Paper Mosaics and Field Project Photo

The weather has sort of derailed my art plans.  Snow, single digit temperatures, and windchill in the negative double digits have kept me inside.  I need to get to the arts and crafts store to buy a larger canvas before I begin the peacock painting.  I need to buy bees wax before I can do anything with encaustics.  Since I have some spare time, I've been working on a project I hope to share with some adult day programs at some point.  I thought I'd share the project here in case anyone wanted to do a similar project with a child, grandchild, or school program.  It is short enough and simple enough to do with younger children, although you would want to change from using acrylic gel medium to a water soluble glue stick.

The mosaics pictured here are paper mosaics.  The mosaic "tiles" are water color paper that has been painted with craft paint and cut into squares.  The smaller tiles are one half inch squares and the larger squares are one inch squares.  I tried different sizes to see how that affected the time it took to complete the project.  When you come in as a volunteer to do an art project, you have to make sure that the participants can complete the project in the allotted amount of time.  Generally, that would be one hour.  That hour has to include handing out the supplies, doing the project, and cleaning up afterwards so that they can go on to whatever is scheduled next.  This can be a challenge. In order to get the project done in a specific amount of time, I usually do some of the prep work ahead of time.  In this case, I cut the painted papers into squares, so that the group could begin with laying the squares onto the backing paper. 

Another challenge in working with a day program is that the program directors would like you to have your project work with skills or experiences that the program is working on, say letters and numbers or perhaps a field trip for that week.  All to often, the participant is handed a crayon and told to "draw a picture of ..(fill in the blank)... that we stheaw this morning" or "draw six of this and four of that". Drawing is definitely a valid art experience, but if you have to do it every time, then art class becomes part of the same old, same old.  I like to try to offer the opportunity to try new art materials  while staying within the request to add educational goals to the art class.  Perhaps this could be accomplished by having the person number each square if they are learning numbers, using some of the squares to write the letters of their name, or use the mosaic as a background and have the group draw and cut out pictures of things they saw on the field trip to paste on top of it.  There are plenty of ways to incorporate learning while still having the fun of trying something new.

Before beginning the mosaic, I plan to explain what mosaics are and point out some of the different types of patterns in the example.  For these mosaics, I used a small sheet of water color paper for the backing paper.  I used a foam brush to apply some acrylic gel medium to the backing paper (use washable glue sticks or school glue if working with children).  Then I added some more acrylic medium to the back of each tile and laid it on the background.  The half inch squares took 45 minutes to complete.  The one inch squares took only twenty-five minutes.  The larger squares were easier to manipulate, but (there is always a "but" isn't there) with acrylic medium I found that the edges of the one inch tiles tended to curl up from the paper.  Once they were pressed down again, they tended to stay.  Letting the particiants know in advance that the curling is expected and can be fixed will help prevent frustration.

Once the tiles were in place, the mosaics were given a coat of gel medium. (It would probably be better to skip this step with smaller children.)  After that the background was painted a slate gray.  This took ten minutes for the larger tiles and fifteen minutes for the smaller tiles. The different sized tiles give the mosaics very different looks.  Attempting to do the smaller tiles in an hour at a day program might be pushing the time limit.  Using the larger tiles would allow enough time for distributing the materials and cleaning up within the allotted hour.  Or, if you really wanted to do the smaller tiles, you could consider reducing the size of the backing paper so there was not as much area to cover.

All and all, it is a relatively quick project using something other than crayons.   The project could also be adapted to other things such as covering a small box or cup.  Although it may seem like a pointless project, doing a little experimenting at home helps me to give others a better art experience at the adult day programs.  Have some fun with paper mosaics.  They are inexpensive compared to working with glass or tiles.  If you make a pattern you really like, you might decide to make a real mosaic with it.  Or, you might cut the paper mosaics up to use in other pieces of art work. A fun little project can give you enjoyment more than once.

I'm also posting my weekly picture for the field project.  It is a balmy 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside this morning.  After days of single digit lows, it feels like a heat wave.  The snow has been on the ground since last Tuesday.