Ceramic artist Laura O’Hagan with Evan Cullen, Sylva Sepight Murphy, Aaron Cullen, Theia Speight Murphy and Sophie Schriever with one of the two mosaics unveiled.
Evan and Aaron Cullen, Sylva and Theia Sepight Murphy, and Sophie Schriever alongisde one of the mosaics they worked on.
Ceramic artist Laura O’Hagan with Evan Cullen, Sylva Sepight Murphy, Aaron Cullen, Theia Speight Murphy and Sophie Schriever with one of the two mosaics unveiled at Roundwood.
The spotlight shone on eight enterprising home-schooled students from Roundwood and the surrounding area on Monday afternoon, as the mosaic project they have been working so diligently on was officially unveiled.
Roundwood and District Community Council, under their Tidy Towns remit, helped with the logistics of the project in cooperation with the parents and the Wicklow County Council local road engineer, William Halligan. The two mosaics now take pride of place on the Ashford road, known locally as Roundwood Bank, one of the main entry points to Roundwood village.
The group of children involved in this mosaic project are all home-schooled, but also carry out a wide range of creative and academic group activities, as well as sports and music. They get to work with some of the best artists in Wicklow and the surrounding counties to help them discover their passions in life.
The children were lucky enough to work with Wicklow ceramic artist Laura O’Hagan as part of the project, as they picked their own theme and went on to hand paint and cut tiles into their own designs.
Monica Byrne of Roundwood Tidy Towns Biodiversity Group said: “Each child started with a drawing of their favourite bug and then worked towards creating a beautiful colourful mosaic piece each.
“They then had to work as a group to put all the pieces together, while under the instruction of Laura, to ensure they were learning the full tiling experience from cutting tiles, to applying the adhesive on the cement board backing and finishing the process with grouting.”
Thanks are offered to Rob Dempsey for then putting the finishing touches to the children’s pieces by framing the artwork in wooden frames. Rob then prepared the posts which were kindly supplied by O’Rourke’s Sawmill in Annamoe.
Evan and Aaron Cullen, Sylva and Theia Sepight Murphy, and Sophie Schriever alongisde one of the mosaics they worked on.
Roundwood builder and local Tidy Town stalwart, Terry Kavanagh came on board to lend a helping hand by installing the two mosaics at the Roundwood Bank.
Finally, local tidy town’s volunteers then added the finishing touches by installing plant boxes to the bases of the mosaics.
“The mosaics most definitely add great colour to the area and are, coincidently just across from the bug hotels. It was a remarkable and truly united community driven project and the whole community says well done to all involved. The moscaics are a wonderfull addition to Roundwood,” added Monica.