 | | | Springhill Elementary School student Chaya Tong, age 10, sits next to her winning medallion at the unveiling
in Gilroy. Photo Moona Nandi
| | | | | | Six East Bay students, including two from Lamorinda, were offered a first look at the Art Deco medallions each student designed to grace the Caldecott Fourth Bore tunnel archways when it opens later this year. The medallions were extracted from their rubber molds during a ceremony June 21 at the fabrication plant in Gilroy.
Student artist/winners Daniell McCann of Acalanes High School, Chaya Tong of Springhill Elementary School, and Penelope Watson of Pleasant Hill Middle School, as well as Nuala Gorshow, Aoife Gorshow, and Ellina Bartholomew Couts (all from Alameda County) attended with their families.
"When we first arrived, we saw only four medallions. Two were missing, including Chaya's," said Chaya's mother Moona Nandi. "Then we found out they had saved two medallions to break out of the mold [during the visit]. One of them was Chaya's. So we literally were the first to see it."
The casting itself was a multi-step process. Sculptor Johnathan Roberson-Beery initially translated the students' paper artwork into a 3-D high-density foam model. Next, the models were coated with a clay veneer. Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete was placed over the clay, creating a "mother mold." The clay was removed when the GFRC dried, and liquid polyurethane rubber was poured into the gap. The foam and GFRC were removed after the rubber set, leaving a negative mold for the concrete casting. The last step was an18-20 hour curing.
The rubber was removed with help from the artists themselves, and the medallions were revealed. The six hexagonal medallions are approximately three feet in diameter and will be permanently secured above the tunnel openings at the eastern and western ends of the Fourth Bore later this year.
"I had a lot of fun [at the unveiling]," said artist Chaya Tong. "They did an amazing interpretation," added Nandi.
More information about the Caldecott Fourth Bore medallions is available online at www.caldecott-tunnel.org.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA