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Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Posted on March 9, 2016May 12, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

I was fascinated by this video of artisans creating terra cotta tiles. It’s such an involved process to make a single tile, especially shaping each one. This makes me appreciate mosaic tile artwork much more!

Habibi Interiors mosaic tile


The art of zellige flourished during the Hispano-Moresque period of Morocco. The art remained very limited in use until the Merinid dynasty which gave it more importance around the 14th century and introduced blue, green, and yellow colors. Red was added in the 17th century. The old enamels with the natural colours were used until the beginning of the 20th century and the colors had probably not evolved much since the period of Merinids. The cities of Fes and Meknes remain the centers of this art.

Patrons of the art used zellige historically to decorate their homes as a statement of luxury and the sophistication of the inhabitants. Zellige is typically a series of patterns utilizing colorful geometric shapes. This framework of expression arose from the need of Islamic artists to create spatial decorations that avoided depictions of living things, consistent with the teachings of Islamic law. From Wikipedia

I was inspired to create a paint chip mosaic art project based on Islamic tile designs.

 

Islamic Design Paint Chip Mosaic Art Project for Kids

I started with a few paint chip strips, stick glue, and scissors. I used index cards to paste the designs onto. I used the smallest index-sized cards but I also tried it using copy paper.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Cut the paint chips out into rectangles.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Cut the rectangles into shapes. I made trapezoids and triangles.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

One easy way is to cover the index card with stick glue and then place the paint chip pieces directly onto the cards.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

You can also arrange your shapes onto the index card or paper and then move them over one at a time to glue them onto another index card or piece of paper.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for KidsMosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

Getting perfectly symmetrical designs is hard, so my hat is off to Habibi Interiors in the video, but even if your pattern is asymmetrical, it still looks interesting.

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

 

Links to Explore Islamic Geometric Art:

Islamic Geometric Patterns in Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Islamic Art and Geometric Designs, Activities for Kids

Tile mosaic artworks at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum

tile art at Rhode Island School of Design Museum tile art at Rhode Island School of Design Museum tile art at Rhode Island School of Design Museum tile art at Rhode Island School of Design Museum

Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids

 

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11 thoughts on “Mosaic Paint Chip Art Project for Kids”

  1. maryanne @ mama smiles says:
    March 10, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    What a fun art project!

    Reply
    1. Pragmatic Mom says:
      March 15, 2016 at 2:46 pm

      Thanks so much MaryAnne,
      I had to think and think about a mosaic art project to go along with that video. I really love mosaic tiles, even more so now that I see the labor involved!

      Reply
  2. Erik - TKRB says:
    March 13, 2016 at 8:33 pm

    That’s really cool! 🙂 Looks like a fun thing to try!

    Reply
    1. Pragmatic Mom says:
      March 15, 2016 at 2:49 pm

      Thanks so much Erik!!!

      Reply
  3. Abhi says:
    March 15, 2016 at 6:13 am

    I agree with all above. Looks like kids will njoy this and mumma’s too

    Reply
    1. Pragmatic Mom says:
      March 15, 2016 at 2:52 pm

      Thanks so much Abhi!

      Reply
  4. Shecki @ Greatly Blessed says:
    March 20, 2016 at 12:32 pm

    What a fun idea! I think I have a few paint chips in our art bag… I’ll have to give this a try!

    Reply
    1. Pragmatic Mom says:
      April 4, 2016 at 8:40 pm

      Thanks so much Shecki! I really appreciate your kind words. I thought the video on making mosaics was so fascinating that I wanted to create an art project to go with it, but this doesn’t seem like a very popular post so far! 🙁

      Reply
  5. Mother of 3 says:
    March 21, 2016 at 3:25 pm

    What a cute and fun project. We have some paint chips lying around from our simile and metaphor writing project too.

    Reply
  6. Isshu says:
    May 23, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    Really a great project . I think Kids and moms are going to enjoy this fun project a lot . Keep it up 👍👍

    Reply
  7. FASHION says:
    May 24, 2020 at 4:31 am

    Nice collection of ideas. This is really useful forkids as summer vacation is going to start. Kids will really enjoy these. thanks

    Reply

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