Ceramic Murals:

Building

Community

A High School Ceramics

Curriculum

Created by:

Connie Lavelle

Brandy Noody

Where we began? Our continued research into The Dinner Party

and Feminist Pedagogy shaped how we

designed curriculum for our ceramics course.

We based our teaching on the Big Idea of

power/equality within a community while

building basic ceramic skills.

Research

Proposals For Design Students decided to combining all their ideas: the oak

tree (mighty oak) as the center, hands as leaves, mirror pieces to reflect back and to create a night sky, and a puzzle piece border (kind of like the tree roots going up the sides to connect with the leaves-regeneration)

Site Approval After the final design was agreed upon, we

created a scale drawing, 4’x8’.

Construction Begins

We used

many

texture

tools

including

real tree

bark

Hand Legacy

Metaphor as Meaning

in Your Hand for the

Mural.

Do We Need

More Tiles?

Yes we do!

Glazing and Firing

Cutting Tiles and Mirror

Students broke

the colored tiles

into pieces and

sorted them in

boxes by color.

Arranging

the

Composition

The students

arranged and

rearranged their

handprint tiles, many

times, until they felt

the composition was

just right.

We set up the components

of the mural on the plywood

board.

We used ceramic tile

adhesive with trowels and

demonstrated how to

properly attach the tiles.

Mosaic

Making sure everything is

level and evenly spaced.

Picking

and

Cleaning

Grouting We used powdered grout

Continuously wipe and spray

the grout to prevent cracking

Stained with

Acrylic

We decided to work with

three colors of grout: blue

in the sky, brown for the

tree trunk and green near

the leaves.

Some students helped to push

in the grout, others cleaned,

and some scrapped dry grout

out of the textured tiles.

It took us a few days to fully

grout the mural and clean it

properly.

Installation

Finishing After the mural was attached

to the wall, we immediately got

to work hiding the screws.

We put up signs, asking

students not to touch the

mural, while it was drying.

encouraged students and staff

to record their thoughts of the

mural.

Our Legacy

Approaching the mural

in this way empowered

our students. They

took pride in knowing

that we trusted them

enough to place this

monumental task in

their hands.

Supplies 4’x8’ plywood

Concrete anchors

Low fire clay

Velvet under glaze

Clear glaze

Sanded grout

Ceramic tile adhesive

Acrylic paint

Trowels

Sponges/rags

Palette knives

Spray bottles/ vinegar water

Bailey tile cutters

Bailey slab rollers

Texture tools

Old mirror

Safety glasses

Wall trim/ stain

Masks

Tile nippers

Commercial tiles

Dinner Party curriculum

From There to Here

Making Recycled Sketchbooks

Marbling the Covers

Using Sketchbooks in the DIA

Ceramic Murals in the DIA

Warhol Visits Lessenger

3rd Grade Clay Monarch Tiles

Be Gentle

3rd Grade using Tux Paint

Program

Ceramic Decals from Computer

Drawings

Brainstorming Families

4th Grade Silhouettes

4th Grade Mural

Be Gentle

2015 Artist Residency

430 Nature Tiles based on the

Content Standards

3rd grade Bird Tile, 2nd grade

Weather Tile

The Reading Tree

Self-Portrait Mural

Sharing Our Worlds

You Are Here, Backsplashes

Nature Center & Peace Pole

Fish Philosophy

Michigan Maps

Katrina Mural

Thank You

craighinshaw@hotmail.com

clavelle@fcsd.wnyric.org

bmnoody@fcsd.wnyric.or

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Fredonia High School

425 East Main Street

Fredonia, NY 14063