Making Of “Community Fabric”

A mosaic mural comprised of 60 hand-cut glass tile panels designed to resemble a stitched fabric patchwork quilt. The mosaic “fabric” represents the stitching together of different aspects of our community into one, with a message of diversity and unity.

Inspired by the vibrancy and geometry found in both African and Native American textiles, Christos began designing the mural one panel at a time and then combined all 60 panels into one mosaic “quilt”. He printed photos of each of the 60 panels and constructed several of the more complex panels in his studio.  He then collaborated on the construction of the remaining panels together with over 150 students from the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston.

For safety reasons, Christos cut most of the glass tiles for the panels but would ask his students to mark the tiles with a black marker to indicate knowledge of where each cut should be made. Students would then carefully cement the pieces onto the production surface wearing protective gloves. Christos checked every single piece to ensure proper adhesion and placement, finished off the outermost layers, and sanded each of the panel edges to ensure an exact fit for the quilt.

Once all the panels were completed, he then cemented all 60 panels together onto 4 separate interlocking panels, engineered by his father, and then carefully mounted them onto the wall, filled in all the seams with glass mosaic tiles, then grouted, cleaned, and sealed the entire mosaic.