Slumped glass

I was trying to find a ceramic project that involved clay, but didn't end with the clay being the final result.  Luckily a few years ago I took a glass fusing class and decided to try that again.  A few years ago I tried this project and we had horrible results, but I was willing to try again. And thanks to the internet I had more resources to figure out my first mistakes.

We started with a flat piece of glass and some small scrapes of glass that the students used to create their designs.  Using elmers glue, we attached the small pieces of glass to the large background piece.  It only takes a tiny smear of elmers to get the two to stick together.   Then I tack fused these pieces together in the kiln.  I fired it to about 1380 degrees.

After our plates came out of the kiln we then created a mold to slump the glass into with our clay.  Most of the kids made a simple square box, but some of the lessons I learned from the first time doing this project were this.  Make sure that the top edges of the box are flat and even and more narrow then the bottom part of the box.  Basically you want the walls to be a triangle shape so that the glass folds over but not under the clay.

I also learned from my mistakes about firing the clay.  Basically do not pre-fire the clay.  Let it air dry, put the glass on top and then bake it in the kiln at the glass slumping temps.  The slumping temp I used was 1230 degrees.  The reason for not pre-firing the clay is so that if the glass does happen to get stuck we can then chip away the clay and hopefully free the glass without breaking it.  If you pre-fire the clay it is so hard that if your glass sticks you are just in trouble.

If everything works right you then end up with these unique glass bowls or little dishes in our case.  They can't hold a lot of anything, but they are basically for decoration.

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Connor F.
This one was photographed still in it's clay mold.

Kelsey C.
You can still see the heart mold under the clear glass.

Illuminated letters

My Art 1 class had about 4 extra days at the end of the semester.  I hate it when that happens because I never know what to do.  Do we start a whole new unit? Do we go into the next chapter of our art history books?  It just isn't enough time to really accomplish much,  except a short lesson on illuminated letters.  It worked perfect anyways because our history book had just recently talked about the artwork that was created by monks and others who wrote books for this time period. 

I really didn't give the kids a proper lesson, I did a very short talk about the letters and then I told them to create their own.  I did try to get them to put something of themselves into the letter and to make sure that they tried to be as creative as possible.  I think they did pretty good.

Danica H.

Courtney M.

Kamber L.

Brooke O.

Melissa C.

Lexi B.

Andrea C.M.

David S.

Sydney Hau.

Sam Kj.

Mariah B.

KaSandra K.

Clay that moves?

I have really been trying to challenge my advance classes this year, so when I told them to make a project where clay moves I think they thought I had finally gone too far.  After all of the groans, moans and complaining they calmed down and started to think of projects that could move.  I did give them some assistance by telling them they could add wire, string, fishing line or dowels to help the piece move.  These are some of the best examples that came from my crazy lesson.

Kelsey C.

Rylee S.

Connor F.

Logan O.

Christmas projects

I challenged my Painting/Sculpture class to create a Winter or Christmas inspired project.  At first they all grabbed clay and I had to put my foot down and tell them to think a little farther out of the box.  What they came up with after that was amazingly creative projects that definately capture the essence of winter and christmas. 

Sammy K.

Joslynne S.

Joslynne S. from the side

Logan O. from Drawing class

Maggie H.

Modern Arcimboldo faces

After Art 1 drew their self portraits we looked at the artist Guiseppe Arcimboldo and his silhoutte drawings of faces with fruit and vegetables.  Our spin on these silhouttes was to use magazine images and fill our silhouttes with either pictures that represent us or they could put in a picture of a famous painting or an image.

Sam Kj.

Grant B.

Brandon S.

Lane M.

Kamber L.

Dustin M.

Jasmine K.

Courtney M.

Danica H.

Brooke O.

KaSandra K.

Jena F.

Ashley G.

Taxidermy in art?

Well I found a project on pinterest for creating a taxidermy animal in the artroom.  So basically it was a paper mache sculpture of an animal head and then you were supposed to attach it to a board.  My sculpture class was given the assignment and for the most part they did a good job of the building, but then lost interest when it came to the painting.  I am not sure if I will try the project again, but in the end they did an okay job.  I just need to find a way to make it a more interesting project.  I was impressed by the way some of them went with the flow when their first option or even third didn't work  and they just kept going until they finished and found an animal to make it into.

Kenzie M.  "pig"

Brooke B.  "shark"

Sammy K.  "turtle"

Maggie H.  "parrot"

Cody S. "cow with barn"

Joslynne S. "elephant"

Emma J.  "toucan"