Soory, but I forgot one other item. We didn't allow any words on the tiles. They were too difficult to read. To avoid the problem of the tiles looking the same with everyone painting their face, maybe have different themes or emotions or feelings (spring, friends, family, learning, science, fun, etc.).
I work for a child abuse advocacy center and when we renovated our center, we bought the 6X6 white ceramic tiles and bought glass paint. The children, teenagers, and staff painted a tile. We also limited the colors to six for continuity. For babies, the parent would paint their feet and hands and press it on the tile. After it dried, we sealed it with a clear tile sealant. We mounted them going down the halls in a wave pattern. I would recommend mounting them above chair rail height ( To avoid them getting banged a lot). In rooms, you can probably mount them a bit lower or mount them above the cubbies or in the office area. It is really cute.
If you really mean plaster of paris, look for another material. PoP won't hold up to any kind of wear. It will crack easily, is easily scratched or defaced. Not the right choice for a permanent installation. Could you hook up with your art teacher? Does your school have a kiln you could fire clay tiles in? Or could you rent kiln time from a local ceramics studio? I saw a sample of the Original Works tiles at the Chicago conference. They're very nice, much more colorful than a simple hand=print. You could stay with your handprint theme, have the kids draw around their own hand, then decorate with lots of colors and other designs.
Our school did this kind of proejct a few years ago. The kids painted their own faces on a 4"x4" white tile. In order to maintain a sense of continuity and to keep costs down, the kids were limited to about 4 colors. The tiles are cute, but by the time they were installed, my daughter couldn't really pick hers out - they all looked so similar! (the students were only grade 1).
We are slated to get a new school (ours is 52 years old) built right behind out current school. It's supposed to be ready to open Fall 2007. Our school district (5th largest in the US) has just approved a new design/architecture for the elem. and middle schools and we will be the first one for elem schools to be built with this new design. We recently completed an art fundraiser with Original Works. I noticed that they offer the tiles for use as decoration in the school. I asked our principal if we can do this and use the tiles to put together a mural in the entry way of the new school. Something that all the incoming students for the first year of our new school can participate in. He was all for it. We just now have to run it past the big wigs.
You can use ceramic tiles. Add the hand print, coat with a glaze and bake in a kiln. Get tiles from the home improvement store for 19cent each or a bit bigger tile for 39cents each.
I was wondering if anyone has done this? We are going to tile a wall with handprints (selling each tile) I have a little info about buying tile and painting on them, but my PTO would like to do the plaster of paris imprint look of a tile. It sounds like sooooo much work, but willing to do it. So if anyone has done either kind of wall(painted tile or paris tile) before a little direction would be greatly appreciated. :confused:
Thanks so much
