OzMosaics Blog

Mosaic Workshop at Australia Zoo 2011

1 Steve Irwin Day - 15th November 2011
 Australia Zoo   Turning tiles into smiles!
Caitlin McCluskey put down the first tile!  Caitlin was a pleasure to work with re the planning of the mural making on Australia Zoo Day and it was fabulous to finally meet her!  She is so enthusiastic and organised, nothing was too much trouble, everything was ready for us when we arrived - everything little thing was in place and the staff are all so friendly and interested.

Australia Zoo was keen for Team OzMosaics to return to Australia Zoo 2011, to work together with AZ visitors, to make another mosaic mural panel to be installed at Australia Zoo.  The mosaic theme for 2011 - to be based on the fabulous new Africa exhibit!  Wonderful rhinos, zebras, giraffes and lush vegetation/blue sky background.  We were very excited to be back at Australia Zoo to see the earlier mosaic murals again, see how much has happended at Australia Zoo since our last visit during the MAANZ Mosaic Symposium in 2009.   So many mosaic artists around the world and Australia, contributed to the huge mosaic project, The Steve Irwin Mosaic Mural Tribute - truly a global outpouring of emotion through art from the heARtT.

Sandy Robertson was given permission to use photographs of these magnificent creatures at Australia Zoo. Keeping in mind many children would be keen to pARTicipate in the mural making, Sandy kept the design simple, colourful and exciting. 

We knew the mosaic mural making area would be quite emotional,  as we were framed by the huge backdrop of the amazing Steve Irwin Tribute Mosaic Murals - 10 gigantic panels.  These gigantic mosaic wall panels, installed at Australia Zoo, were made with love and much emotion by mosaic enthusiasts, artists, children around the world.  Children with special needs, school children, families, artists all poured their emotions over the loss of Steve Irwin and their love of Australia Zoo family and workers. 

It is indeed a beautiful mosaic mural tribute.  We all became a little overwhelmed and emotional as we stood and looked at the murals - they are in perfect condition and the memories of the making of the murals are forever concreted in our mind and souls.
The dedicated group of Mosaic Addicts  headed up the highway to Australia Zoo to help Sandy make the mural 2011. It was a glorious drive, blue skies and we were in for a beautiful, hot November day. 
Sandy, Dave and Shirley Whitton left Brisbane around 6am, had a dream drive up to the beautiful hinterland and arrived just after 7am at Australia Zoo.  Just in time to have a delicious sausage sizzle provided free for all early arrivals at the zoo!

We parked in the shade for a short time and enjoyed watching the setting up for the big events unfold.  The bright and cheery, friendly Australia Zoo attendant at the gate made us laugh and was so courteous.
Very soon we had a lovely  khaki-clad lady to guide our car through to zoo to unpack all the mosaic tiles, glue, patterns and smalti that we would need to make the murals. We decided to make the mural using the wonderfulmosaic on mesh method, as that would allow the little visitors to work easily and without any worry.  This mosaic method would allow us to tweak  a few tiles, if necessary,  when we arrived back at OzMosaics Studio.  The face painting at Australia Zoo meant we were constantly seeing these wonderful children all happy and laughing, with brightly coloured faces!

Shirley, Dave and Sandy started setting up the workarea.  Sandy's mum Shirley Hinkley, would have been with us but she was unable to attend due to illness but she was in our hearts and thoughts all day (thanks mum!).  

Dave Robertson (OzMosaics Customer/Sales Service Manager) was not able to stay to work on the mural,  as there were customers due back at OzMosaic Studio, but we had Jan & Duncan Abbots arriving from Brisbane, Maureen Randolph and the team from Laticrete, Ken Fischer, Rick Wood and the fabulous Shea! 


We also knew we would have lots of help from volunteers, Australia Zoo staff and zoo visitors.   It was a very busy day making the mosaics and chatting to people about Australia Zoo, listening to their stories and making so many new mosaic mates!
A wonderful volunteer arrived early and helped us till noon. Thanks so much Darrell.  You and Duncan made a great team, working together to cut all the black smalti blocks into smaller pieces for the kids to use!  It did not take either of you long to master the Leponitts and the tile slicing tool!  Wow, those white tiles soon formed long thin strips to work into the zebra patterns on the mural!     You really got into the swing of things and thanks for your patience taking photos, helping to record the helpers names and place the tiles. 

Laticrete have been pARTners with OzMosaics with the murals for Australia Zooand a huge support with product knowledge and donation of glues and grouts.  It's the care factor that matter most and sharing our joy of mosaics in community murals is very special.







Of course Jan, Maureen and Shirley worked wonderfully with the mosaic makers.  We had lots of glue, tons of tiles donated by OzMosaics - a combo of Dyansty Smalti, old Orsoni chunks of smalti and gorgeous Dynasty gold topped smalti (amazing stuff!).  We used Dynasty blocks and bricks, I purchased some of Martin Cheek's glass fusions for the eyes of the creatures and the children adored the quirky, comical eyes in the mural.     If you want to put eyes in birds, creatures you need Martin Cheek's fusings and mollies in your mosaics!  OzMosaics have stocks of these gorgeous creations in our Studio!   You won't believe your eyes!  Martin Cheek is incredibly talented when it comes to making these very special glass fusions.


The slide show really tells the story on the day. Even the elephants checked out the mosaic murals!   So many brightly painted faces, nearly everyone dressed in khaki, proud parents, overseas visitors, tourists from everywhere and friendly Zoo staff made for a happy, memorable day.  The Crocoseum featured the opening celebrations for Steve Irwin Day, Terri, Bindi and Robert made an emotinal and wonderful appearance with special guests and great entertainment...and of course the Croc show, the bird show and dozens of events all around the Zoo.  We visited the new Safari Park and it is so beuatifully presented. The animals - rhinos, giraffes, zebras roaming around the huge park, the cute little baby rhino, Savannah captured our hearts.

The zebras are amazing and I took lots of photos and videos.  It was a hot day and we were pleased to pop under the canvas tents to wait for the brightly painted Zoo "people mover" to return to the mural making.  It's a credit to Australia Zoo and wonderful to see how Terri and Australia Zoo are keeping all Steve's dreams alive and coming true.  When you walk around Australia Zoo and see all the photos, life size and more of Steve Irwin, it's hard not to get a tear in your eye and a lump in your throat.

Australia Zoo is so lush and the landscaping alone is worth a visit. 

The animals are so well cared for and the exhibits are world class.The koalas are so gentle and beautiful -how anyone can hurt them is beyond my comprehension!  Thanks to Australia Zoo and the Animal Hospital at Australia Zoo, hundreds of Australian creatures are nourished back to health by caring vets and staff.  Please contribute to Wildlife Warriors and the Aniaml Hospital whenever you can.

There is to much to see and do at Australia Zoo.Thanks to everyone who helped make the mosaic mural. We have the sections back in our studio and are working to complete them.  It was fantastic to meet many of the admin staff whilst they glued down tiles to the mural!  We were told how popular the mosaic murals for the Steve Irwin Mosaic Tribute are and how many photos are taken on the murals daily!  Thanks again to everyone to particpated in the huge mural project.  I took hundreds of photos of the murals and will upload them as soon as I can to OzMosaics web page.  The original story will be relocated from our old mosaic site in due course as we move all the files across.

Here is a list of names we gathered as the mural was made at Australia Zoo.  If your name isn't on the list, and you stuck down a tile on Steve Irwin Day 2011, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will update the list.  Work in progress photos of the mural making will be added, keep a look out or join our mailing list for updates.

Thanks again!  Big mosaic hugs from Sandy and the mosaic addicts team.

Mural makers: Sandra Gordon, Zalie & Jayde Curtis, Pip Gaskin, Jake Moulds, Carla Harp, Romi Hirosama, Chloe Gaskin, Christine Spicer, Stephanie Matthews, Felicity Kenneally, Linton Menneally, Leanne Kenneally, Ross Kenneally, Tiffany Myers, Jon Mason, Renee Knezovich, Aimee Knezovich, Danielle Knezovich, Tabitha Little, Briaha Eashand, Rosalyn Connoly, Jorja Flocke, Lily McCoombes, Bella McCombes, Tom McCommbes, Mandy, Jennie, Jeremy, Catalina Stylianou, Peta, Lily Statham, R ose Hambleton, Rosie Taylor, Tammi Curtis, Debbie Grey, Shane Grey, Bryanne Johnstone, Bianca-lee, Tanika, Tirar, Harper, Dare Brown, Renee Cartmell, Denis, Heidi, Jonathon & Andrew Jones, Olivia Williams, Siena Hanna, Ashton Wells, Zalia Curtis, Jayde Curtis, Kathy Lather, Darrell, Darren, Laticrete:  Shea, Ken, Rick,  OzMosaics: Sandy Robertson, Dave Robertson, Maureen Randolph, Shirley Whitton, Jan Abbots, Duncan Abbots, Shirley Hinkley, Mosaic Addicts Brisbane :  Kelli, Janet, Brenda, Shirley, Shirley etc etc etc!!!!!  We did our best to read the writing on the information form, if we made an error please email us and we will correct it.

Many more helped but we didn't get time to record all the names and many were happy just to place the tiles and not record their participation.  It was lovely to have so many passers-by at the mural booth, stop and spend quite some time chatting about the mosaics, the zoo and Steve Irwin and family.  Everyone was thrilled to see the mosaics in the making.

We look forward to showing you the completed mural!  Thanks to the mosaic addicts team, who will work on completing the mural as soon as possible back at Sandy's mosaic workshop and studio, Coorparoo, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.

It was fun to meet you all and congrats to the engaged couple!  Hope you like your photo!