Make a broken tile mosaic bench as a memorial
September 7th, 2009 |
kristin
It’s no fun assembling a memorial for a 21 year old. Somehow just days after this young man’s death in a car accident, while my stepson and all his friends were grieving, suddenly I pictured this tile project as a tangible way to grieve. I had to act fast, as people were in town a short time. The idea was to share memories and say good-bye to Bradley Langston in a way that would help them deal with loss, as well as be a sweet visual memory to his family, and a reminder to all who browse the tiles on this memorial just how precious life is-even if they’d never met Bradley.
While the friends were still getting together in Brad’s memory the week after his passing, Matthew, my stepson, took a couple trays full of about 75 pieces of broken bisque tiles and a couple of writer bottles with black underglaze to one of the get-togethers and about 50 people signed tiles that night.
We know there were so many more people who would like to participate, so we created a Facebook Event on our PicassoZ page and thanks to Matt and a few of his friends, word spread around their circle like wildfire. We invited their friends and Brad’s family to sign their tiles in our studio over the next month, and had over 100 more tiles signed, and my staff lovingly and carefully glazed and fired each one.
I purchased a concrete garden bench at Fountains & Falls, and began to lay out the tiles. It was amazing. I could not have fit ONE more tile! I had exactly enough room, but added in a few broken tile pieces that were painted in school colors, to fill in the little spots and give the bench a hint of color. Anyway, a broken tile bench or table can be anything, handprints, painted just anything, but this was the vision I had for Bradley’s bench.
Once all the tiles were glued into place, they were given time to cure, then I grouted in white sanded grout. The bench is being donated by the Miller Family to LCS, placed on campus by the football stadium.
I am truly sorry that there will be people out there who need to make a memory project like this one. It is heart-breaking, but satisfying…well…gratifying. I hope you find this project helpful and healing.
Materials for Project:
- 100 6″ bisque tiles (available thru any paint-your-own pottery studio).
- Medium Tip Writer Bottles (your studio can provide)
- Black Underglaze, non-toxic (your studio can provide)
- Clear, lead-free dipping glaze (your studio can glaze & fire your tiles). Tell them DO NOT BRUSH ON!
- Concrete Garden Bench (dont purchase until your tiles are done…you may want to get a larger surface like a table if you want to use larger tile pieces, or fill in with more color).
- Locite Power Grip Adhesive. available at home improvement stores.
- White sanded grout. available at home improvement stores.
- Grouting supplies: Trowel or pie wedge, grouting sponge. available at home improvement stores.
You are welcome to share your project here, and in our community, and maybe it will help another create a special way to celebrate a loved one.
Memorial Bench Project on PicassoZ Facebook Page
Posted in Mosaics |
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