Lowdham Play Park

Lowdham Play Park 2017

It was in March 2016 that I was approached by Dawn Harris of the Lowdham Park Committee to create a mosaic feature for their local park. The committee and the local community had raised funds for a fantastic state of the art play park, and to my delight their plan was to finish it all off with a flowing mosaic stream to celebrate the beck running through the village.

How it started...
After having the design approved by the committee, we held a family drop in workshop where children and adults were encouraged to create clay forms representing things found in a stream -pebbles, weeds, leaves etc.

Here is a step by step guide showing the process -THE MESH METHOD

First I drew out the 3 x 1.5 metre design in bold marker pen.
Then I cut it into 40 cm (ish) strips and covered each one first in clingfilm then in mesh.
Working on each strip at a time I cut and laid glass tesserae, pottery, frost proof tiles and the clay pieces to cover the design.
There are 2 vital things to remember: that you only use a tiny bit of glue, so that when you come to adhere it to the base, the adhesive gets through the mesh to the tiles and not to a layer of glue. The other thing is to keep checking that the joins of each strip are seamless. (see the 3rd picture)
By the end of it I had a pile of 18 strips ready to adhere to the cement backer board.

The locals were asked to go foraging for bits of broken china and pottery. With these treasures I created a flowing ribbon running along the centre of the "beck".

Then, just to make 100% sure it was the right size, I laid the whole thing together on the floor.
But...why the gaps?
Dawn's idea right from the outset was to not only depict the flowing beck but to dedicate the artwork and the park itself to the local children.
The gaps in the mosaic were awaiting 185 aluminium discs each with the name and date of birth of the children of Lowdham.

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to work. By the end of day one I had completed the bottom strip.
I felt confident using the BAL (Building Adhesives Limited) products and adhesive applying techniques as I had recently attended a training course run by them. https://www.bal-adhesives.com

So, the discs were stuck on with mega strength-frost proof-suitable for aluminium-adhesive and then the time consuming task of filling in all the nooks and crannies with carefully nibbled "pebbles".
Finally, a smiling picture of me grouting, with BAL Micromax 2 grout in Anthracite (black!).

And so this mega project was finally complete. Once again the park committee came up trumps and organised an after school celebration (hot-dogs all round) where the artwork was ceremoniously unveiled by the local headteacher.

It was such a pleasure for all involved to witness the children's delight as they spotted, their names, their clay pieces and their crockery findings within the mosaic.