The finished Sculpture

Mont Albert Primary School Centenary Sculpture

Construction of the Sculpture

Here are some shots of the construction

The sculpture has aconcrete footing which sits forty centimetres underground, and is a little wider than the seat.
there is also a slab just below ground level with a reo base inside it.
The petals have been made with a construction of heated and shaped star pickets with reinforcement mesh used to make the shapes. Steel rods were woven in, to strengthen the connection between the petals and the seat base. The petals were backed with shadecloth, and covered with wire mesh.
Then layers of cement fondue made of bondcrete, sand, cement and vermiculite (as the aggregate and for strength) were worked into the structure. A top coat was added of cement, sand and bondcrete.
Then the  ceramic artwork was added.
Artwork by the seven hundred children and the staff at the school.

Volunteers who assisted Debbie to construct the sculpture, were Beka Hannah, Judy and Michelle Haymes. Thankyou very much! The sculpture was constructed over the School holidays and I only had a few days off amongst the two and a half weeks. It brightened my day to have someone turn up to help.Some people got to know my little dog Lucy who accompanied me on most days.

 I also had many visits from the people who use the school grounds. It was lovely to see the community having access to the school grounds and using then so regularly. People walked through with their dogs, came with their children and grandchildren to play. Parents were teaching children how to play ball games, or ride bikes. Young people also used the grounds with bicycles whirring past, scooters and skateboards. In the late afternoons often people came to shoot hoops.

3/9 made figures of school children

Class 3/9 made figures of school children

I forgot to photograph the artwork when we made it in the workshop.
But here are some photos of finished figures by the grade 3 students, on the finished sculpture.
Hopefully everyone will be able to find their artwork when they look at the sculpture.

2/17 make tecoma and erica flowers and vines

Class 2/17 made tecoma and erica flowers and vines for our petals.
They did very detailed artwork form the clay.

Here are some photos of the fired flowers on the sculpture

4/24 make history border tiles

class 4/24 put in a huge effort to get the historical phrases scratched into the history border tiles.

 It was all very complex-
Phrases and sentences were gleaned from past history and reminiscences.
These were written onto strips and numbered. Then students chose a sentence to make with tiles. They painted the tiles with ultramarine underglaze and then scratched the words through the underglaze to reveal the white clay underneath.
At the moment the tiles look pale lilac, but after they are fired, they will be dark blue.

Here I am painting the numbers on the back of all of the tiles so that it makes them easier to sort back into sentences after they are fired.

I loved that this series of tiles took two people to carry it.

The history borders all became dark blue as planned, after being fired.
Here they are on the final sculpture.

3/28 make little figures of students

3/28 make little figures of students

Here are some glimpses of figures made by the year three students on the final sculpture

2/13 Make leaves, vines and boronia

2/13 Make leaves, vines and boronia flowers