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!!

THE THRILL OF THE HUNT

MOSAIC FRAMES

BEGINNING 3-D ART

glass shards & grout on wooden frames

Looking for the perfect fitting piece of glass is so very satisfying when finally found 

and glued down into place.

Let's take a look see at the many outstanding designs done last school year by my beginners.

One of the class favorites was created by junior Rachel Kannampuzha

with her adorable elephant and it's balloon on this heart shaped frame.

I get the wood frames for a dollar apiece at Michael's,

 plus they give me a 40% off teacher discount.

Oh yeah!!  What a great deal.

Now the glass is another matter.

I salvage a lot of it by dumpster diving on the weekends,

and when I get desperate I take myself up to Whittier to our local stained glass store.

There they have big bins of broken pieces that I sift thru for those hard to find colors the kids like

paid for by the pound.

I also thrift broken china and shatter it even more.

You can see pieces of that in senior Vicky Hur's cool frame above.

Donations are also welcomed.

I received some broken vase forms recently from a student's grandma.

Estate sales are another way I pick up hard to find colors and patterns.

I tell the kids my Saturdays are spent entirely thrifting.

My husband and I love going up to the Dump Store on our Mountain 

for some really amazing finds,

and we try to get to all the thrift stores on the mountain as well.

Speaking of thrifting,

English teacher Donna Hall went thru some of her jewelry and china to find the perfect pieces

 to complement each other for these next two frames (above & below).

I believe she turned out a total of 4 frames in the time it took the kids to do one.

Or maybe it was 3,

I've lost track.

ha ha

The reason you are seeing flowers and petals inside the frames

 is because they were photoed on the walls at Open House time 

and the kids like to embellish the walls with dried flowers.

I apologize for the quality of these next two photos.

My camera seems to be on the fritz lately,

maybe because I spilled water all over it,

but anyways,

these two pieces by 8th graders Dylan Lin and Selina Luo are really colorful

and I wanted to be sure to share them.

I also really enjoyed this one by 8th grader Karen Hung.

Love all the grey tones she was able to get

 by collaging newsprint under clear and slightly yellowed glass.

Senior Crystal Lai-Ton-Nu sold her beauty at Open House.

Her design was so unique and lovely.

And junior Lynette Lee had another of the class's favorites,

these stalks of bamboo.

And what a shame my camera wasn't able to capture it better.

Sorry Lynette. 

We all loved junior Margaret Yiu's delicate design.

Such patience she has to pull this off!

And check out the sweet mushroom on lower right corner

 that senior Julie Ahn cleverly put in.

And what soft pretty colors as well.

And this last gorgeous one was #3 by Donna.

She made it for me and I couldn't be more thrilled with it.

Check out the sweet bird's nest in lower right corner,

and the dragonfly in center top.

She knows,

 after being in my class all last year and listening to my stories that I tell the kids,

that dragonflies and birds have a special meaning to me.

Thank you so my Donna for this heartfelt gift,

for making the time to take my class, 

for putting up with me and so much more.

I loved working with you and really enjoyed watching you fly.

Donna didn't know I took her pix,

but I couldn't resist.

My room is super cold so it's nice to sit out on the bench to warm up a bit.

I'm not sure which of the projects she was working on here,

but once she gets into what she's doing,

she becomes lost in her art.

Last year she was known to have stayed until 9:00 at night in my room working on her pieces.

She and her work were much admired by all.

We love you Ms. Hall!!!

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.

Mosaic Frames - Student Art

Gorgeous work is what my Beginning 3-D Art kids are creating for me. Just look at the detail in their mosaic work. From strong designs to great looking colors to interesting shards, and then just the right color grout, these children are going above and beyond my wildest expectations. I couldn't be more thrilled with their finished products. The piece above was done by senior Eunice Pang and purchased at Open House by our Vice-Principal, Bryan Glonchak for big bucks. Way to go Eunice!!

This exquisite frame above and below belongs to senior Hannah Park. It is amazing in person with all those tiny shards of mirror that she put in. Plus the lattice tiles are so cool and makes this piece a real stand out.

I bought both the frames above at Open house from seniors Ashlee Chang and Anne Guu. Ashlee's frame is already hanging in my daughter's bathroom that she just redid, and it looks great against the chocolate brown paint that she picked out. And Anne's piece is going into my new home/studio with a pix of both my children in it. Check out the text that Anne glued under her clear rounds in the right corner that are balanced off with the mirror shards in the upper left corner. I'm telling you, these kids are fantastic designers.

The piece that got the most attention was done by Kevin Ni (above, top). It was very unusual in that he allowed his shards to hang over the edge of the frame. He also incorporated text under a few clear pieces in lower right corner. And then the bottom most frame belongs to one of the sweetest seniors in the whole senior class, Sherri Singh, who has been an absolute joy to work with in the classroom. Extremely attentive and hardworking, Sherri has created some beautiful work this year. I hope you enjoyed seeing these frames as much as I enjoyed sharing them with all of you.

"Siren" - Student Art

The center piece was begun at the end of the last school year when senior Hannah Chung was in my Advanced 3rd year 3-D art class. It was a new mixed media assignment that I was trying out for the first time with the kids. They were required to bring together at least 4 or more mediums onto a piece of plywood. Hannah finished the center one over the summer as well as getting started on the side panels and then this year in my Special Studies class she finished up the entire work. It's one of my favorite pieces that she's produced for me in the 4 years I've been working with her.

The old formica counter top was turned into a mosaic work of art in 2003 when Alum Angela Su along with boyfriend, Andrew Molina came back during their winter break from college to further beautify the space. If I'm remembering correctly 2004 Alum Melissa Wong did the mirror edging around the mosaic, and Alum Angela Feng did the large female ceramic bust and left it to me as her graduation thank you.

Glass Artisit Katherine England - Mosaic Horse

I've really been inspired by my mosaic teacher, Katherine England, who teaches a variety of art classes to children and adults at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. This is one of her lastest works and belongs to a series of other pieces that revolve around Shakespeare's works.

Inspiring

A close-up view of Katherine's horse. Notice how she is mixing mosaic with fused glass , and text that she has soldered under glass. My Intermedaite 3-D art students will be learning all 3 of these techniques in 4th quarter and will be incorporating them into one final piece. Thanks Katherine for your inspiration and guidiance!

More of Katherine England's Mosaic Work

I love how Katherine mixes fused glass images, like these houses, with her mosaic work. Sorry my shot is so out of focus.


















Close-up of Katherine's mirror

Upcycled Silver Platter

Mosaic done inside an old silver platter. This is usually what Katerine has her beginners start with.

Close Up

Close-up of Katherine's mirror frame

Mosaic Frame - Beginning 3-D Art Students

This is the first time I've done mosaics with my beginning crafts students and they are loving it. Here is 7th grader Andrew Veenstra finishing up his piece by painting the sides with acrylics. Background students are 7th grader Yoon So and 8th grader Jenny Kouch who are grouting their pieces.