By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WOODSTOCK, Vt. – Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) in Windsor, the parent of the Ottauquechee Health Center (OHC) here, is sponsoring a public art project to decorate the front of the OHC with decorated ceramic tiles. For the past three days, children and adults have prepared tiles at the Woodstock Elementary School, under the direction of tile artist Robert Rossel of Symmetry Tile Works in Epping.
The event was announced last month, when the general public was invited to contribute toward defraying the cost of the tile making. Oct. 27 was the final day of the public tile decoration part of the project, but anyone can also sponsor the cost of a tile ($100 each).
According to Maggie Mills, principal at Woodstock Elementary School, “The OHC Mosaic Project is a great opportunity for our students to learn from an accomplished artist while creating something beautiful for their community. And I’m pleased that [MAHHC] welcomed Prosper Valley students into the project when that school had to close temporarily.”
The process takes place in the school’s art classroom, with Rossel and art teacher Brooke Piana leading students and adults in working with the clay tile bases. At a session yesterday, Piana displayed one large clay slab of the future mosaic to more than a dozen children, and distributed other individual clay slabs. She pointed out to them that unlike the familiar brown clay often used in school art, this clay was a light gray.
The designed clay squares later get placed into a kiln (a very hot oven designed for this purpose) that bakes it into the familiar hard ceramic texture. After firing in the kiln, she said, the gray clay turns a nearly white color.
To impress designs into the clay, Piana handed out several template objects with designs of fish or other objects. Each person with a tile then used a mallet or rod to press the object into the clay.
The next step, done later, is covering the ceramic with a colored glaze or similar coating, and firing it again, giving it a brilliant colored appearance.
Once completed, according to MAHHC, the finished tiles will be displayed on the front of OHC. The building’s brick front wall that faces Pleasant Street will be covered with the decorated tiles to make up a mosaic work of art. The installation is scheduled for May, 2019.
A directory will be included indicating the name of each tile creator, the location(s) of their tile(s), and a list of those sponsoring tiles on behalf of others.
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