Playing in the Glory Hole

Some of you know of B's intense love of glassblowing and Chihuly artwork. We have spent countless hours standing (and sitting) in glass blowing studios watching the artists work. Well today we went to Baron Glassworks in Ypsilanti for a unique opportunity. B worked with the studio owner and actually learned to blow glass. He actually did it!!!! Talk about a G R E A T experience!!!

First thing Annette did was have B select some saftey glasses and off they went. There was not a lot of lecture, but 3 hours of hands on work. She explained things as they went. B made 5 projects and came out smiling :)

Gathering glass from the 2150 degree glory hole.
Tempering, to add structure to the molten glass. Done before blowing.
1st time ever blowing. Although B learned that blowing glass is actually not what is happening. You just put pressure into the pipe and the expanding hot air does the majority of the work for you.
Adding color before reheating.

Blowing
Jacking
Blowing
Blowing
Adding eyes

Adding fins
Shaping fins
More shaping
Pulling

Needless to say, this is the best art class B has ever been to. I took a happy artist home this afternoon. But no projects ;( they had to be put in the cooling boxes and can be picked up in a few days. So you've got to check back and see the finished work. And....what the next class will bring. Check one thing off B's "bucket list"!

Nature Inspired

Given that we were already kind of getting use to spring, the snow of yesterday and today dampened our spring spirits! So after shoveling off the driveway, the sun did come out and we walked to town. Specificially to see the new art gallery that has opened here. Daisy Lake Art Gallery is a small (two room) gallery that has been opened by a woman (who is a painter) who wants to inspire art appreication here in our little village of Dexter.

The current exhibit is nature inspired photography by John Dubielak. His work is AMAZING!!! I wish I could have taken photos to share. And this is right up B's alley, in terms of interest. Beautiful work. And thankfully, although a little chilly, we were able to get a walk to and from town into our day! Not quite spring, but close.

Beautiful Eggs!

Ahhh, finally a litte art in our curriculum!!!! A good friend recommended that we learn a Polish/Urkarian technique for decorating eggs. So we tried it too. B, mom and I went to the Polish Art Center in Hamtramack for a 2 hr. class. Then we bought the supplies to try it at home and make the decorations for our Easter bunch table. Since I'm not feeling incredibly creative today, I'm just going to give you the basics and share the photos. (why am I not feeling creative??? might have something to do with the fact that we had a shovel 6" of snow last night and the driveway needs to be done again this morning - ugh).

Okay, the Pisanky technique is done with wax and egg dyes. It's kind of a reverse image technique. First you put on the wax, which is what B is doing below.
Then you dye the egg, lightest color first. Then you put on more wax, depending on your designing. Then more dyes, each time using a darker color dye.
Then more dyes, each time using a darker color dye.
When your design and dying is complete - you candle the wax off. Revealing your artwork below! Each time we did it, there was always a surprise.

B's pond egg. This boy is obsessed with ponds and fish. A lot of his eggs had fish on them!
Here is grandma's attempt at sunflowers.
Our completed works of art. It was interesting what each of us was drawn to. I prefered the pretty traditional easter colors - reds, pinks, yellows, purples. B used a lot more of the darker greens and blues (naturally with his pond based thinking). And grandma was probably the most creative trying all kinds of things. The 4 eggs to the left are mine. The other 8 are Bs.

These are grandma's.
Our day of work - waiting to dry so they can be displayed.

It was fun and some of us are already thinking about doing holly eggs to hang on the Christmas tree. Some of us are really into this project, others of us are fine in knowing that we've learned it and experienced it - now we can move on :)