- "Heaven on Earth" is a yearly workshop held at Todos Artes, the Baja studios of mosaic artist Donna Billick. Each year Billick assembles a Dream Team of artists to lead workshops in the creation of sculpture, mosaics, and murals, with a group of international participants over the course of one week. In January of 2011 I had the honor of teaching one of that years three workshops. The following are images from the workshop I led, which resulted in three turtle sculptures for the courtyard rock garden.
- Workshop participants making clay shapes on the first day of the workshop
- Clay pieces drying quickly in the Baja sun
- Tiles are painted with under glaze and go back into the sun for drying
- A final coat of clear glaze is applied to the fresh tiles at the end of day 1
- Participants begin to layout the three turtle drawings at the start of the second day
- The final touches are put on the drawings and the rebar supports are drawn in
- The process of transferring the drawings onto the form making material is explained
- Workshop participants cutting turtle forms with jig saw
- The rebar supports are bent cut and welded at the end of the second day
- Rebar supports and turtle shapes are ready for work at the beginning of day three
- Together we all layout the finished ceramic pieces on the turtle shapes
- Clay is rolled flat and forms are securely attached, details begin to be placed into the clay
- Workshop participants begin to press cement into the forms
- The clay pieces are transferred into the fresh cement
- The finished turtles are left to dry at the end of day three
- The turtles are lifted from their forms and the clay is cleaned from the back of the turtles at the start of the fourth day
- More clean up reveals the details in the turtles
- The finished turtles are coming to life
- The finished cement is washed with a mild acid and scrubbed clean
- The cleaned turtles are ready for their bases
- Clamshells from our daily lunches at a local restaurant are pressed into colored cement to form the sculpture bases at the end of the fourth day
- On the fifth and final day the three turtles are placed in the rock garden for display