Imitation "Glass"

I learned about this artist 2.5 years after I came to this green state. So I asked the question to those born here: How many of you have heard of the artist Dale Chihuly? I was so surprised that I said you guy were born here and you haven't heard of Chihuly?  So that meant we were about to embark on a little glass journey.  I first did this project in 2013, but this time was even better.  The blog I found was http://artasticartists.blogspot.com/2011/03/chihuly-glass-bowls-and-forms.html.  Since that time our class made different versions of Chihuly-inspired projects.  Check it out!

                                  I wish we could just have a huge set of Sharpies available all the time.

Well, this is the first stage. Coloring all the clear spaces makes all the difference in how the outcome will be.

In the oven baking.  It's hard to photograph because of the reflecting light.

These two should have been videotaped.  They were content to sit in front of the hot oven to watch the process of shrinking.

Here are the masterpieces that the children made.  You cannot deny the originality of the pieces! They look gorgeous!!

I even had to do one.

You just cannot get away from those Seahawk colors.  Drats! You can't deny the beauty1

This really has the shape of the human heart. If turned a different way, that red color could be the aorta and from the front, it actually looks as if it has four chambers.

Supplies:
1. clear drinking cups
2. Sharpies
3. oven or toaster

Directions:
1. color drinking cups with Sharpies
2. place in oven or toaster until cup stops shrinking

Duration:
30-40 minute project

Note:
The first time I did the project was in the toaster oven. I didn't realize that the new toaster was smaller than the original toaster, and therefore the cups did not fit.  We do have a full-on kitchen. So this time, they had to go in the oven, which was set at 350 degrees.  I liked the oven better than the toaster because I think there was better heal control.  Anyway, see what way works for you.

Tea House Cups

These three girls were bored and wanted to do something--anything.  They were good friends and all were (I think) very good artists.  I was cleaning out the storage cabinet and came upon these colorful eggs that I was going to toss out.  Because of the girls not knowing what to do, I whipped out my laptop and went straight to Pinterest (my go to for everything crafts).  There was a whole page of decorated eggs transformed into tea cups.  I chose http://themoodyfashionista.blogspot.com/2013/04/plastic-egg-tea-cups.html. I was absolutely delighted with the finished product and the girls' were thrilled that their craft could be immediately taken home and played with. Take a look.

We didn't use paint as the Moody Fashionista suggested.  The smelly favorite of so many girls used was nail polish.  I thought this would hold up better than using regular paint because I was hoping the paint job wouldn't peel off the "cup".

Do you see how intent the girls are?  The only competition here was that they each had the same number of cups to paint.  There was no copying here.  Each "cup" was an original.

Aren't you impressed with the variety?  These pictures were taken in the August of 2013.  The rest of the kids were outside with my partner.  Yep, I did have more kids.  But that day, the girls had no inkling to go outside.

Supplies:
1. plastic eggs
2. old buttons
3. glue gun
4. ribbon, pipe cleaners

Directions:
1. have kids paint cups in whatever style
2. let paint dry
3. hot glue buttons onto cup
4. hot glue ribbon, pipe cleaner or other embellishment for handle

Note:
If regular paint is used, there probably will be a dry time.  With the nail polish, the girls were able to hot glue almost immediately.

Duration:
Projects takes less than 30 minutes.