Pre-Workshop Work
Writing by Shylene Schlackl
Tuesday August 10th

This afternoon, my lovely husband helps out again with the silhouette cutouts. He spent most of his lunch breaks jig-sawing out the final shapes.

Jonathan Cutting

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Now all the shapes are cut out and we are ready to get them all mosaicked.:)

Thanks honey. You ROCK.

Second to Last Workshop

Very interesting group today! It was a great workshop full of new faces and creative energy to spare.

Community Unity

My cousin Amy Walton joined the project today. She was visiting from Chilliwack and stay8ing with us for a few days, so she came down to learn about Mosaic the City and Community Unity.

Amky

She had a great time, and really enjoyed working the art form, that her elder cousin has been talking about for a decade :) it was super great to have you Amky. Thanks for being the first of my family (excluding hubby) to work on the Community Unity idea :)

Susan brought a new family who just moved here from Zaire, Africa. They only spoke French, and thank goodness, Susan also speaks French. She was able to explain the whole project to the family.

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Sisters

After a good introduction to the project ideas and the basics about Mosaic the City, the two sisters worked on the tree truck.

Bill the Music Man

A local gentleman named Bill also came by the project. He had some great ideas about creating musical stations around the community. He ran home and brought us back some of his instruments, they were fabulous and we all really enjoyed listening to him play and explain his ideas. Nice to meet you Bill.

Thursday August 12, 2004
Last Workshop

Today started out frustrating as the project is wrapping up and still I am searching for help to finish the project with a bang. Half the things I thought would be taken care of by others haven't been. Its more proof that any Mosaic the City project, should never be done without enough planning and a whole project team in place who understands and is ready to work= Community Unity.

Although frustrated, I was also excited to get the project completely mosaicked. After this workshop we should be ready to grout. Very exciting.

Slow, but some great conversations happened. However, this can't not happen when too many people are around, as many will hold back their "truth" in the presence of new people. So when the crowd is small, conversations are deeper and people really get to know more about one another. Community Unity at its finest.

Taea & Kari-team

Kari, one of the newest volunteers for MtC, brought by her niece Taea to work on the project. Taea had never done mosaic before and was a quick study.

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Mosaic the City - Fernwood Project
Last Building Day - Thursday, August 12, 2004

Journal entry by Taea Magnuson (age 10, of Calgary)

"I am in Victoria visiting my Auntie Kari and she brought me to the Fernwood project. It was the last day to glue tiles to the shapes. When I first came in, I didn't know exactly what to do, so Shylene and Auntie Kari showed me how to spread the mortar like peanut butter on the back of the tiles.

Little Girl Gets Mosaicked

We started to work on finishing the woman's dress by glueing some loose tiles, and then finished her foot. We went on to the little girl, which hadn't been started yet. I figured out how to put just the right amount of mortar on the tiles. We mosaic-ed for 4 hours, and with Shylene's help at the end, we got all of the little girl done! Shylene came up with the idea to put her in overall shorts and I suggested brown for the overalls with a green t-shirt. Shylene thought the overalls needed buttons, so she put 3 shiny white glass stones in the middle.

Taea-smashing

I learned how to smash tiles with a hammer while wearing goggles. The only goggles that would stay on were funny ones with black frames that made me look like a mad scientist!
Whenever I come back to Victoria I'll always know that I worked on the little girl and be able to show everyone. I had a great day and was glad I was there!"

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New VI comes down, but nothing is going down, so they say they will come back later in the day, but don't return. Boo hoo- our first "miss" with media. Bummer. Hopefully they will come to the mural painting workshops?

c-and-d-return

Christine and David came back to finish up the fern mosaic. Again they found ways for David to connect to the people of his neighbourhood and really make an impact on the Community Unity objective of MtC projects.

Leah & the four-nations

A young women from the neighbourhood, Leah, read our article in Monday Mag and showed up right then, less the thirty minutes after reading the article.

Community Unity Mosaic

She said she only had about one hour to work on the mosaic, but then when the hour was up, she called whom she needed to call, and stayed another full hour. It is really fantastic to see how people get drawn into the art form, its methodical. Participants get really attached to the particular piece they are working on, and often want to complete the work they have started. So Leah, worked on the Unity mosaic, and particularly on the four-nation part, then once she completed that section she got started on the world. She really had a good time, and felt at the need to continue on mosaicking..... it really is memorizing

Four- Nations Done..

It was nice to meet you Leah, and we look forward to seeing you around the neighbourhood.

Our local well-known elder, Kay came back and explains her ideas more. It was nice to see her and listen to her wisdom.

Suki

Suki stopped in after a long week out of town learning about the power of theatre games in leadership and unifying a group of people. We talked about using some of her now found skills inside MtC training programs. She worked a little on the fern mosaic, and then had to head out. Great to have her input and spirit back in the project. We missed her approach to the world.

Janine

A great community leader and friend of mine, Janine Bancroft stopped by to put in a few pieces. It was great to have her participate in another MtC project. She worked on the Fern mosaic :)

West Coast Landscape Starts

We got the West Coast Landscape mosaic started and completed today too :) We decided to go with the "use what you have" approach to this mosaic, as that is a great way to teach about this Mosaic the City concept.

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Pia and Heidi

Heidi and Pia came by the project too help out and get us to the finish line. Heidi had just jumped the ferry and then drove straight to the workshop, as it was her last chance to really work on the mosaics. Together they completed the West Coast Landscape mosaic that will be going to Ireland with me as gift from us= Community Unity on a Global level. After all the different types of donations were used to make this recycled mosaic, we had close to 20 people participate in one way or another to this particular mosaic piece.

Shylene & Heidi finish up Unity Mosaic

The ladies worked really hard the whole workshop and helped us finish many of the final pieces on most of the mosaics. Thanks again to these two young women, for without their continuous help, this project wouldn't have succeeded as it has.

Right until then end people kept popping in, and helping us wrap up this part of the project. There was lots to do to keep us all busy, but in the end just a little more smashing, and the pieces would be done.

Shylene-smashing

Finished all pieces. What a rush! To get all the pieces totally mosaicked and ready for grout. Really I was beside myself with joy, to see the project reach this pinnacle stage. :)

Margaret Cox, the owner of the Chambers St. wall where the mosaics are going joined us. She purchased a few family tiles and lent stories about the area to Jonathan and I. Our house stories, the history of her and Elder Kay. Apparently before the Cox's bought their home on Chambers Street, they had met Kay while walking their first son, Russell at Beacon Hill Park. So Margaret has known Kay for more then thirty-five years, apparently Kay is quite the neighbourhood icon :) Great.

Community Stepping Stone

Just as we were cleaning up and using up the last bits of mortar to make a stepping-stone, a few people stopped in and helped us place the final pieces in the stone. Community Unity until the very end of the workshop :)

Later that night,
Even thought not all the project details have worked out, over all what a success. We have had over 70 people participate on this project, so far and we still have two more weeks of project events in which to gain more support.

Jonathan & I came up with some neat ideas for the unveiling event at FernFest. We want to create a Community Unity March - to the wall. With signs that say Community and Unity, and the large MtC banner out front, we have a "Piper" pipe the crowd down the road and to the mural, the Community Unity Mosaic Mural that was made by more then 100 people (general estimate at this time). On the way there just before the wall we start to hear the music of the band as they join the piper's music, to introduce us to the wall.

With out further ado we unveil the mosaics and TA-Da.

We should get the road block off (idea from Margaret), we should offer iced tea form Silk Road, the Heritage projections ladies would walk with us to the wall, along with bikers, skateboarder, walker, roller bladders, baby walkers, walkers and hoopla hoopers, dogs and ferrets tooJ

Hopefully the rest of the project falls into place :)

I am looking forward to seeing the final results and celebrating this very comprehensive project.