ALL BOXED IN

 MOSAIC TILE BOXES

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

glass shards, wood boxes, polymer clay, gold, silver & copper leaf, 

acrylic paints, misc. beads & buttons, tacky glue

 I'm always so very proud to show off this complex and challenging assignment.
Senior Rachel Kannampuzha last year gave it a whole other spin.
To see what I'm talking about put Mosaic Boxes in the search engine and see.
There is only Rachel's box here because she was the lone ranger in this 2nd year 3-D class.

I asked her to work to a theme,

and I liked the one she picked about how sometimes life gives you lemons.

I remember growing up in the 60's & 70's and hearing that expression a lot from the adults in my life.   ha!

So early on I learned to always have a Plan "B".

Just ask my students,

when something goes wrong with one of their art pieces I always look on the bright side.

I tell them this is a great opportunity to do something even cooler with their piece 

to make it even more original that ends up fixing the mistake.

Look closely at the pix below and you will see how Rachel incorporated 

gold, silver and copper leaf a top her marbleized polymer tiles.

So well crafted and designed!

WHAT'S IN HELEN'S BOX

MOSAIC TILE BOXES

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

polymer clay, wooden box, collage papers, beads, metallic embossing powders

Senior Helen Park created this lovely mosaic box 

by making her own Polymer tiles to use on her lid.

If you've never worked with Polymer and embossing powders

you are missing out.

They are so much fun and easy!

What takes a lot of effort and knowledge is designing the tile's layout,

the color scheme,

and completely covering up all the wood with either acrylics or collage

or more tile work.

I adore the paper text that Helen incorporated into her box design.

And take a peek inside to see the Polymer fish she made.

DELIGHTS FOR THE EYE

MOSAIC TILE BOXES

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

wood boxes, polymer tiles, gold leaf, metallic rubbing compounds, acrylic paints, glass beads

After a week off for the Thanksgiving Break,

 I feel refreshed so that I can get thru the remainder of the 2015-2016 school year. 

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving with their family & friends.

Our family was very blessed and thankful to be invited to my son Zach's girlfriend's parents home,

for a day filled with delicious homemade food, love & laughter.

Thank you Mary and Nick for sharing your home, family & friends with us.

I was also thankful this year for not being responsible for everyone's food happiness.

Ha ha!  So stressful!

Thankful for my job that I love,

thankful for my two children and their health & happiness,

and thankful for the love & support of my blog friends;

namely Liz , Hazel, Lori, Grace, Jen & Jude.

So let's get to these stunningly designed & executed boxes. 

Each was built to a theme along with a specific color scheme.

They were inspired by the Polymer work of Laurie Mika in her book Mixed Media Mosaics.

This is a very popular assignment,

and as always the results are remarkable.

We'll start with senior Antoniette Jabat.

We all loved her theme and choice of colors,

along with all the little details like the glass seed and bugle beads.

And the bit of gold & copper leaf on the inside cover.

In this next one by senior Liana Chie,

she chose to replicate the ocean & sand.

We all felt it was exquisite!

Besides her top cover being so gorgeous,

I also loved how she painted the sides.

It feels as if you are under water.

I am the lucky owner of this next one by senior William Kim.

It's the first I've ever been able to purchase to teach with.

That's because most of the time these aren't finished by the Open House Show & Sale,

or if they are the kids don't want to part with them (which I don't blame them).

But I was fortunate this year to get this beauty of Williams.

His reminded me of a treasure chest,

which I think was actually his theme.

And don't you just love what he did with the gold & copper leaf around the hinges?

So beautiful Will.

I will take good care of it, 

and also have a beauty to teach with.

Thank you!

Senior Amber Wu created this next lovely piece.

Notice how she thought to put clear glass shards over top her gold & copper leaf?

We all loved her soft color scheme 

along with her subtle use of the metallic compounds rubbed over top her polymer tiles. 

So pretty Amber!

 Senior Kristine Luong has chosen to limit herself using only golds & coppers,

and working to a nature theme.

Your lid is breathtaking Kristine!

And let's see what junior Shreya Sheth has done.

Something completely different from the others.

Her theme,

downtown East Los Angeles and the skyscrapers & palm trees 

she'd see on her ride on the metro into L.A. for her internship.

Look closely and see how well thought out her piece is.

Notice the telephone lines, 

train tracks as well as how she achieved the color changes in the sunset skies.

Brilliant Shreya.

And a fun peek at her inside below.

We end with senior Hazel Cruz.

I felt like this box was fit for royalty.

We have a sun motif theme on top,

but it's her beads that really make this piece pop.

I love that she thought to change up the scale of the round ones,

along with the length of her bugles.

She spent hours gluing these all down but it was so worth it!

And the inside compliments the outside perfectly.

Thanks all of you for putting so much of yourselves into these glorious pieces!

It was an honor to share them.

xoxoxox