Floating Weft Mosaic

This project was a collaboration with Navajo weaver, DY Begay, to enlarge her small weaving Floating Weft (which is displayed inside the Heard) into a large-scale outdoor ceramic mural for the Ben-Horin Garden at the East entrance to the Heard Museum. Nina Solomon was the lead artist on the project and Heidi Dauphin was the project manager. We made and glazed handmade tiles to replicate Begay’s yarn colors, design and texture. Over 5,000 tiles are mounted on the sculptural dimensional surface we designed, creating the effect of a rippling textile floating along the wall. The sculptural surface was built with Fiberglass Reinforced Concrete (FGRC) over carved Styrofoam forms. The resulting mosaic mural is an intricate puzzle of design, color, form and texture on an undulating light-catching surface. The creation of this mural required almost 3,000 hours of work and involved 35 people in its production. Special thanks to the staff of Ilitzky Solomon Studios—Melinda, Kasha, Moniza, Yvonne, Sam and the many volunteers, 17 of whom were from the Heard Guild.