RECENTLY ASKED...

MOSAIC FRAMES

wood base (Michaels), broken up glass and dish shards, tacky or white glue,

grout elf or old retired piece of credit card, acrylic paint and grout

by a middle school teacher aross the country,

 if grouting the mosaic frames is too messy for 7th and 8th graders.

Well,

 I'm going to direct her to these pictures of my seniors (12th graders),

from 2018-19.

Chris Campos and Gabby grouting theirs.

I definitely wouldn't do this with an entire class of 7th graders.

I have found them to not remember multipule instructions 

for a task this tedious and messy.

And I hate to say this but I've found it to be true too many times,

but especailly for the little boys.

I have had 8th graders in my classes,

a handful mixed with the older kids.

 If I'm not paying attention,

the elder ones will catch something right away and help out the youngsters.

The biggest problem with this assignment 

is that none of the powdered or wet grout can go down the sink.

Ever!!!

It all has to be brushed or thrown into the trash can.

You can't even clean your mixing cup or grout elf in the sink. 

 All has to be cleaned with a wet paper towel.

Cuz if you don't it turns into hard cement in the drain pipe

and requires a major pipe refitting.

Has that ever happened in my classes you wonder?

You betcha,

but only one time!

Never more.

Ha ha

I love this picture of Gabby above.

At the time we had to tell her she had black grout smeared all over her face.  

She didn't even realize it.

We were cracking up.

BROKEN GLASS

MOSAIC FRAMES

BEGINNING 3-D ART

glass, mirror & pottery shards, misc. beads & buttons, wood frames, colored sanded grout

& paper collage accents

I think one of the favorite assignments of the year for my 3-D kiddos

are making these Mosaic Frames.

They learn how to cut glass and grout, 

both of which are super fun,

and extremely satisfying.

I thought junior Kiana Hernandez made one of the most beautiful designs

using a combination of paper collage text with clear glass over top,

and milky glass & pottery shards.

Her soft color scheme and floral design was gorgeous.

Next up were two 8th graders,

 Kira Curry & Heer Patel,

both choosing floral designs.

I really liked how Kira limited her color palette to a monochromatic one

using mirror and black glass shards to compliment her pink glass.

Heer picked a primary scheme to work within and also choose to include

dimensional round glass used in brandy snifter decor.

Those are really difficult to grout around and I warn the kids ahead of time,

but Heer made it work beautifully.

Here is a close-up of 8th grader Bhumika Kalaimalai's.

She is a very talented designer and has been featured several times this and last year as well.

She found broken sea shells and combined them with glass & mirror.

Two of my favorites were these by senior Sophie Yang and 8th grader Sophia Oporto.

Sophie (left) had the most difficult frame to grout.

I believe it took her all day long and she had to get permission from all her teachers 

so she could miss their classes and finish her grouting.

It's really critical to finish the grouting at one time.

The reason it took so long was because she used a huge variety of dimensional

pieces in her frame.

In other of words if all the pieces are on the same plane,

it's easy to grout,

but if your pieces are all kinds of different heights,

man oh man it's challenging.

As you can see below she had a button that was really flat next to a huge tile piece

 that was really high (bottom right).

Sophia had a similar problem.

I'm think hers took her about 2 1/2 hours to grout.

She created handmade polymer pieces to incorporate into her design.

We see piano keys and a violin & it's bow.

And then the music notes and color scheme pull her frame all together.

Here we see frames by junior Dustine Ansiboy & junior Kareema Mohamed.

Dustine found a broken plate that worked fabulously in her format,

and Kareema chose a very difficult design to pull off.

She morphed her yellow/oranges into her pinks and reds

(see my garden sphere that took me a year to pull off here).

Hats off to you Kareema! 

Two more 8th graders made incredible frames as well,

Emma Bertel & Alaa Malabeh.

Emma chose to use various height pieces,

hanging in there to grout it.

I believe it took her at least 3 hours.

What I really enjoyed about Alaa's were the pops of coppery oranges, tans & browns.

Subtle and sophisticated. 

I really enjoy the pieces where the kids incorporate pottery shards.

I think it's because my mother & aunt used to play tea party with me

when I was quite young,

bringing out their beautiful hand-painted tea cups and saucers,

mostly made in England.

To this day I collect stunning plates to use in up-cycled projects

and I love sharing them with my students.

I've found some new beauties for this years kids.

Like this next and last one below.

We end with this brilliant work created by junior Rachel Tibayan.

She has it all going on her,

the paper collage text showing, glass, tiles, pottery shards.

It's just gorgeous Rachel.

And she did it all in a neutral color scheme.

Bravo!!

ANOTHER FAVORITE

CARVED GLASS PLAQUES

CERAMICS I

clay, glass shards, glazes

Here is another assignment the kids love,

especially as they wait to see their finished products coming out of the kiln.

Let's take a look.

Senior Ashley Iseri displayed some of the best designs and craftsmanship in the class.

Sadly she was a senior, 

so I wasn't able to work with her again in Ceramics II.

But she promised me she'd try to take another clay class in college.

Another outstanding student,

junior Ylia Madayag,

did this striking lion above.

And best of all,

she is back again this year in Ceramics II challenging herself, 

and growing in her artistic skills.

Can't wait to show you her work that she has begun!

Junior Samuel Kim,

who never liked anything he made,

finally created something he loved so much that he made two of these.

YES!

And senior Eunice Shin blends her two countries in this very patriotic work.

Bravo Eunice!

Miss you girlie.

Senior Vinaini Jayasinghe,

a beautiful dancer in her Indian culture,

carved out an image of one of her difficult dance moves.

Very cool Vinaini!

Sadly junior Sarah Oh had a revolting development during the glaze firing

in this very beautiful piece.

Sometimes when the students are rolling out their clay for a piece,

 they accidently pick it up incorrectly and stress an edge.

Or when they roll out the clay they roll one section thinner than the other.

Either or both of these things could cause the work to crack during the last firing.

Both Sarah and I and her tablemates were devastated when we saw what had happened.

But because it was such an exceptional piece it still went out on display.

This accident also happened to senior Brian Aguirre-Hernandez.

His crack wasn't quite so large so that the glass shards melted and filled in the crack a bit.

But again,

what a shame,

such a beauty Brian.

And we end with sophomore Julia Stein.

She came up with something completely different.

She made two pieces that were meant to  be displayed together

which I felt was such a neat idea.

I'm hoping this work will inspire this next years group of students to give it a try.

THE BIG REVEAL

SILVER SOLDER
SPECIAL STUDIES 3-D ART
handcut glass shards, silver solder, flux, soldering iron & tons of patience
  
I made you wait a little longer than I'd intended...

to see the end result of Shreya Sheth's Silver Soldered Lantern.

So without further ado here it is.

An engineering marvel,
one of the most difficult techniques to master.

Pulled off like no other solder piece ever created here.

You are unbelievable Shreya.

So very talented.

Kudos to you dear girl.

I want to take this chance Shreya,
 to wish you the best
 at Chapman University in Orange , Ca.
studying the History of Art.
I have complete confidence that you will be a Superstar there
like you were here in the Whitney Art Department.
One day you will send me an email telling me you are putting up a Van Gogh show
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Or repair and restoring a Degas sculpture.
What do they say?
The world is your oyster!

A SNEAK PEEK

SILVER SOLDERED LANTERN

3-D ART - SPECIAL STUDIES

colored glass, copper tape, silver solder, soldering iron, clamps, glass cutter, cutting mat, flux

Senior Shreya Sheth, 

who has 2 Independent Study classes with me back to back (2 hours),

has taught herself to silver solder over copper tape.

Using this Stained Glass technique over cut pieces of glass,

she has created a fabulous lantern.

She cuts her glass pieces on top of a self healing green mat

 using a traditional glass cutter tool.

Above you see her playing with her design.

Next she wraps each piece with copper tape and using a wooden clothes pin

as a burnishing tool,

she smooths the tape down tight.

Next she uses clamps as a third hand to hold her piece as she solders from the bottom up.

Flux is applied first with a make-up sponge to all copper connections

before she solders.

And here we see her about to solder her sides together.

Stay tuned for the finished piece.

One of the eye catchers at Open House this year.

EASING INTO IT

COIL TRIVETS

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, glass shards & alphabet macaroni

This assignment is a prelude to working with slabs and coils.

But instead of doing it 3 dimensionally right off the bat, 

we combine the techniques and do it 2 dimensionally first.

These originally were made to be placed under hot cooking pots on the kitchen table,

but they turn out too beautifully,

 so here at Whitney we display them as wall art.

We start with this playful piece by senior Marjorie Balaoro.

Besides making a delightful piece,

I like how she spent a lot of time painting on her glazes to make it colorful.

This is an inlay technique where they roll out a slab of clay,

and cut out everything except an outside frame.

Then they inlay coils and slab pieces in various designs to fill up the frame.

After all the negative spaces are filled ,

the entire piece is scored and smoothed from the backside,

then flipped to the front.

Areas are chosen from the small slab pieces to carve away 

so that glass shards can be melted into those spaces after bisque firing.

And this year we added a new element,

text using alphabet macaroni.

The only problem was I went to several grocery stores and couldn't find the macaroni.

Finally found a huge selection at great prices on Amazon.com

And it burned/denigrated out really well as you can see,

leaving great shaped letters with no stamping marks around them like we usually get.

The one above was made by junior Ylia Madayag.

Check out her impeccable craftsmanship, 

just like her older sis Kline,

who graduated last year.

Innate art talent runs in their blood.

Here we have this fun hot air balloon by senior Lauren Kennedy.

She critically thought out her glazing.

She used both Red Iron & Cobalt Oxides to stain entire piece with,

then dipped in out transparent Blue-Green glaze.

And the final touch,

 melting her glass shards in a blue color to work with the staining of the Cobalt.

Well done Lauren.  

And our last one was done by junior Vincent Nguyen .

I love how he used various colors of glass shards

 so that the color gradually moves from greens to blues across entire piece.

And the contrast with the white glaze makes this a bold piece.

Bravo young man!

FINALLY FINISHED

CLAY CHIMES

CERAMICS I

clay, glazes, oxides, melted glass shards, wax linen & a twig

This piece has only been in a year in the making.

A year!

Shame on me.

It's a new idea I saw on Pinterest that caught my attention.

So I turned it into the very first clay experience for my beginners

 on the second day of the new school year,

last year.

(repeated it again this year, just tweaked it a bit)

I gave each student 2 small pieces of clay & no tools.

I showed them how to flatten it with their palms

 and to see how the edges stretch and crack open.

I gave them a couple of old bisqued stamps that they used to decorate the tops,

and some alphabet letters to stamp a word with.

A straw was used next to pierce holes thru top and bottom of each chime.

The kids were smitten with the clay from that second day of class.

A love affair that I hope they take with them 

outside of Whitney High.

They had a choice after they learned how to glaze whether to sawdust their creations or glaze them.

If sawdusting only one was allowed, 

the second one had to be glazed.

Didn't want them to take the easy way out for both.

Then came the challenge.  

Weeks of moving them around on the wall ,

trying to figure out the most balanced, pleasing placement for each chime.

I gave this task to volunteer junior Lauren Kennedy.

And man oh man,

did she do a great job!

Once we were satisfied I gave her waxed linen to attach them together with.

A lot of knotting went on before she gave me the go ahead to string it up onto the twig.

But then school was over so I took the string of chimes home with me over the summer

to finish it.

Didn't happen.

But I wanted to have a finished piece to teach with at the start of this school year

 so I finally finished it at summer's end.

Tomorrow you will see where & who it went to.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

MOSAIC FRAMES

BEGINNING 3-D ART

wood frames, glass shards, tiles, grout & acrylics

It's always so difficult to pick which pieces to showcase.

And sadly,

 way to time consuming for me to show them all,

so let's take a look at a few.

Starting with senior Anna Lee,

who has designed her frame with a very subtle color scheme.

Her theme,

 a gentle seascape,

 with sand colored grout,

 is so perfectly executed.

And a special detail are her tiny paper shells that she has glued under the clear glass shards. 

Next we have senior Sunny Kim who has done this lovely, 

sensitive heart frame.

She's moving her color values effortlessly

 while drawing our eyes to the center thru her use of text.

Junior William Kim,

a very talented up and comer for next school year's Intermediate class,

chose an oval format to work on.

My color correction here does not do this piece justice.

It's much more vibrant in person.

The theme,

DREAMS.

I love how William chose to let the edges of the shards go off the format.

It made the piece much more difficult to grout,

but it was sure worth it.

Here is the work of sophomore Shreya Sheth.

Shreya is another up and coming super star.

 Her design ideas are always so cool and clever.

I  was worried she wouldn't get three done in time for grading,

but she has amazing energy and works so hard to make her art pieces one of a kind,

always working beyond the minimum requirements.

Here we see that she also made her backside very special with acrylic staining.

One of my personal favorites was created by junior Antoniette Jabat.

She paper collaged the entire wood frame first, 

then laid her shards over top.

Depending on the clarity of the glass,

some of the collage work shows up, 

and some is covered by the grout and darker glass pieces,

resulting in a lot of variety.

Again,

I wish the photo had come out better so you could see all the details.

One of most creative thinkers,

junior Hazel Cruz,

was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's STARRY NIGHT,

which I feel she pulled off exceptionally well.

Bravo Hazel!!!

And junior Amber Wu's gentle personality really comes thru 

by her choice of pastel colors

 and subject matter.

Absolutely lovely Amber!  

Lastly we have junior Liana Chie who always comes up with something special.

Notice the sweet little hearts and butterflies she found to incorporate in the work

that are balanced by the clear glass shards going off the left edge.

 So many beauties, 

I just wish there were more hours in the day so I could have shared them all.

Glass & Clay

CARVED GLASS PLAQUES

CERAMICS I

clay, glass shards, glaze

One of the projects my beginning clay kids look the most forward to are these Carved Glass Plaques.

It is a bit more expensive to do this assignment because of all the glass colors you need, so I go to a stained glass store and buy up all their broken pieces for a lot less money.

Then I have my T.A.'s break it down even more to small shards and we use it for this assignment as well as mosaics in my 3-d class.

I try to encourage the kids to come up with original designs but some of them are not confident enough in their drawing skills to do that, so you will see some designs you recognize.

This first beauty was created by senior Minette Tsang.

One of my personal favorites above was made by junior Ju Eun Lee.

Her design was especially difficult to carve out but she did a terrific job.

This striking floral design was done by very talented senior Jocelyn Kim.

Her color choices were exceptional!

I love how in this apple senior Darren Fong used both glass and glaze and allowed them to overlap a bit to get a super exciting marbleized look.

Senior Neha Jain did this fun design above, and senior Karen Cheng did the lovely rose design below.

Junior Erin Hsiao created this gorgeous bird above while junior Tiffany Chu made the pretty turquoise goblet below.

You can see in Tiff's piece how the white glaze is overlapping with the turquoise glass for a lighter shade of turquoise.

Very cool!

Junior Nicholas Tudor did the perfectly crafted rose and gave it as a gift to my lovely assistant, alumni Alyssa. 

And this rendition of Starry Night was done by one of the nicest young men in my Ceramics class, Jonathon Xue.

Senior Derrick Lin, one of my all time favorite students, made the castle above.

Notice how he manipulated the glass to go from darkest blue on the bottom to lite blue on top.

Nice Derrick!

This beautiful, original design was made by senior Priya Sheth.

Notice the care she took in glazing it.

Some areas are stained with red iron oxide, next to carved out ares with glass.

Love the contrast!

Senior Lacey Thach did this impeccably crafted floral design above, and we end with junior Stephanie Kim carving and glazing the superman logo.

Fantastic job all of you, and congrats to so many students from the class being featured on the blog at one time.

YES!!!