Mosaics: Seventh Grade

I've decided the time has finally come for me to be a contributing, productive member of the art education blog community, rather than just sponging off everyone else.  Also, I've been enjoying writing on the other blog twice a week, and decided it was time to step it up a notch.  So let me present the seventh graders' mosaics.  After learning about the highly symbolic art of the Byzantine empire (I like to tie each unit into a period of art history, and for mosaics, I chose the Byzantine) and looking at examples of mosaics, students did a couple of short exercises.  We began by considering the similarities between 8-bit art and the mosaic, and students made their own 8-bit character by coloring in a grid.  We then worked on our measuring skills by creating a grid in their sketchbook, which they filled in for practice.  FINALLY they got to design their own mosaic, with the idea of symbols in mind.

Then came the hard work!  We recycled the cardboard backing from old sketchbooks to make our tesserae.  First, each child had to make 1 cm grid lines on their cardboard.  They counted how many squares they would need in each color, and painted those squares on the pieces of cardboard.  They had to paint part of a second card in order to get enough squares (I encouraged them to use measurement and multiplication in order to count their squares more quickly).

When they were finished painting, students began cutting the squares out.  Some of them had to redraw their lines; the paint was not as opaque as I would have liked, so sometimes they were able to see the lines they'd drawn originally.

They each got a piece of foamcore to assemble their mosaic on.  I explained how mosaics would be traditionally made, and that there should be a little space in between so we could "mortar" them in later.

I asked the students to do one line along the bottom, and one going to the top so they could be sure that they didn't leave too much space between their tesserae (it's much easier to readjust ONE row of squares!)  When they are finally finished (this is taking quite a lot of time, but they are looking great) they will "mortar" them using mod podge.  I found that the glue didn't want to stay adhered to the laminate on the foamcore, but the mod podge corrected that in my example (below), gave it a glossy finish, and added weight that made it feel  more like a real mosaic.