Nine years ago Heather Bokram created eight drawings of 8 different wood hulled ships built in Marine City in the 1800’s. At that time Marine City was a very busy hub for ship building and one of the major industries in the town. Pride and Heritage Museum is well worth a visit to see their Diorama of the large number of shipyards that peppered the banks of the Belle River during the 1800’s and into the mid 1900’s.
 

These drawings were to be converted to large mosaics and be a part of a project called the Mariners Maze. That project unfortunately proved to be so expensive that the Historical Society did not feel they could ever be able to succeed in carrying it out. Maybe in the future! Two summers ago, Laura Scaccia of The Mariner Theater, and Joyce Milaszewski of JGM Property Group, both approached the society and encouraged us to find a way to display the Mosaics in our downtown parks, also offering to become major donors. Simultaneously, an anonymous donor from the Port Huron area, also wished to become a donor and see this project fulfilled. We were more than delighted with these wonderful offers.

The real work began in earnest! The drawings were enlarged and sent to an expert in crafting complex mosaics. The search for such a person was no easy feat, but finally we found the talented fingers of Allison Eden, in Brooklyn, New York City. She worked on the eight mosaics over the next 12 months and did a wonderful job. She created movement in the sky and the water with her artistic curving lines of the colored glass pieces. The extremely detailed rigging, down to the fine elements of the superstructure and figures on the ships, faithfully replicated the artist’s images.
 

Then a second search began to find the right person to do the actual work of creating the best way to display these Mosaic murals in our waterfront parks. We interviewed 3 businesses and after careful consideration, chose Jeff Ward of the Jeff Ward Construction Company, who not only understood immediately what we were
trying to accomplish, but also agreed to put in the mosaics for us.

This was an enormous undertaking requiring an expert who could work with aggregate cement and glass tiling, and whose work would become part of the art project itself. It took several days a week over the next month to complete the platforms and install the Mosaics. You can follow the steps taken by looking at the photos.

All that was left to do was to put the finishing touches into the landscaping. We feel a great sense of achievement in succeeding to get this project finished and are most grateful to all our donors and to all the people who worked so hard to get the Ships Mosaics in the Parks completed.

Major Donors are: Laura Scaccia, Joyce Milaszewski, an anonymous donor, Sherrill Zimmer and Heather Bokram.
 

We still have 3 ship mosaics available for adoption. They are, The Northerner, The R G Coburn and The Maude. To adopt a ship for your family, for your organization, or in memoriam for a loved one, the cost is $4,000.00. A bronze plaque will be made to your specifications and no other name can be placed with that Ship Mosaic.
A second way to adopt a Ship Mosaic is to share it with 3 other donors at a cost of $1,000.00 for each of 4 people. Four one line plaques will be designed for each name and placed together with the surnames in alphabetical order.

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Check it out on EBW.TV - Local Artist Adds Beauty to Marine City Riverfront.