As we’re nearing the end of our workshops, I must share that I’m as excited as the students to see the mosaic border coming together. The results of their artistic effort is spectacular. I’m equally thrilled by the cooperation, attention to detail and maturity that these Middle School students exude. By the time our IMS students left last Thursday, we were able to tape up several new mosaic panels. The time went so quickly!

Excellent work!

Almost done. Looking good!

Check out these magnificent mosaics!

Created by our Islander Middle School Mosaic Team.

Our final scheduled mosaic workshop is tomorrow afternoon.

There was plenty of mosaic work for our Tuesday group of mosaic artists but now we were working on our last pieces of the mural. These 3rd -5th graders have been meeting each week and are now quite competent in the mosaic medium. They know how to use nippers to cut glass (wearing their safety glasses, of course!), understand how to create clear images using big pixels of colored glass, and have become a wonderful team! The adults are having fun too!

Thanks to all our volunteers

So happy to have our MIHS volunteers

A wonderful mosaic bee

Careful cutting to create mosaic water

Please pardon our “kvelling” but the effort, competence and positive attitudes these students bring to our community project is impressive. The students were given the opportunity to create their own designs for 6″ mosaics that we will use to test our installation techniques and materials. Although we’re not able to promise that they’ll get them back, the mini mosaics are fabulous and being created with great care and joy.

Here are a few of the samples:

Next week will be our last workshop. Looking forward to sharing our progress.

kvell |k(ə)vel| — verb [ no obj. ] informal:  to feel happy and proud