Making Art from Pieces

"I am learning everyday to allow

the space between where I am and where

I want to be

to inspire me and not terrify me."

Traci Ellis Ross

Every morning of our mosaic week at Wildacres, our instructor Pam Brewer put a quote on the board for us to think about during our day's journey.  She knew we had a steep learning curve. But all 10 of us rose to the challenge trying very hard to put aside the terrifying aspect of what we had to do and the time we had before us and, instead, enjoy the act of creating and getting to know each other.

Our mission was to create a mosaic totem...something yard worthy and meaningful (or not) and every single piece had to be constructed.  Totems are an interesting subject in and of themselves and I could have spent hours researching the symbols and their subsequent meanings.  But I decided to choose three B's of gardens: birds, butterflies and bees (and maybe a blossom or two and a garden goddess?)
The above photo is all of us cutting our shapes from insulation board and carving out channels for the pvc pipe to fit through.

These "shapes" got glued together and wrapped in sheetrock mesh tape before coated in fiberous surface bonding mix.  This photo shows my pieces that are double coated and ready to dry and two others where you can see the insulation board.

After everything dried it was time to nip and glue using quickrete to hold the pieces onto the form.

It helped to lay out a design on paper before attempting to assemble.  We needed to have additional shards available and remember that we had a 2" edge to cover along the sides.  The collection of material was wonderful: we brought and shared tiles, broken pottery, intentionally made pottery, thrift store plates and all manner of lost and found objects.  We hoarded, nipped, and shared, repeat, hoard, nip and share!

The base of this "object d' arte" was a work in progress as we had to build on it every day.  With concrete we made a form around pvc pipe which would hold a length of rebar on which everything got stacked.

Did we have fun?!?

one of Pam Brewer's pieces designed for a totem

to be in a pet memorial garden

Then it was on to grouting, cleaning and packing up.  What a lot we accomplished in just a week.  We even had time to learn a bit about mosaic and to visit Pam's wonderful studio for more inspiration.

One of my favorite pieces was this cardinal I made, it happens to be a blue bird on the other side and I think it is full of personality!

Here is my totem in the garden...my sweet husband spent quite a bit of muscle installing it.  Each side is different and colorful and reminds me of a great week of creative pursuit with new friends.  I also love that each symbol holds a very significant meaning for me (this side shows the dragon fly on back of the bee) and many of the shards I used represent different people who gave them to me.  

I'm hoping my fellow nippers will send me photos of their work installed so I can share them with you.  Every single piece was different and there was a lot of creativity buzzing around our room.  I loved making beautiful art from discarded parts and pieces.  Constructing a beautiful whole from broken parts should always be our goal.

IN MANY PIECES,
Cindy