Paper Mosaic of Silhouettes

Jo and cousins enjoying the mosaic art by Prof Chan Eng Heng.

We've been attracted to mosaic art ever since we visited the Turtle Alley in K Terengganu, where the walls and floor are decorated with mosaic art  done by Prof Chan Eng Heng.

So we borrowed a couple of books from the library on mosaic art, and looked at some really old mosaic art online. We discovered that the oldest mosaic art goes back to the time of Mesopotamia. We also looked online, at some old Christian Mosaic artworks and were amazed at the details that went into the work.









Well, today begins a series of art work we plan to do, all related to  mosaic art in some way or other.

In math we worked on the topic of tessellation coz I thought, it's kinda related. The kids, especially Nel loved this, as she's always loved patterns.

In the kitchen we experimented with swirling colours. I boiled some water, added corn starch and floated food colouring on the top for the children to swirl to create marble like, mosaic like texture. We wanted to try paper marbling, but I had no alum to treat paper, thus just playing with creating patterns. To do this, add enough corn flour to boiled water to create thick texture. Add food colouring in random spots and swirl with toothpick.

Next we tried paper marbling using shaving cream. Spray shaving cream onto a tray, add food colouring, swirl using tooth pick. Place paper on top of coloured shaving cream, then remove paper. Scrape off foam to see pattern beneath.

 After all these mini projects, I decided we could  move on to larger pieces of work. For today it was a paper mosaic of the children's silhouette. We had two friends come by today as part of our co-op. Working together is great coz it motivates the children to finish their work, and allows for group discussion and comments after.

First the children had to figure out how they wanted their silhouette. Based on their decision, we drew around each child and cut out the shape of their silhouette. Then they began planning and then pasting papers on to create their mosaic art. It was a very messy process...lots of paper going around. It also required a lot of patience, planning and determination.

Dyl planning and sticking on cut/torn strips of paper.

Almost complete work by Nel.

Work completed, the children sat around their work of paper mosaic commenting and enjoying their end product. They were very proud and happy of their achievement! :)

I asked my children what  they learnt from all this. They replied
-We learnt to make decisions from how to pose for our silhouette, to what colours to use and how the papers would fit. We learnt how to plan and create in our mind. Most of all, we love the final product!

Next plan is to move on to using real ceramic tiles. Looking forward to that.

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@Poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2013

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