Special Mosaics

Since 1999, Janie has created site-specific Special Mosaic artworks for public and private settings in the UK and in Australia. Janie creates handmade tiles combined with recycled and bought ceramic and glass tile pieces. Mosaic pictures and patterns have also been made in other materials appropriate to the site, such as slate and brickwork.

Janie creates these handmade tile pieces to include in her own artworks as well as sharing this process with other artists and community groups and people of all ages. The handmade tile pieces create a totally unique feature to the tile mosaics. Clay is cut out or moulded with 3D relief work, then painted with ceramic underglazes. The work is then glazed and fired in the kiln. The completed details are then assembled into a mosaic with surrounding tiles. For wall mounted artworks, an eclectic mix of media can be used for the surrounding tiles such as glass and ceramic tiles and baubles.

Megafauna Playground

'Megafauna of the Sky'

Handmade tile detail, designed by student, made by Janie

Three concrete water pipes were transformed into gleaming playground tunnels for children to explore and celebrate the different aspects of the Megafauna Period in Australia. Janie worked with three local schools to create handmade tiles depicting Megafauna from the Land, Megafauna from the Sea and Megafauna from the Sky. The students painted their own tiles and Janie installed the whole mosaic panel, a question of crawling into very small spaces!

Commissioned by the Territory Wildlife Park, N.T Australia

Henbury School Mural

‘Learning For Life’
Hand made tile details and ceramic tiles mounted onto fibre cement board

8 metre length external wall mosaic created with students with special needs at Henbury School, Darwin, N.T and artist Sarah Body. Funded by Arts NT and N.T Dept. of Education, Artist in Schools Projects.

Starry Starry Night

'Rock' detail from 'Starry Starry Night'

This large mural is located on an external wall in Katherine, N.T. Janie was invited to return to the town after having completed a previous project with Katherine Regional Arts. The artwork for this mural involved mosaic details with a painted background. Stars, comets, sun and moon mosaics fly above a colourful landscape that reflects the town.

Participants in this project included people from Venndale Rehabilitation Program.

Commissioned by Katherine Regional Arts with Catholic Care N.T

Ooloo Sandbar

‘Crocodile pole’ detail.
One of six metal poles that were bejewelled with hand made mosaic tiles. Ooloo Sandbar .
Commissioned by Territory Wildlife Park, N.T

For this commission, Janie has created glittering mosaic artworks for two sites at TWP. These contain handmade ceramic details that reflect the flora and fauna of each site. As part of the commission, Janie designed and fabricated a giant crocodile using hand glazed ceramic tiles for one of the 3m poles at Oolloo Sandbar, a recreation of part of the Daly River, to accomodate the giant freshwater rays that live there.

Integral to this commission, has been the emphasis on sharing the creation of the artworks to create a sense of community ownership in the project. To achieve this goal, Janie devised and led ceramic workshops for children and adults from Darwin and Batchelor as well as staff at the TWP to create the details for the artworks. The six poles that support the shade sails at Oolloo Sandbar are now completely bejewelled with special mosaics and the two giant water pipes have colourful mosaic linings that adults and children can pass through on their way to the Nocturnal House.

After involving six communtiy groups, Janie then had the enormous task of firing all the clay details of birds, fish, reptiles and mammals and then creating a design that would work on each of the six 2m and 3m poles. Finally, after 3 months of workshops and fabricating the entire artworks by hand piece by piece in the studio, Janie installed the mosaics. Another mammoth task!

Pathway Project

'Ngalgod Waterlilies'

Mosaic using brickwork and ceramic tiles

One of four paving mosaic panels created as part of the 'Ngalgod' (Rainbow Serpent) pathway that winds around the outside of Injalak Arts Centre, Gunbalanya, N.T. Designed and made with artists from Injalak Arts as part of a training project funded by IRP/Dept. of Business, N.T Government.

Kurrkabal Djang

‘Kurrkabal Djang’ (Long Tom Dreaming)
Handmade stoneware ceramic tiles, slate and pebbles.

Paving mosaic designed and fabricated with artists from Injalak Arts Centre, Gunbalanya, N.T. This important design of the dreaming for Injalak Hill, now welcomes visitors as they enter the Art Centre.
Mosaic Training project funded by IRP/Dept. of Business, NT Government.

The Magic Carpet

Handmade stoneware ceramic tiles. Created with ceramic artist, Mia Andrews

Paving mosaic created for the new adult learning centre CALAT building in New Addington, London Borough of Croydon, UK.

Artwork commissioned under the UK Percent for Art scheme for new buildings.

Whistling Kite

Artist in Residency with Dripstone Middle School, Darwin, Australia

Handmade tiles involving students from Dripstone Middle School.

Janie developed the artwork with artist and art teacher, Kim Boardman to create this huge ceramic Whistling Kite mural. This is the logo for Dripstone Middle School.

The students chose to depict a multicoloured whistling kite to reflect the diversity of all the students at the school.

An Artist in Schools project funded by Arts NT and Northern Territory Department of Education.

Mosaic Table

Handmade tiles created for small coffee table

Private Collection

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