This latest work is in the Unitarian Church of Berkeley, California.
As with my Tree of Life project at this church two years ago, the congregation was asked to bring in pieces of their lives - like pottery, jewelry, charms, bottle caps, beach glass, shells, mugs, etc - to be included in this piece. Each person wrote a little note explaining their offering. Some examples:
Over the course of three Sundays this past winter, I led three mosaic workshops where the participants were asked to mosaic, using their pieces as well as miscellaneous tiles and objects, large shapes (on mesh) that I then put together into the large river design.
Here is the simple design and color-scheme:
There are 8 rocks in this river, each one representing a step along a spiritual path.
The previous post showed photos and explained the beginning of the process. This post continues the story!
This piece has 6 different colors of grout so I ended up making one small pot of color at a time, rather than one large bucket of color. I began the grouting at the top left corner.
The installation took 6 days and the grouting took 9 days. I worked on a two-story scaffold for much of the time.
My fingers took a beating too.
This piece is 110 square feet on a light blue wall measuring 250 square feet.
Below are a few more notes with photos of where the objects are in the mosaic.
And finally, here it is again:
The River of Life Mosaic Mural
110 square feet
110 square feet
March, 2013
Unitarian Church of Berkeley California,
1 Lawson Road
Kensington, CA
