For our first April art class, we are making a project based on an art form called stained glass! Stained glass is many pieces of colored glass held together (usually by lead) to make a picture. It is breathtakingly beautiful when the sun shines through it. Sometimes the glass is painted.
For our project, you will need something to draw on, something to outline with and something to color with, scissors to cut out your shape, something to make a hole with and string to hang your art. You can draw your egg (or any other) shape on card stock, a transparency page, or up-cycled paper.
Use either a sharpie or black glue for a 3-D effect on your transparency or paper.
1. Draw your main shape with either a fine point or bigger black sharpie. For a 3-D effect you can use black glue. Black glue acts as a resist. For a fun video on this project, check out this video.
2. Draw interior designs inside your basic shape. We can talk about open shapes, like the letters JI&N, or closed shapes like the letters PO&D. Which types of shapes do you think will work best? Let it dry. The black glue and transparency sheet should dry overnight. There are many shapes that you can trace here. Or have fun and freehand it.
3. Decide which colors you want in your design. Arrange your markers from lightest to darkest. Start with yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green.
4. Start coloring with the lightest color, yellow, and color everything you want in yellow, next move to orange, and so on. You may wish to test your marker to be sure it gives you the results you want somewhere in the margins (spaces between) your shapes.
5. For large spaces, outline the inside of the border before filling in that space with color. Experiment with coloring horizontally, vertically, or in circles. Can you see a difference?
6. After you have given your shape time to dry, cut out your shape carefully around the outside of your border.
7. With a hole punch, put a hole in your shape in the middle of the top.
Carefully punch a hole near the top of your shape. Alternatively, you can use tape to hang your art.
8. Slide a length of string through the hole and tie the two ends together in an overhand knot. After you have made several shapes, try your hand and make a mobile using a clothes hanger or sticks.
9. Clean up your space, wash your hands, and ask for help to hang your stained glass eggs, and enjoy seeing what you made.
Completed egg in front of window. Is this an optical illusion?
Next time you can try using colored tissue paper and glue to make this project like they did here.
Happy art-making! Love Ms.Joan
Joan in Stitches 