Knowsley Park Mosaic Commission: November 2010

Mosaic installed!

Mosaic from the side facing the entrance doors

Keith & Dean after days of their hard work, job done!

The finished mosaic from above...

Last of the panels

All the figure panels are up, the kite motifs with the school motto (dream, believe, achieve) are nearly all up

Here come the sun, the last panel! It has a globe of the centre of it to represent the school's specialism in Languages.

Keith and Dean checking over the fixing points.

Now, each of the panels had to get several tiles placed over the fixing holes, there was numerous ones on the tree panel....

Fairly high up work

Upper level install..

Here's the tree panels going up

The install happened on a cloudy October week, here's the tree panel catching abit of sunlight, it will be really reflective in summertime.

Keith checking over the mirrored figure panels

The tree piece laid out on the atrium floor, this is the most difficult piecing to get right, afew mm out at an angle, throws all the other panels out. All the other panels are placed in a linear format.

Started with the third panel along, it had a defined matchup line. Here's where the scaffolding comes into use.

Dean and Keith half way along, on the two hills...

The lower level of panels, we noticed shakespeare's beady eyes had a way of following you around the atrium

First panel on! Each panel was fitted with a multitude of special fixing screws, very heavy duty, along with several other fixing methods, just to be extra sure that there would be zero movement.

Here's Dean overseeing Craig's painterly handiwork, pre painting the area behind the panel joints..

Install!!

Day of the Install, this wall looks rather daunting, despite the numerous measurements, and double checks, theres always the worry will it fit??The install team were D & G Builders and Joiners they were great, and had checked through the plan and wall thouroughly, and knew the exact fitting methodology for this type of job.

Here's the first layer of panels around 8-10 out of 34 panels. The install was during the School's half term break, so there was no worry of any sudden rush in of pupils.

Just checking up where the first panel will go....

Grouting...

Quite a messy job, unfortunately I forgot to take more piccies...

No matter how many pairs of gloves I use, I always end up with atrocious looking hands, the gloves rip, despite cleaning products & nail brushes, this finer type of grout manages to always to get under the fingertips. Going to the shops around these times is always quite funny...

Patch up work, with some extra grout, always afew tiles come loose

You may have noticed a delay since the last few posts, this was due to a technical glitch, or rather me dropping my camera right on its lens. Photos will be all up soon!