The other weekend, I went out for a Girls’ Night Out at our local paint your own pottery place. They also do glass fusing, which I excitedly tried for the first time. It was a blast! We were able to bring our own wine and snacks and we all decided we were going to go back for another night out. This is something we could actually do at my school with our kiln. I just have to figure out temperature controls and buy some glass cutting tools. There is a way to pre-cut the glass and melt it into little pieces, so when the kids use it the edges are rounded. Have any of you art teachers done this before? Do you have any tips for this type of project? What we did at this store was assemble our designs with little pieces of glass, using tweezers and glue. After it was glued together, they fired it and we picked it up a week later. Here are mine!
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| The duck on the left I made because Daria’s room is decorated in ducks. This pendant I’m keeping for myself. The other two pendants I’m going to give for gifts for Mother’s Day. |
I've done it a while back with kids. I cut the base glass, but used frit and stringers to create the designs. I don't think it's necessary to round the corners even with little ones. Just remind them that it is sharp. They can use a bit of Elmer's glue to hold the pieces together. It will burn off in the kiln anyways. I would have to look up the temps, but i have an automatic kiln and can program the temp settings. Google search fusing temps to find the right ones. It's alot of fun and I plan to do this with my 6th graders next year. They can either make a pendant or a small dish (I have sushi dish forms). You also need to clean off your kiln shelves and do a good coating of kiln wash so they dont' stick! Good luck! Here's my blog: http://mrsmatott.wordpress.com/
Jennifer, Thanks for your comments! I like the idea of making a dish. I can't wait to try it. We are waiting for a part to be ordered for our kiln, because it went on the fritz earlier this week. I LOVE your blog. What great ideas. I saw the disintegration project on Seth Apter's blog and thought that would be fun to try.