing in the kiln (the bisque firing). I will be pulling them out tomorrow and then applying the glaze to them, ready for their second firing.

making the footprints

below are some photos of the process of making the footprints with the three year-olds. Each child had a go at rolling out the clay, then Debbie traced their feet onto the clay. Then she cut out the shape of the foot. The child helped to smooth the edges of the clay and then decorated the foot with underglaze colours.

We also made some leaves and branches for the birds to sit amongst.

after the workshops

After the workshops, the birds are taken to the artist's residence. She writes the name of each child on their artwork using coloured underglaze. The birds had to be pushed into a curved shape, so that they will sit nicely against the curves of the totem poles and bird bath base. Here they are resting on the assorted curves of plumbing pipes, biscuit tins and plastic buckets.