Art Group Day 1- Stained Glass Windows

Today was the first day of art group.  So far, just the youngest kids are attending until the school year is over.  We looked at pictures of Gothic style stained glass windows to start things off.

Stained glass is an ancient art-form stemming from the 4th century.  The colored glass filters and transmits light in a way that has always touched my soul.  While the impressionists tried to capture light in their paintings, stained glass artists actually use the light to create a mood and color that is difficult to replicate.

The artists would create a wood panel drawing of their creation and carefully plan the linear framework of their piece.  The glass has to be blown by glassblowers into flat sheets and then carefully cut into shapes with iron shears.  The glass was sometimes layered for different color effects.  The glass was held together by lead cames and an armature of iron bands.

New Fish was more interested in using scissors than in her collage for most of art group.  She hurried and tossed some tissue squares on hers at the last minute.

We discussed using the light in our pieces and layering the different pieces of tissue paper to create darker colors or to mix colors together.  We used electrical tape and black contstruction paper for our frames.  The outeruter edges were covered in electrical tape.  Everything was sandwiched between sheets of contact paper to create a glue-less collage and then we hung them in our windows at home.

Repositionable Clear Con-Tact Cover

Tissue Paper Squares 4 - 480 pieces

1/2 Colored Masking Tape - Set of 10