Nepean Hospital Mosaic Mural

“Piecing it together”

Marian Shapiro of Darian Design is currently facilitating a community mosaic project for Nepean Hospital, NSW for the Mental Health Service Year of the Family initiative, Marian has been working with clients, family members and staff to produce five mosaic quilts to be permanently installed on a low wall outside the unit.  

Marian answered a call for artists and proposed a mosaic of quilts casually thrown over the wall.  Patchwork quilts embody ideas warmth, comfort and familiarity, much like a family.  Like families, they are made up of individual components coming together to form a whole.  Year of the Family has five main colours and each quilt takes one of these colours for its borders, tying it together visually.

Marian emailed us to share her story of how it all has come together: 

"The 10 sq metre project was fabricated over June and July 2016.  94 individual mosaic squares were put together by clients, family members and staff of the Mental Health Service, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, with each participant making one square in sessions held at the hospital.  Participants used templates and pre-cut tile prepared by Marian and her team of four assistants and could choose to use either existing patterns or contribute their own design.  Working from a master template, each participant was given a template for a numbered quilt square.  The squares were made on sticky plastic in the workshop sessions, and then brought back to Darian Design studio and put into its final position.  We then laid the background to the quilts.  As well as preparing the templates, the team pre-cut 60 sheets of vitreous glass tile for use in the workshops, resulting in some 50,000 1 cm squares.

Once the whole piece had been put together, the mosaic was cut into panels and face mounted on plastic.  Each section was flipped and given a backing of alkali resistant fibreglass mesh and Laticrete 345 Platinum White, resulting in panels which will be permanently installed on the wall in September again using Laticrete 345 Platinum and then grouted with Laticrete Permacolour Select grout. The official opening is at the beginning of October."

Thanks Marian for sharing your experience with LATICRETE products - we look forward to seeing the completed mural pieced together! 

Can we interest you in FREE samples? 

Contact us to discuss your next project, arrange a demo or FREE samples by calling 1800 331 012 or contact us here.