Linda Biggers - Mixed Media and Eggshell Mosaics

On June 14, 2017, we had a Grand Unveiling Ceremony congratulating the students on their work on the mosaic. This was a chance for the kids to really show off their work to family and friends.
Pictured: First row: Alix, Tyler, Gabriella, Second Row: Albert, Ephraim, Gavin.

Here, the students are explaing the meanings of each square in t he mosaic.

The title of the mosaic "Tree of Character"

This square represents Responsibility. The hands, which are also tree branches, are holding the Earth, showing our resposnibility to portect the Earth.

This square represents Respect. The tree branches are shaking hands and bowed heads representing how people show respect to one another.

This square repesents Caring. The parent birds are caring for the baby as parents care for their children.

This square represents Trustworthiness. The butterfly is coming to the hand, which is also a tree branch. The butterfly trusts the hand.

This square represents Citizenship. People of all nationalties are dancing around the tree trunk, show how we are all connected. The studnets chose the trunk of the tree to represent Citizenship because all of the character traits (tree branches) make up citizenship.

This square represents Fairness. People of different heights are picking apples from the same branch. The small people have rocks to stand on so that they can have the same fair chance to pick an apple.

This is the completed mosaic installed in its permanent hope at the Broadalbin-Perth Intermediate School.

You can see how all of the squares fit together to form one picture.

Here is the plaque to give thanks to all those involved in the creation of the amazing mosaic.

I am thoroughly enjoying working with these wonderful students on this mosaic project. They are truly creating something beautiful that they will be proud of. The kids are taking such care in the production of this mosaic. We have had some wonderful times working together! Many of the kids like to come in to mosaic, just because it is so relaxing! It can be so meditative! I love listening to the conversations between the students as they collaborate on the mosaic, discussing colors or how the pieces should go in. They help each other with nipping tile and making them fit just right.

Mrs. Miller is working with Alix on the "Fairness" square. The kids love it when the teachers come in to put on a few pieces.

Teachers and teaching assistants came in today to put on some pieces. The students showed them how and taught them how to nip tiles!

Mrs. Dyer is working with Collin on the "Citizenship" square.

Haley and Jayden are working on the "Caring" square.

This picture has all the squares together. As you can see it is alomst finished. Each square represents a pillar of character. From the top left: Responsibility, Respect, Caring, Bottom row: Trustworthiness, Citizenship, Fairness. 

We are hoping to complete the project this week and to be grouting by the end of the week. It is exciting but bittersweet as this has been such a joy to work on with the students. We are planning for a Grand Unveiling of the "Tree of Character" mosaic, where parents and community members will be invited to view the mosaic and congratulate the children on a job well done!

I have been enjoying working with the fifther graders on this mosaic project. We have had some wonderful times and great conversations while creating some beautiful art. The students are very dedicated to this project and it's great to see them come in and see the excitment on their faces as they look at how this piece has progressed.

Rachel and Sanne are working on the sky for the "Trustworthiness Square". This square depicts a butterfly coming to a hand to show trust. The hand is part of the tree's branch. The ideas put forth on this mosaic design are so creative.

Hailey is working on the border.

Mrs. Forest, fifth grade teacher, stopped in to work with the students, Gavin and Blaze. They are working on the "Responsibility Square" This square depicts two hands holding the earth in a protective way to show the responsibility we have for our planet. The dragonflies and butterflies represent the life on the Earth.

In this photo we have set the mosaic "quilt squares" into the frame to help the students visualize how the squares will come together to make one large picture. Here we have Tyler, Gavin, and Allison working on the mosaic.

This is another view of the mosaic "quilt squares" in the frame. Here we have Braden, Tyler and Gavin.

These students are doing a wonderful job on this mosaic. They really want this piece to be amazing, as it will be permanently displayed in their school. They are taking so much pride in their work and the outcome is looking to be an art piece that will be an important part of their school.

Our fifth graders have been working hard on this mosaic. They are really enjoying the process. I am so impressed with the care they are taking with their work. During one of our session we had a visitor, Stephen Tomlinson, our School Superintendent!

The kids were thrilled to show off some of their mosaic skills and show Mr. Tomlinson how to nip tiles and glue them in place!

 Here, Zoey is explaining to Mr. Tomlinson how to nip the tile.

Lilly watches on while Trenton explains the mosaic process to Mr. Tomlinson.

Great job, Mr. Tomlinson! 

Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson for coming in to see the kids and try out a bit of mosaic magic!! This meant a lot to our students!

Our students are having a wonderful time working on this mosaic! It is a very relaxing activitiy and as we work, we converse. I am getting to know these kids on a new level. It's so nice to work on the mosaic, while having discussions with the students. I especially love it when, while working, they are all singing!!

Zoey and Jaciano are working on the "Responsibility" square.

Lillyana and Emily are working on the border.

We layed out the squares and borders together to get an visual of how the mosaic is coming along. It is looking amazing! 

We have made lots of progress on the Pillars of Character Mosaic Quilt. Over Spring Break, I took the opportunity to get lots of glass cut and readied for the mosaic.

In this photo, I have cut the glass shapes for the figures that will be placed on the "Citizenship Square" Each piece is numbered so the kids will know where they should be placed.

Here, I layed out the square in the way they will be assembled. Look at the work the kids have done on the border! They are doing a great job on the swirls!!

The students have been so excited about working on this mosaic! Many are willingly giving up their recess time to come and work on it.

Lorenzo, Victoria, Alexandra are working on the "Trustworthiness" Square.

Tyler, working on the "Responsibility" square.

Albert working on the "Trustworthiness" square.

Morgan is working on the "Fairness" Square.

The students began working on the borders while their design ideas were being finalized. They are so excited about doing actual mosaic and the care they are taking with this projcet is wnderful!

Zoey and Jake are working on the individual squares, making the black border that will outline and define each square.

Lillyana and Ephraim working on the border.

We are also working on the large border that will surround the entire "quilt"

Jaciano working with Mrs. Szumowski on the border.

Left to right: Dan, Trinity, and Trenton. These kids are doing an amazing job!

The kids are really excited about this project and are doing a great job researching!

We have six fifth grade classes, each class is assigned a character pillar. Each class will create a symbol or design to represent their Character Pillar. These symbols will be joined together to creat one cohesive mosaic piece.

They are collorborating with each other with many different design ideas. The challenge is to keep the entire design cohesive! The kids decided that we need a theme to tie all of their pillar character symbols together. Many themes were suggested, so we decided to vote on the themes and they chose to have a Tree of Life Theme...or as they renamed the project the "Tree of Character".

We had several drawing sessions and the kids had some great ideas. I took their drawings and ideas in put it all together into a cohesive design. 

Shown here are the individual "quilt" squares put together to create one design.

Images represented from top left: Responsibility, Respect, Caring; bottom row: Trustworthiness, Citizenship, Fairness. We are also creating a border, that will incorporate symbols and thoughts that students felt were important.

The children in this fifth grade class are so imaginative! They came up with a design ideas that are far more elaborate and meaningful than I expected!

This project also, coincided with a project they were doing in their art class about surrealism. In their surrealsim project they photographed themselves and then superimposed thier pictures on another photo of something in the art room, pencils, paintbrushes, books, etc. In the finished pieces, the kids appeared to be very small, with giant sized props!

In the mosaic, we have giant butterflies and birds, smallish people, treebranches morphing into hands, Night on one side, day on the other side....definitely surreal!!