Mosaic Magic

Mosaic Magic at Crawley Staying Well (CSW)

“They said it couldn’t be done…”

Apparently, completing a mosaic – tiled, grouted and finished – in a single two-hour session was a little ambitious.

Well, nobody told the wonderfully industrious crew at Crawley Staying Well.

Our latest Creative Wellbeing session saw a couple of familiar faces joined by several people coming along for the first time. Armed with tiles, glue, grout, plenty of ideas and a healthy disregard for what was supposedly achievable in two hours, everyone got stuck in.

And yes — they did it.

By the end of the session, we had a fantastic collection of completed mosaics, each one completely different and reflecting its maker’s own ideas and personality.

There was plenty of concentration, conversation and laughter along the way — and perhaps most importantly, a few people surprised themselves with just how much they enjoyed getting creative.

One participant summed it up rather brilliantly:

“If someone had told me that in my 60s, a man like me would be doing something like this, I wouldn’t have believed them!”

And that, really, is what Creative Wellbeing is all about.

You don’t need to think of yourself as creative. You don’t need any previous experience, and you certainly don’t need to be “good at art”. Sometimes it’s simply about trying something you might never normally choose to do, having a chat while your hands are busy, meeting some new people — and discovering that you’re rather better at it than you expected.

As for our reputation as the CSW Creative Wellbeing sweatshop? Entirely figurative, we promise. Crawley Staying Well is gloriously air-conditioned, so while the mosaic production line may have been working at full speed, our makers remained remarkably cool.

Two hours. Tiled. Grouted. Finished.

They said it couldn’t be done.
Turns out it absolutely can.

With thanks to Sam and the Crawley Staying Well team or another successful and enjoyable workshop.

See the finished creations below.