Glass Casting

Glass casting has a number of different methods and I've been exploring them with students. The two pieces featured here were created by Becky Casady in a recent class. The first was designed with fiber paper carved and laid on the kiln shelf where glass was placed over it. The second piece was created with a clay model and then a cast was poured. Once the cast set, the clay model is removed and replaced with cullet (chunk glass) and fired in the kiln until molten. The cast is easily removed from the glass by breaking it away; the original cast cannot be reused.

Painting with Light

Photography isn't my area of expertise but I couldn't resist sharing this incredible photo from my husband's weekend class "Painting with Light". Students worked with various light sources in the dark (flash lights, strobes, holiday lights, etc.) to create a variety of portraits, writings, ghost images, etc. The photo below was taken using a multi flash strobe and extended exposure as I walked through the scene. It resembles the imagery in "Nude Descending a Stair Case" by Duchamp.

Pop Art

Elaina shows off a recent project - a Pop Art mirror. The project used about two dozen cans. The tricky part? Not cutting yourself on the cans as you open them and trying not to hit your finger while nailing them down. Otherwise, a quick fun project for most ages. If you like the project but would rather not create the mirror yourself, check on ETSY.com under "Pop Art".  For $200 and up, you can have one of your own.

Zipper Jewelry

I recently found some zipper jewelry at our local Art Center store...very cute stuff and it couldn't be more simple so I decided to try to make a few pieces with a student (Olivia). The necklace is made up of zippers hot glued in a circle and then glued to a piece of leather with an adjustable tie. We also made a ring in the same manner adding a piece of elastic to accomodate most ring sizes. The left over zipper pieces were used to make earrings.

Silk Painting

On Tuesday August 16th, we hosted a surprise silk painting project for birthday girl Gennie (left) and her friend Quinn (right).  The girls created some amazing scarves and had a great time experimenting with the dyes and the heat setting process.  Nice work ladies!

Visiting Japanese Students

It may be hard to believe but not every culture is familiar with the American tradition of tie dye. Our studio hosted several students participating in a sister city exchange program last week. Here are some pictures of their finished projects. For more on their visit, check out our Face Book site under Madhaus Gallery.

Girls And Chocolate

Justice Alcorn - pictured below - enjoyed our Painting with Chocolate session this morning. Justice created a reverse painting and several desert toppers. And we sampled a little chocolate along the way.