Friday Afield

GLASS ACT: I was feeling downright normal this morning. There it was, about 10 minutes before 9 a.m. and we pulled into an elementary school parking lot like millions of other families in America. ...

What had us out and at school so "early"? We were on a field trip to learn about glass and make a fused glass tile.

The workshop was at Echo Lake Elementary in Shoreline, just a couple miles from the school where the kids' take science on Wednesdays. Artist Bill Ayers led the workshop. Ayers told the gathered students (about 140 in all, I'd guess), that he's been making a living at art since 1978 (good for him!). He has a studio in Redmond, rattartart Studios.

Before we got to the fun/hands on portion of the program (making a mosaic to be fused into a glass tile!), first we learned about how glass is made.

We found out that the three primary ingredients are sand, salt, and calcium (to give it strength). Ayers told us that metals are often used to give glass color (copper = green, magneseium = blue, gold = yellow and so on).

He showed a short video of of a tour through Spectrum Glass, a manufacturer in Woodinville, WA. He also showed several slides of different glass art objects being constructed, pointing out the differences techniques, for instance fusing, slumping and sagging.

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And then finally it was time for instructions about how we could make our own works of art. We had plenty of raw materials to choose from. There were over a dozen choices of colors, and sizes ranged from grain of rice to a silver dollar.
Each person got to go pick out the colors they wanted and then return to their seats to arrange them to their liking on a clear glass tile. Once you were happy with your design, you were supposed to use tiny dabs of glue to hold each little colored glass piece in place on the clear tile.
With his mind set on making an 8-bit appearing Mega Man tile, CJ chose lots of blues. Annabelle chose to do "a self portrait of me" as she told everyone within earshot. (It appears at the top of the page.) Bee was done first.

I did a mid-century modern-inspired design using colors in our kitchen (teals, greens, golds and browns).

CJ worked long and hard on his Mega Man, and was the last of our trio done. He was meticulous about glass placement, and at one point even consulted Mr. Ayers about how to get a 3-D effect. Here's a photo of his Mega Man in progress. If you look just above the flesh colored square of glass, you'll see a tiny Mega Man that helped inspire his design.

Our tiles will be taken to Mr. Ayers' studio and put in a kiln at about 1500 degrees for a few hours. We're supposed to get them back in about a week, so stay tuned for the final product.

FRESHEN UP: As we were driving home, the sun shone brightly. I decided that we'd be spending the balance of our afternoon outside. We have been inside waaaaaaay too much for the past weeks/months due to crappy weather.

We started here 'on campus.' The kids played in the yard while I mowed the lawn (that's right, in February). After I finished that chore, we headed up the street to the aptly named Bay View Park, where we had the place to ourselves.

We discovered a new swing had been installed since the last time we were there. It was so new, there was still a sticker on it!

CJ and Annabelle clambered about, both on the big boulders ... ... and on the steel play structure.
After the playground, we went to the upper park, where there are soccer and baseball fields. There, they did some "spring training" CJ & Annabelle style.
The park was such a nice break from the computers and books - not that we don't love computers and books. But we've been missing the outdoors something awful.