Middle School Mosaic Art Projects Middle School Mosaic Art Projects

Mosaic is such a fun technique for making art. I take been looking for a long time for a way to do it with a class of young kids.  A fashion that doesn't involve heavy tools and cutting ceramic tile (or little fingers).  Too, I needed something that wouldn't toll me an arm and a leg, as in today's 24-hour interval and age, mosaic supplies are expensive (I would know because I buy them for Valentin Kovalyov on a regular basis).  There are several places where you lot can purchase supplies if you are interested in perusing mosaic as an art form. I will make a listing of places at the end of this art lesson.

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Some facts about Mosaics

• Mosaic is an ancient art form that uses pocket-sized pieces to create beautiful images.  It dates back to Mesopotamia, close to 4000 years ago.
• Some of the most popular mosaic scenes depicted myths, religious figures, and beautiful geometric patterns.
• Some of the materials that were used for early mosaics are ivory, shells, and pebbles. In today's mean solar day and age in that location is a much wider variety of materials to choose from: nosotros use ceramic, glass, clay, stone and more.
• In that location are 3 different methods to doing mosaic: Direct Method is the one in this art lesson, where you use the tile directly to the surface.  There is as well an Indirect Method and Double Indirect method. You tin can read more most them here.

In New Jersey, Princeton Art Museum has some groovy samples of mosaics for kids to run into:

Read more well-nigh history of mosaic art here and here.

Recycled Mosaic Tiles Art Lesson

I was brainstorming virtually how to do the mosaic fine art lesson for a while, but then information technology hit me: RECYCLED Cardboard! The art class was exactly on World Day, so information technology was just a perfect fit.  For this projection I highly recommend you invest into a box cutter, the link leads to the ane I used for this, and an aluminum meter stick.  Also, y'all should know that this lesson takes a fleck of prep fourth dimension. Information technology took me exactly a week, working on it a picayune bit every 24-hour interval, to get everything ready.

I collected a bunch of boxes from the local wine store, Costco, and BJs, and cut them.  The larger whole apartment pieces, such as bottoms and sides, I cut into about 9×12 inch or 11×fourteen inch sheets to be used as a base for the mosaics, ane for each kid and a few extras only in case.  After roughly cutting them out I trimmed them using a box cutter and the meter stick.  The sides I cut off as well, and fabricated them into small panels to be used for tiles.

The paint that I used to pigment the boxes for the tiles was just leftovers from other art classes. I honestly tried to use upward the paint that had hardly anything left in the canteen.  For art classes I commonly utilize simple craft pigment such every bit Plaid or Americana.  To be honest, I don't purchase it online (the links to a higher place pb to amazon), merely instead I go to a craft shop and by whichever non-toxic paint is on sale that day.

I laid all the flaps and uneven pieces out on a paper and painted them in a variety of colors.  At that betoken my oldest son had a brilliant thought: why not pigment them on both sides, and so that this way you accept more colors. That's exactly what I did.

Once 1 side was dry, I flipped them over and painted the other side.  What you see in the 2 photos above is just about 1/4 of all the panels that I painted.  I did them in batches over the course of the week.

In one case they were all dry out, I used a meter stick and the box cutter to cut them into long strips about 3/4 of an inch wide.  Please, please, delight be safe doing this. Box cutters are sharp.

In one case yous are done making the strips, you are set up to make the tiles.

Using pair of scissors, I cut a whole bunch of 3/iv of an inch tiles.  When I say a agglomeration, I hateful a giant 8 Qt container full.

That's all the prep work that needs to be done.

For the fine art form, I brought pair of scissors, glue, all the paper-thin bases and tiles.  I also grabbed a few mosaics done by my begetter-in-law. Yous can encounter them here.

Hither are some of the mosaics that the kids made.  I remember they came out fantastic!

What you demand to go started with mosaic art:

Now permit's talk for a 2d almost where to get mosaic supplies if you are interested in this art form.  You can find some tiles and tools on amazon, though not a whole lot.  Hither are two stores on amazon that I take used in the past: Jennifer'southward Mosaicsand Mosaic Mercantile.You lot will besides desire to get a wheeled nipper to cut the tile with, though that's non the simply tool out there. My father-in-police force frequently uses a moisture tile saw besides.  You will also need to use a base, and grout to finish.

The shop that we apply most oftentimes around here is Mosaic Basics. They truly accept everything you need to get started, including grout in various colors, books, glue, tools, and of course dissimilar tile.  I have made a mosaic in the past (find the singular). It is hard work, and took me forever (information technology's that peacock). I have to say that I had an easier time working with these tiny glass tiles, then ceramic tiles. The glass tiles were just easier to cut and use.

Here are more stores to check out:Enasco(they accept more and so but mosaic supplies, lots of interesting stuff there, including some excellent art lessons), Mosaic Art Supply(they have excellent instructions and tips on Mosaic Art Supply, see them here). Total Mosaic requires you to have an account with them first, only for artists it's not hard to obtain, at least it wasn't when nosotros did it. Their prices cannot be beat.

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Source: https://www.happyfamilyart.com/art-lessons/art-history-for-kids/mosaic/

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