Final Weekend Workshop
Writing by Shylene Schlackl
Saturday August 7th

What a great workshop.
We finally had some real community unity happening. People came to the project to learn about their community, and to find out about mosaic art.

We finally got started on the two Fernwood mosaics.

Unity Mosaic Starts

Fern Mosaic Starts

We had a great cross section of people, with some new comers to Victoria, some returning to Victoria after an absence and others just visiting the area. It was nice to have these people all share their extra time on the project and learn a little bit about one another too.

New-neighbours

Working-together

One couple, only a year in Victoria, and originally from Nanaimo, have had a hard time getting connected to the community and were really happy to lend their support to the project.

Sally & Gilles

It was great to watch this couple get really into the project. They worked on two pieces, the top of the tree and the unity piece.

Unity Mosaic Spiral

It was nice to have them join the project. Plus Sally got right into the work needed and even smashed up some tiles too :)

Sally

Christine and her ward David came to join the project. David is a middle-aged gentleman who is handicapped and lives in a care home. Christine is a lovely lady who takes care of him. She saw the posters around the neighbourhood and heard the project announced on the Village 900, so she thought she should bring David by.

David & Christine

Together they worked on the Fernwood -Fern. They used a bunch of different green tiles to create the mosaic fern. David seamed to have a great time and really enjoyed the project. Christine told us she was happy to see a community event that David could play a part in. The fern looks great :)

Fern Partly Done

Another women, Riitta, who just moved back to Fernwood three years ago when she was able to finally buy her own house in the neighbourhood, also joined the project. She worked on the man under the tree mosaic. She really got into it and lost her self in the work. Welcome back to the area, Riitta :)

Riitta Works on Tree-Man

She later brought her dog - Daisy to join the workshop. She thought we would all enjoy her company!

Daisy

.I wished I had brought my puppy, Milton, as he too would have enjoyed Daisy the Dog :) David really connected to David, as animals and David are just able to bond. It as a super great interaction.

Thanks to Riitta for bringing Daisy by.

Riitta with managed to get the tree-man piece almost totally done, while Susan worked on the tree part. So awesome to see these mosaics finally coming together :)

Community Unity

David and on-site baby Milena Rose also had some lovely interactions. David really seemed to enjoy the touch of the baby and Milena was curious too. It was a very special moment for all of us at the project.

Susan, Milaina & David

Once again it was so neat to see the differences between each of our participants and to be able to enjoy those differences and learn from them too ;)

Project Baby Wonderful