Star - The National Society for Education in Art and Design

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Mini poster
handmade ceramic elements. The children
gained the hands-on experience by
drawing their ideas onto pre-prepared clay
sheets. These were then cut out and
bisque fired and then painted by the
children using non-toxic ‘paint your own
pottery’ glazes. Having glaze-fired these
elements Martin was finally able to
incorporate them into the finished mosaic.
David Bowers works as a participatory
mosaic artist in schools. He believes the
best school art is created by the children
and he is there to direct and assist them in
creating mosaics through the stages of
design, the actual mosaicing and finally the
grouting. Projects can be inside or outside,
floor- or wall-based, and can be created by
a class, a year or the whole school. Every
child can then say, ‘I helped to make that.’
David recently worked at Sacred Heart
Primary School in London, to create an
entrance mural based on their mission
statement: ‘To go forward together in
Christ, to respect our neighbour, to always
give of our best.’ This involved working with
a small group of children to design three
murals and then with the whole school of
360 children to create the murals. David
recommends using the direct method,
which is to stick the tiles face up on the
desired surface, as it is far more suited to
children and can create results in a shorter
time than the indirect or reverse method.
He believes that mosaics are best when
kept simple, as there is a massive
difference between what a child can draw
and what they can mosaic, and that by
using broken ceramic tiles children can
independently create the pictures. As one
child said, ‘Mosaics are like a jigsaw but
there are no wrong pieces.’ David’s
fabulous and inspiring website is a
testament to the success of his methods.
Ellie Byrant of Splat Arts in Manchester
believes that schools can say so much
more about their ethos through a mosaic
rather than through traditional signs. The
process of making a mosaic may be seen
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by schools as a potentially hazardous
activity, so Ellie starts by providing a risk
assessment for the headteacher, detailing
how risks will be lessened without taking
away the fun elements of mosaicing.
Friezland mosaic was created with a whole
school over four days. It includes
references to all parts of school life and all
the images are taken from children’s
drawings. Two years later the children can
still remember which tile pieces they
placed and still polish them.
Richard Heathcote, Head of Art at West
Hill Park School, describes his first foray
into the world of mosaics without
professional help on hand. ‘We decided
upon mosaic because we try and explore a
new technique each year. We found out
about mosaics by looking at a few books.
The main concern was health and safety for
the children when cutting the tiles and also
making sure they didn’t just chuck the tiles
on but actually tried to place and arrange
them carefully. Working in groups, they
drew the designs on to plywood and used
pre-cut 20mm tiles, and glued them on
with normal school PVA. It would certainly
be helpful to have access to a website that
could offer advice about buying tiles and
choice of adhesives, as now some of the
tiles are falling off. Nevertheless, I felt the
project was a success and something we
would tackle again, especially with the
benefit of more knowledge.’
There is no need, however, for a school to
employ an artist. With research and a little
sound information, a project can be
designed by anyone. As far as materials are
concerned, mosaics are generally made
from either ceramic or vitreous glass
mosaics. Both require cutting into a more
workable size by nipping with tile cutters
while wearing goggles. Ceramic tiles are
less problematic as they do not shatter
when they break. The fact that they are flat
on both sides is an advantage, too, as they
can be used both ways up. Vitreous tiles
shed little shards when they break and
‘Mosaics are like a jigsaw but
there are no wrong pieces.’
these tiny pieces of glass are not ideal
with young children around. If using glass,
choose enough tiles for your project and cut
them in advance, then rinse and dry them.
For expedience, your design, especially if it
is a large one, should contain an element of
full- sized tiles. If the work will reside
indoors, MDF is an ideal base. Prime it first
with dilute PVA (and water) on all sides. For
outdoor projects, use marine ply; it is not
infallible, so prepare it very thoroughly by
painting the back and sides three times
with yacht varnish, and when it is installed
run bathroom sealant around the edges to
prevent damp getting behind the mosaic
and eventually into the wood. Concrete
slabs and breezeblocks can also be used.
Whether or not you choose to engage the
children in the process of nipping depends
on their age, the size of the group and the
time and patience available, but always
wear goggles!
Another option is to recycle (sometimes a
bane as there are not enough of any one
colour and they are different heights,
making grouting a nightmare) or use kitchen
tiles. MOSA tiles (supplied by www.
mosaictraderuk.co.uk) provide an unrivalled
range of colours, but like any kitchen tile are
not completely frost proof for use outdoors.
To overcome their porous nature they can,
however, be sealed with diluted PVA or
Johnson’s Water Seal on the reverse to be
used outdoors. Children can break these
easily with hammers, wearing goggles,
with the tiles under towels – a major
attraction! The drawing is then filled in with
‘crazy paving’ shapes and the benefit is they
can do it all themselves. The end result,
depending on the age of the children, can
look at little haphazard but, importantly, it
will truly be ‘all their own work’.
Whichever method your schools choose,
be assured it will be a memorable and
popular part of the school programme. If
you have an interest in mosaic it is worth
joining BAMM (the British Association of
Modern Mosaic).
Stamp design
Yes, small is beautiful!
Mark Dyson reveals how he was able to
inspire Foundation Stage (4–5-year-old)
children at Hull Collegiate Preparatory
School to design and print their own set of
commemorative stamps as part of the
term topic ‘People who help us’.
Starting point
We began our summer half-term topic by
building a post office role-play area within
the classroom. The post office provided
many opportunities for cross-curricular
activities, covering many aspects of the
early learning goals across the six areas of
learning.
design and print your own
commemorative stamp!
The children watched the ‘Lenny the
Letter’ video, a resource available for free
from the Post Office that follows the
sequence of events of a letter being
written, posted and delivered to the
recipient. We then looked closely at the
features of the addressed envelope and
what the stamp was for. This created a
discussion about the history of stamps and
the introduction of the first stamp, the
penny black, designed by Sir Rowland Hill
in 1840.
Mark-making is an extremely important
area of any child’s literacy and creative
development. Making marks in different
media and the creation of an image is the
beginning of communicating a narrative.
Children enjoy making marks and drawings
to depict events in their own lives, but are
used to being able to make only one single
image, which more often than not teachers
keep as evidence for their profiles.
Resources
Stamp template available from RSA
website, pencils, charcoal, A4 polystyrene
plate (press-print), ball point pen, roller
trays, rollers, cartridge paper, newspaper,
water based printing ink, computer and
scanner.
Key words and vocabulary
Machin: the current low-value definitive
stamps of Great Britain are referred to as
‘Machins’ because they were designed by
Arnold Machin, a sculptor. A typical
Machin is printed as a single colour and
depicts the Queen’s bust in profile with a
stamp value. The French word machin
(pronounced ‘maychin’) roughly translates
to ‘thingamajig’.
Perforations: this series of holes punched
between the stamps on sheets enables
separation. Victorian stamps had to be cut
by hand using scissors.
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Step by step
Commemorative stamp: a postage stamp
issued to honour or commemorate a place,
event or person. Several of these are
produced each year; first day of issue
ceremonies are often held at locations
connected with the subjects.
Facts about the history
of stamp-printing
Recess printing was the method of
printing stamps until 1855 and is often
called intaglio printing or line engraving
this was the method used for the penny
black. The designer of the stamp would cut
lines by hand into a die, which was then
transferred many times onto a metal plate
using a roller. Ink was then put into the
engraved lines on the plate and the surface
wiped clean, before paper was pressed
into the lines to take up the ink.
Surface printing, also known as
letterpress printing, was introduced in 1855
by printers De la Rue. As this was a dry, flat
method of printing, it allowed perforating
machines to perforate sheets of stamps
that before had to be cut by hand because
of the paper shrinkage of recess printing.
The stamp was printed from a raised
design on a printing plate, created by the
rest of the plate being etched away. This
method was widely used until 1934.
Gravure became one of the major stamp
printing processes after 1934. It is more
commonly known as photogravure,
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