Teacher's Tiles

Yesterday, the girls and I spent the afternoon with the staff from Ardross Primary school.


They were painting their design on a tile for the school Heritage Mural.

Here are some of the finished products. They did very well, after the usual banter about not being artistic, they all out did themselves.

The swan with a football (not sure of the heritage link here) is the Principal's tile. I'm pretty sure the art teacher may have helped him...

Their brief was to design a tile that had relevance to their personal heritage. As many people couldn't be there others copied their designs or hand print onto the tile. The lion share of the work was done by Cath Bishop. Cath was the instigator of this project. It has been a wonderful project with lots of discussion and research on heritage. Thanks, Cath.

I think the group was surprised to hold so many budding artists. Well done everyone.

Almost there

I have almost finished the school component of the Ardross Primary School tile mural. Just one more session next term to grab the last few kids who were away during their painting session.

Now is the task of drying and glazing the painted tiles.

The tiles I have fired look wonderful.


I can't wait to see it all finished. About 400 tiles in bright glossy colours.

Here are some of the tiles painted over the last few weeks.

The ones above are national sports and the ones below are national musical instruments and dance.

We have x-ray animals influenced by indigenous paintings.

This is the glazing table with flags, leaf prints and national costumes.

Inside the kiln...

All finished, looking pretty special!

Just have to glaze about 250 more...

Busy, busy...

Life has been extremely busy over the last few weeks. I seem to be juggling even more than usual.

CAAWA has their annual selective exhibition coming up soon, here is sneak preview of one of the vases I am making for that show. I have been playing around with tissue transfers. I have designed a new line for my tableware using these transfers. Trouble is I haven't had time to make anything yet. Watch this space for actual work!

My clay classes are coming to a wrap up. My students have been popping in over the last few days to finish off their clocks before we bisque fire them on Monday.

My friend Kim is pictured here crash drying her stencil design.

This is Tessa exploring the studio. Now she is walking she is allowed to come in from time to time. The kids love coming in the studio. Not sure I feel the same way! They were very good this day. It was raining outside so they couldn't be banished to the sandpit...

This is what my "waiting to be bisque fired" table looks like at the moment. I have clocks and hand print tiles all waiting to be fired. Hand print tiles are running hot in the lead-up to father's Day next Sunday.

The Ardross Primary School mural is well under way. This week we painted about 130 tiles. Here is a sample of the class doing costume as a sub theme.

The other thing (no photos) I am working on is the next Perth Up Market. Put this date in your diary. Sunday 13th September 10am - 4pm Perth Town Hall - see you there.

Primary school mural

I am working with a local primary school to make a 400 tile mural. The school has 54 different nationalities so it is an international theme we are working with.
The Young children are pressing their hands in the tiles as a representation of welcoming, unity and inclusiveness . The older children will be painting their designs on the tiles. Each class has a different sub-theme. Sport, clothes, flags, language, music, animals and Australian flora are the themes.

I started with the pre-primary kids. The photos are of the hand pressing and name stamping.

I made a set of ceramic lower case letters many years ago. Because they are hand carved they are different sizes and look a bit like kids writing, so perfect for this project.

My clay class students are starting to make the clocks they designed.

Everyone has come up with individual and interesting designs. I can't wait to see them finished.

Here is an image of Kerry's clock under construction.