Placement 1: Glass

I spent 7 weeks at a local high school and spent a little time with the middle school kids as well (the school houses both). It was super busy but really great and I'm thankful for the experience. I got to learn how to do stained glass, help out with a drawing & painting class and I also got to learn a lot about weaving, which was great.

First I'll show what went on in glass class:

I learned how to score and break glass- it's pretty fun to break glass on purpose! And challenging when you have a curved piece! I started by making this swallow. After you cut the pieces (using a glass scorer and special pliers), you usually have to grind the edges with a special grinder to make them fit.

You apply copper tape as evenly as you can:

And then solder it all together using lead/silver wire and a soldering iron. Pretty fun!

Student work:

In the past the students had done several glass mosaics:

 Including the big sign for the art center downtown!

They were working on windows for the school when I left, I'll have to go back and see how they turned out!

I saw how to do this in a magazine and thought I should try these pendants while I still had access to a soldering iron- it's just scrapbook paper inside!

The paper is sandwiched between two pieces of glass, copper foiled and then soldered. 

I used thin glass from a frame but I think next time I want even thinner glass. And I want to experiment with photos or personal artwork instead of the paper. But not bad for a guinea pig project.

The students designed their own projects in this class so instead of presenting projects, I showed them PowerPoints about different glass artists and techniques. Pretty neat!

I want a soldering iron now! I also was able to take some glass home with me and I want to do my own glass mosaics as well. It's always so fun to learn new things!