Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect from Barcelona, created intricate mosaic designs for Park Güell. The mosaics include a dragon on the staircase entrance and a serpent-shaped bench called the Banc de Trencadis. Inspired by Gaudi's mosaics, the author decided to make their own mosaic artwork by gluing broken tiles and glass onto a wooden mailbox. They spelled out "MAIL" and carefully filled in the surrounding spaces, sealing the finished piece.

1. MOSAICS IN BARCELONA
Shannon Anderson
SPN 102-U1 Summer 2015
Synthesis: Module 6

2. Who created mosaics in Barcelona?
• Antoni Gaudi was a very
talented architect from
Barcelona
• He is known for many
beautiful structures
throughout the city
• One of his creations is a
mosaic park called Park
Güell
• Park construction began in
1900 and was completed in
1914
• This is the park enterance

3. More Park Güell mosaics
• Guests are surrounded
by beautiful and
intricately placed tiles
on the walls that flank
the white tiled staircase
as they enter the park
• Walking up the
staircase visitors are
greeted by a beautiful
mosaic dragon

4. Banc de Trencadis
• The bench mimics a serpent
and surrounds a paved terrace
with terrific views of the city
and the Mediterranean Sea
• “Trencadis” is the process of
using scrap tiles to create
mosaics
• It has been reported that
while creating the bench,
Gaudi had a workman sit in
the soft plaster unclothed
from the waist down to get an
accurate anatomical curve

5. Two more views of the
Banc de Trencadis

6. Inspiration to make my own mosaic
• After completing my
research and viewing all
of the beautiful mosaics
Gaudi created, I decided
I would make my own
mosaic
• To begin the process, I
visited the local
Goodwill and purchased
bright colorful
breakables!

7. Finding an object to use
• Next, I had to find a
surface to work with
• I wanted it to be
functional so I could use it
in my home after it was
completed
• I went to Michaels craft
store looking for a piece
of raw material that
would work
• I found an item that I
wanted to use as a
mailbox on my counter

8. Let the fun of smashing begin…

9. The task of finding the right pieces…
• I wanted to spell MAIL
using bright blue glass
pieces
• It was challenging to
find pieces that would
work for the size of the
box
• Once I found the pieces,
I needed to glue all of
them down

10. I found all the pieces I needed
• After spelling out MAIL,
I needed to start filling
in the area surrounding
it
• There were some small
areas, I hoped that I
could find pieces to fit

11. Time to fill in the rest of the area
• Things progressed nicely
• I had a variety of broken
glass in the bucket
• I started doing a “dry run”
to make sure I could find
pieces to fit in certain
areas
• Once I had a section the
way I liked it, I would
begin to hot glue the
pieces down

12. Only a few more pieces to go
• I lucked out by having a
variety of sizes to choose
from to fill in a majority
of the space
• The challenge came at the
end to find some smaller
pieces to fill in the last
few spaces
• I ended up having to
smash a few pieces in the
bucket into smaller pieces

13. I’m almost finished!
• I was able to find the last
few small pieces needed to
fill in all the spaces
• I let the mailbox sit on the
table to dry over night
• The next day I poured a
clear product over the
entire piece to seal
everything
• I wanted to keep all pieces
in place and prevent
anyone from getting cut by
the glass when reaching in
for the mail

14. I love the final product!