Cement Arrives!!!!!

Cement delivery by bicycle

Adam sifting sand before mixing.

Cement arrived  this morning! Yeah to the cement Gods! It came by bicycle, I kid you not. One of the wonderful workers at the park pedaled his way to our staging area with three bags of cement, sand, one cement mixing bowl and a bucket of water! Thank you Nek Chand!!!

The cement arrived about 10 am, as promised with one helper to show us how to mix proper cement and grout. Adam, from Britain, has the most professional experience with mosaics, so he is the one to test everything first. We have to sift the sand to get the big pieces out, then mix it proportionately with the cement and then add water.

Our teacher shows us how to apply tiles

Our helper, a wonderful Indian man with the patience of a saint, showed us the consistency and how to apply the tiles. It looks so simple, I know, but if the mix is too wet or too dry, they don't stick to the wall. And the cement is the grout as well so you have to grout and wipe the tiles down as you go. It is very tricky actually.








As for me, I am having more fun posing for pictures for the tourists through the park. Today we roped off our staging area, so they can't actually walk on our tiles anymore, but they do all come up to the rope and ask us where we are from and if they can take pictures. We actually take turns allowing them to take pictures and we talk about the park and why it is so important that we came all the way from around the world to volunteer our time here. Locals are surprised because they don't value the park for art very highly, which was a surprise to those of us who follow folk art environments.


Of course, dog was oblivious to all the action and slept right through the occasion inside the rope of course, next to a pile of broken tiles.

The picture below was taken about an hour after we started and it shows how slow it is to tile on a cement column or any other surface. Remember, Anita and Adam do this professionally for a living!

Adam serious at work!!!

As for me, I'm still collecting tiles. I got up early this morning to go get tiles and bring them to the site. I found some garlands of chrysanthemums left over from a weekend wedding at the park, so I brought them over to decorate our rope that now keeps folks from wandering into our space. 

Anita, from the UK also, is also a mosaic artist and is very serious about her
mosaic tiling.

Our cement mixing station with Adam taking the lead!