Fusing Fun Art: Auction items -Fused Glass, Up-cycling and What's ...

Fusing Fun Art: Auction items -Fused Glass, Up-cycling and What's ...: Auction time.... School is almost out  and summer vacation  is fast approaching which means that the Coleman International Festival is jus...

Auction items -Fused Glass, Up-cycling and What's Next?

Auction time....
School is almost out  and summer vacation  is fast approaching which means that the Coleman International Festival is just a couple of days away...this Saturday , May 31st!  I hope to see all of you there. It is the biggest fundraiser of the school year and it is also a major Fun raiser (hee hee)....There will be games, cool booths, delicious food and refreshing drinks, entertainment and many wonderful items to bid on for the school auction.
This year, my after school fused glass students at Coleman will be contributing three pieces to the auction.These pieces are collaborative works focused on facial expression and they turned out really amazing. If you get a chance, stop by and see what the fusers have been up to. Check out the images below for a sneak peak.

large face platter

mustache vases- plants not shown

Another Auction Project:
As a Coleman mom of a 5th grader, I was lucky enough to get to work on another collaborative project with some awesome parents and students in my son's 5th grade classroom for the school auction. (Mr. Jackson's class)   I really love working with kids on group projects. It is a wonderful experience to see how they work together and what they gravitate to doing. The pieces the students put together are made from almost all up-cycled materials. Plastic caps and lids, bottle caps, an old fence, scrap mirror...
Up-cycling  has become quite a movement. I love the idea of taking something that is no longer wanted or needed and giving it a new purpose. Creative, useful or both..Functional art is where its at!

            Students worked on 2 projects; an old tattered mailbox was transformed into a dazzling kaleidoscope of shapes and colors using plastic lids, caps,  mirror, old beads and a touch of paint to bring it all together.  The other piece is an amazing fish sculpture. An old wooden fence was cut into the shape of a fish and then many, many plastic lids were drilled into the wood, creating an colorful and beautiful fish. Little pieces of scrap mirror were glued into the lids to give the fish extra sparkle.
The kids really dove into these projects. Drilling was exciting and they could see the piece coming together one cap at a time.

 Did  you know it takes about 450 years for plastic to start decomposing and then another 50 to 80 years to decompose completely but we use about 20 times more plastic then we 50 years ago? Taking all those plastic lids and reinventing them into art pieces is not only a great way to keep them out of landfills and our oceans, it is also way to raise awareness in ourselves about the issue of plastic pollution and all matter of discarded materials that can be used again either as a recycled product, up-cycled or even re-used.

This project was very inspiring to me... So What Next....

Given my total enjoyment of helping to create these pieces, I have decide to lead an up-cycling class next fall at Coleman in my after school class series. This will be a project based class with an experiential tone. We will incorporate fused glass but there will be a major emphasis on using materials like plastics, bottle glass, old wood etc.. Many of the projects will be functional in some way- frames, clocks, magnets, etc..And we will do a group piece as well.

Announcement
 I am happy to announce that I will also have classes in the fall at the Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael (near the San Rafael library) Look for the schedule in the next catalogue. This is a new space for me and I am very excited to hold classes there.

What about this summer?
I have created space in my home 'studio' to hold workshops and classes. If you are interested in having a glass party (girls night, birthday party, creative night...) please contact me and lets get fusing!! Check out other pages in my blog for more info and give me a call! 415 846-4460

I have a graduating 5th grader, so I will be on break as a "Coleman mom" until the following year when my other son will become a Coleman Tiger. I will still be part of the community as an after school teacher this upcoming year and look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

previous group project for auction by students

sample board of up-cycled projects for student inspiration