Facts about the Sundial

Who made the tiles?
Many of the tiles were made by the students of High Peaks and BCSIS Elementary, in Spring 2010. Every student from every class hand-panited a 6" slab of wet clay with underglaze. The tiles werecut into 1-2" tiles, fired, glazed again with a clear glossy glaze, and fired a second time. Robyn and Rita and many parent volunteers aided in the process.
Most of the other tiles were donated by ReSource Yard. I went once or twice a week to cull through their tiles and found colorful tiles and granite. Most of these tiles had to be cut into smaller shapes by a wet saw.
A few of the beautiful glass tiles were donated by Home Depot.

How big is it?
The sundial is an 18 foot diameter circle. That means it is (9*9)83.14=254.34 square feet.
The original design was for the sundial to be a 14 foot diameter circle (7*7)*3.14=153.86 squre feet. When I decided to make it bigger, I also needed a LOT more tiles (254.34-153.86=100.48 square feet. Wow! The kids created enough tiles for a 14 diameter circle, but had to make up the difference with manufactured tiles and granite from ReSource, plus some glass tiles from Home Depot.

Who paid for it?
The sundial as well as the whole Aurora 7 Outdoor Classroom was paiod for by grants from GOCO (Great Outdoors Colorado), Lowe's, Home Depot, Boulder Arts Commission, plus generous in-kind donations from ReSource and Rocky Mountain Institute. The art teachers of High Peaks (Jessica Bernstein) and BCSIS (Jan May) donated the use of their rooms, slab roller, and kiln. Jessica Klauzer-Zimmerman, Rita Vali and Cindy Alaimo donated the use of their kilns to fire tiles.
Who worked on it?
Hundreds of volunteers! You know who you are, I wish I could thank everyone!

How many hours did you (Robyn) work on the Sundial?
Robyn's Hours: Design 55, Meetings 15, Consulting 10, Tile Making with kids 120, Firing Tiles 20, Moving tiles 10, Cutting tiles 50, Shopping at ReSource 25, Shopping at Home Depot 10, Making more tiles 25, Layout/Mosaicing 250, Grouting & sealing 25, Driving to & from site 45,Photographing 10, Emailing etc 20, Blogging 40, TOTAL 760 hours

Did you get paid?
Yes, I got paid an honorarium of $1000. (That works out to about $1.30 an hour.)

How many hours did other people work?
I would guess there was about 1 hour of other volunteers' work for every hour of my work. (760 hours) That would bring the total number of volunteer hours to 1520. This does not include the hours of the company men who poured the concrete.

The side is kind of ugly--aren't you going to tile that?
Yes, we will tile it eventually. Maybe we will paint it for this year.

Tile Photo Close-ups

Bugs eye view of Sundial

Rosa and Vanadis check their shadows on the sundial...(10:30 am!) Rosa and her family will be re-locating and saying good-bye to the BCSIS community for a while.

The Mosaic is Done!

Here is the second-to-last step of the Mosaic process; sealing the grout. Sealing the grout will help it to be impervious to water. What is the last step in the process? Celebrating, of course!

Friends Help on the Sundial

Friends are really important! This is a tile that Rita made.

There were so so many friends who helped work on the Mosaic Sundial.









Here's Catherine--a ceramic artist and Naropa student who showed up to help for a few days.

And Walter happened to ride his bike by the mosaic one morning--stopped to watch, and ended up helping wonderfully for four days!

Cynthia has been keeping an eye on the mosaic all summer, encouraging the workers and sending out reminder e-mails. Her daughters (BCSIS graduates) both helped one day, too.

Work Days-- on July 18-22

The week of July 18-22 is going to be the big crunch for the Mosaic sundial. I really didn't think I would be working on this all summer! I will be working on the sundial Monday through Wednesday from 9am-2pm and Thursday and Friday 9am-4pm (weather permitting).

When I am there, you will see my car (2002 Honday Civic) or truck (little blue Toyota with a worn paint job) parked on the street near the sundial every day.

Please come and help!
I especially need help on Thursday and Friday, as we will be grouting. No experience necessary.
Wear clothes you can get dirty ---and bring water, hat, sunscreen and snacks.
Bring gloves if you have them.

If you can't help. just stop by and say hi! Suzanne Schmidt brought by cold drinks for workers one day--that is always welcome.

If you bring a marguerita I won't tell.

New Tiles Being Made for the Sundial

We have run out of hand painted tiles for the sundial so Rita Vali has generously offered to fire some more tiles for the sundial.

Here are some of the new tiles, bisque-fired and glazed and waiting to go into Rita's kiln.

Rita's kiln!

...And the pieces loaded into the bottom