This is the 4th our of 5 posts where I tried to share a little bit about my huge mosaic feather installation at the Mystic Valley Sculpture Park in Mosca, Colorado near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. In the previous posts I’ve touched upon different aspects of creating these sculptures as well as some of the obstacles we had with finishing and installing.
One big issue was that we had to temporarily install all 6 feathers.
Some of them were not grouted so that part had to be eventually done on
site which came with its own challenges, mostly wind and sun. Additionally, having my newborn and my toddler around added another level to the process.
Some of them were not grouted so that part had to be eventually done on
site which came with its own challenges, mostly wind and sun. Additionally, having my newborn and my toddler around added another level to the process.
Ofcourse Ethan, who was about 2.5 years old at that time was all up for helping =) He loves assisting me, especially with the tape peeling. I have used the tape method to create all of my 2d mosaics as well as many of my 3d pieces. I teach this very useful mosaic techique in all my Online Mosaic Art Classes. Check it out here: https://www.kasiamosaicsclasses.com/
The shaded patio we built in the sculpture park was a godsend. Grouting each side took hours. Doing that in the sun would be impossible as the grout would dehydrate too quickly. Fun fact: Even though it was so sunny, the temperatures would really drop in April and May when I began the grouting process and later in September/October when I picked the grouting back up again. So by the end of the day, my hands would start freezing and go numb. This was pretty painful. But I had to push through to finish a full side during our trip out here. Remember, we moved 2 hours away so we’d drive 4 hours for me to grout one side. Ohhhhh this is not a great memory lol
Once both sides were grouted, Kyle would drag the father back to the installation site and place it back into its pedestal.
This photo was from early Spring, when Kyle was still lining up the feathers for the temporary installation before we moved out of the area. This part was also challenging as not all feathers were done at the same time so there was a good amount of guessing and lots of sabotage from our toddler who would constantly mess with Kyle’s leveling markers and fill everything with sand. The little guy thought he was pretty hilarious by the way =)
It was really exciting whenever we’d get a feather ready, even for the temporary installation. Also seeing them grouted made such a big difference in the overall aesthetic of the work.
Ethan really got a kick out of seeing the feathers go up. He wanted to be picked up a lot to inspect every part.
You can see that we took turns with pleasing his little majesty =)
Here you can also see part of the rock border we were working on. This is one of the art installations along a sculpture walk/trail we are working on. You can walk all around the feathers and up to them. While walking the trail, you will see them set against Blanca Massiff toward the East where you can see the sun come up or you can view them against the setting sun toward the West. It is really an incredible experience to walk around and see both sides of the installation from different vantage points on the property.
In the 5th part of this post, I will share close up photos of the completed feathers. Believe it or not, the
feathers have been out there for over a year and I still haven’t taken those photos. But I plan to very soon =)