Bedwas Junior School mosaic is a 2012 Mega Mosaic Makers prize winner

‘Mega Mosaic Makers’, celebrating creative mosaic art in primary schools, is organised by BAMM, the British Association of Modern Mosaic and sponsored by Topps Tiles. 

Bedwas Junior School mosaic has won third prize in this national competition for 2012. Both the artist and the school won vouchers to buy mosaic materials from 'Mosaic Trader' which we are going to be using to buy the necessary materials for the next mosaic.

The inspiration for this mosaic project was taken from the local school environment, in particular the Rhymney River, to celebrate the strength of the local community of Bedwas near Caerphilly in South Wales. As the children’s literacy work in years five and six had been based upon celebrating differences, Samantha Hall, the Curriculum Co-ordinator wanted this to be evident in their mosaic and was keen to infuse the design with patterns of textiles and rugs from around the world.

The design process ran over two days where the children created colourful collages based on world textiles and rugs which were enlarged and amalgamated into a final design by the artist in Photoshop, based on the river Rhymney. As an introduction to mosaic all teaching staff took part in a training workshop to learn basic techniques as well as the necessary tools.
To make the mosaic a team of sixty children, from years five and six, worked with the artist for a further ten days – working in-directly using unglazed porcelain tiles and vitreous glass – and mirror tiles for the fish. The mosaic was installed onto a prominent exterior wall in the school playground. This project was not sponsored and therefore relied upon the school’s commitment to providing creative and inspiring opportunities for the children.

We are really pleased to have won this prize amongst some stiff competition last year - Congratulations to all involved!