THE STONY POINT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The ceramic tile dragon (brainchild of Mary Lou, Stony Point's art teacher) is a second grade art project. Community volunteers Beth Evans and Jon Moran have also pitched in.
Mary Lou found
dozens of dragon images to show the second graders. Each student drew
a dragon, and elements from these drawings became our 9 foot long template.
Each tile was drawn and numbered.
A cookie cutter was
fashioned to produce a consistent standard body tile. After
the cutter was pressed into the clay, a spring-loaded handle was pushed
which ejected the tile.
About 1/4 of the tiles
were made with the cutter. There were still many tiles which had to be
cut freehand, using the full sized drawing template as a guide.
The tiles were each given a number which coincided with
a number on the template.
Beth works with second grade students to apply glaze. To give the main body scales texture, the kids pressed their fingers into the clay. Other details were added using a coat hanger, scallop shell and whatever else was handy.
After the tiles were glazed
and fired, they were placed on the drawing to check for proper fit.
Some pieces had to be remade,
and a few had been overlooked, but these adjustments were made, and we headed
for Stony Point's Japanese Garden .
One evening, after dark, we took an overhead projector and a tape measure out to the Japanese Garden and projected the image onto the wall, then traced it with chalk.
The next morning, we began gluing the tiles in place.
After several hours, the job is done. It still needs the grout applied.
A closer view. Hundreds of little finger impressions!
