What do the four seasons, four birds, and a key have in common?
This school was a joy to work with. A small primary school of just over 100 pupils, every child was able to take part in making it.
I was sent lots of drawings from the children to use for a design and spent a day sketching possibilities and a final cartoon. I spent a couple of days preparing sections so that we could get on with it on the two days in school allocated for the mosaic.
The sections were made indirect on sticky back plastic using pva glue. I learnt my lesson using this method without the glue last year with another school. As the children touch the sticky back and rearrange tiles it stops sticking the tiles to the plastic which makes turning over and fixing to the board impossible. Last year I had to stick mesh to the back of the sections with tile cement before I could install them on the board.
Trying out this method of sticky back plus pva glue beforehand I found that once the section was transferred to the board and the sticky back plastic pulled off there was less glue residue left on the tiles than when using straight plastic, because the sticky back holds onto to it, so I’ll be using this method for my own projects in the future!
We had 12 sections with two children working on each section. I also had a good team of eager parent helpers that I couldn’t have done without!
The oldest children love cutting tiles!
After the sections were finished they were left to dry over night and the next day I was in early with the parent helpers to transfer them to the board. Then the children filled in the snow border and the background spaces.
The adhesive is a quick drying one which meant we didn’t have to wait long before taking off the plastic and grouting.
Et Voila!
The border is made up of the four class names … Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and in the corners are the 4 house names …Buzzards, Ospreys, Kestrels and Harriers. The school motif is the key…Keevil.
Keevil school … you are the greatest!
🙂
Hi Kate
Nice project, the kids did great.
I use this method too but not with PVA. We work right way up on the sticky back and then when it’s finished I put stronger tile tape over the top. Effectively double reverse. When you lift it up the clean fronts have stuck better to the tile tape and the sticky back can be peeled off the back really easily. Especially if there’s been quite a lot of re-positioning earlier on.
Tracey xx
Hi Tracey, is the tile tape the same as fibreglass plastic mesh? That’s how I did the last one but was more work in the end.
ah, no, I see what you do, working direct onto the sticky back…
It looks fabulous, Kate! Well done. I too use this method with pva glue, but am intrigued by Tracey’s use of stronger tile tape on the top. Could I ask you what kind of tape you use, Tracey?