Second day of Deer Park History Mural installation

Here are the photos of what we have achieved so far

It has been very exciting to put the children's artwork onto the wall. Two participants of one of the Huntclub workshops came today to look at their artwork and we were able to intstall the Miles St. Church whilst the artist who made it watched.

On the first day of mosaicing, I was joined by Alessandra who made a large area of houses and streets.
Our community volunteers today were my two friends Evie and Melissa and a local young  person called Nicholas. It was very good to have such valuable company. We achieved a lot and now have three eighths of the mural installed.

If you would like to have a go at Mosaicing the mural, you can turn up on one of the following days:

 this coming Monday 13th Ocotber  9 - 2.30

Saturday 18th October  10 - 4pm

Monday 20th October 1- 4pm

Above: progress on the first day

The deer park mural is a collaborative effort of 

Brimbank Council

Deer park Pharmacy,

Gallery Sunshine Everywhere

St Peter Chanel School,

Deer Park North Primary School

and 

Deer park West Primary School

The mural is made of ceramic features made by 640 community members, set in a background of mosaic.

The mural celebrates the history of Deer Park and was officially opened on December 9, 2014

The mural is located in the arcade next to Deer Park Pharmacy, in the Deer Park shopping strip on Ballarat Rd.

First artworks to come out of the kiln!!!!!

Today I unloaded a kiln at Sunbury and out came some beautiful artworks.
Have a look!!!!

 Deer Park History Mural

This year a ceramic  mural is being made at the Ballarat Rd Shopping Strip in Deer Park.  
Brimbank Council, Deer Park Pharmacy and Gallery Sunshine Everywhere are joining forces to get this community made mural happening. Three local schools have been involved in making artworks for the mural; Deer park north, Deer park West, and St Peter Chanel. 
The project has also involved community participation from local community members with workshops held at the Huntclub Community Arts Centre and the opportunity to work on the installation process.
The Mural will be officially opened in December 2014

bisque firing, glazing, firing again

Its the school holidays, and the best time for accessing kilns which might be busy during the school term. All of the artwork for the Deer Park History Mural has been bisque fired and then glazed, and now needs to be fired again. This week a kiln at the Sunbury Boilerhouse Community Arts Centre is busy firing the work and two kilns at The Huntclub Community Arts Centre are firing too.

Here are some photos of the process

Over 600 people have been involved in making this mural so far and each of their first names has been written onto a handmade clay tile, so that it can be incorporated into the mural.

Old plastic crates are the best thing for storing and carrying the ceramics in. It is very heavy. The artwork is layered between sheets of crumpled newspaper and bubblewrap. Each crate has about 10 kgs worth in it. Here are two crates full of artwork which has been glazed and it ready to be taken to a kiln.

More names!

Here the names are being glazed and also some of the artwork. The glaze is a bit like powdered glass and it makes the artwork look white, till it goes into the kiln.  When the kiln reaches the temperature of 1080 centrigrade, the glaze will be clear and the fabulous painted designs can be seen.

Here is my big bucket of glaze . .  almost empty.

Here I was this morning, painting the last of the names onto the little handmade tiles.

 Deer Park History Mural

This year a ceramic  mural is being made at the Ballarat Rd Shopping Strip in Deer Park.  
Brimbank Council, Deer Park Pharmacy and Gallery Sunshine Everywhere are joining forces to get this community made mural happening. Three local schools have been involved in making artworks for the mural; Deer park north, Deer park West, and St Peter Chanel. 
The project has also involved community participation from local community members with workshops held at the Huntclub Community Arts Centre and the opportunity to work on the installation process.
The Mural will be officially opened in December 2014

Deer Park West Primary School make animals for the mural

In our first workshop with Deer Park West Primary School, two groups of year 5/6 students make native animals that lived along the Kororoit Creek.

Here are their wonderful animals

first we rolled the clay between batons to get the right thickness,
then we made our animals slightly three dimensional (low relief sculpture)
Then we painted them with liquid underglazes