Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Making Fun & Making Faces



Another project using Sharpies on Dollar Store plates.

Just for fun.... but aren't they all?
Pearson, my four year old grandson requested a plate with funny and scary faces on it so I had to indulge him.

His little sister Blakely, who just turned three, did not "get" the scary faces.  She has been kept pretty sheltered from scary things.  For awhile she sat  examining the faces.  With a quizzical look on her face she looked up at me and touched the top of my head and said, "You don't have horns!"

I had to laugh then she laughed, too and I think she understood a little better that it was for fun.

And just in case you are wondering... that is a Cheerios drawn into the bowl, not a doughnut and yes, I took the picture upside down.  I noticed that, too but since the faces go all around which side is up is up to you.

So here is for Pearson....funny faces with scary (in a four year old fashion) faces.

See also, for instructions on using Sharpie markers on china: Fire Up Those Sharpies.

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Fire up those Sharpies!

Something next to magical happens when a Sharpie is placed in someone's hands. 
The lines are clean and crisp and one design just leads into the next. 
I love working with Sharpies!

My kitchen now looks like a manufacturing kitchen....dishes everywhere but no food in sight!

So here's the scoop......I bought out the white china dishes at Dollar Tree. I bought several shapes and sizes of glazed white china.

The magic of a Dollar store find and a Sharpie!















I bought coffee mugs...coffee mugs that were tall and narrow, coffee mugs that were short and fat, coffee mugs with slightly fluted designs, and coffee mugs with little raised dots!

I bought plates...round plates, square plates, dinner plates and snack size plates! I even bought some red plates to play around with.
(Poor checker who got me, right? Took forever wrapping those glass dishes in paper to get me out of the store.)       

I stocked up on new Fine tipped Sharpies (the original Sharpies, not ultra-fine), made sure I had some alcohol...the kind that goes in the medicine cabinet and a few little q-tips for my many mistakes!

 Next I settled in for a  good old movie I could enjoy while listening because my attention is going to be on drawing the dish in my lap.

I started looking at those dishes and waited and waited and looked and looked even turned it in my hands as if that would matter!  And I waited for inspiration to strike me in the head like lightening....oh, but it doesn't work that way, does it?
So I took a deep breathe and got up the courage to put down the first mark!

DONE!
So there it is...the first mark! 
YIKES!
THAT WILL NEVER DO!
  Just gently wipe that stray mark away like a stray tear that slips out of the corner of an eye. 

Use a dab of  alcohol on a q-tip and wipe.  It will turn purple but wipe it again until it is comes clean using the other end of the q-tip.
I tried prepacked wet wipes for eye glasses not the wipes for  little bottoms. They work also, but I
had to keep the q-tips handy because I was using up all my wet wipes. 

I make many, many mistakes. 

Since I have the best job in the world...teaching art, I took all that glassware to school and let my students experiment on glass. 

Yesterday one of my students came by after school to show me her finished mug and get final instructions on firing the glass...in your own oven, by the way!
(And I call it firing not baking because we are talking ceramics here not cakes.)
Before she left she admitted to me,
 "I'm addicted to it now! It's so much fun."
Well, welcome to my world!!!!

Sing it Madonna....(oops!  Cyndie
, thanks Lisa!)
Girls just want to have fun-un!
Yes, girls just want to have fun!
So here are the simple, simple instructions:

Draw & Fire!
  • Place the glassware in a cold oven, set the temperature to 400-450 degrees
  • Begin your timing when the oven gets to the desired temp. 
    •  (Color markers lose their color in the hottest temps but red comes out red at 400 degrees in my oven.  Most colors faded but especially the cool colors:blue, green and purple.  Yellow turned brownish.) 
  • Fire about 40 minutes,  
  • Turn the oven off and leave the glassware to cool in the oven.  Cooling takes hours but you don't want to rush it because cooling too fast causes cracks and ruptures to form or even breaking. 
Most importantly, treasure your creative time!

UPDATE  UPDATE UPDATE!

Please, read!
Since I wrote this article back in December 2012 I have continued to experiment and have found a better method of drawing on porcelain which is dishwasher safe.

Any Color, Food Safe & Dishwasher Safe!
Using a product called Porcelaine paint which can be purchased online (I got mine through Amazon) and used small applicator bottles  to draw.(also, purchased through Amazon)

I drew as usual with my Sharpie.
Then traced my drawing with the small tip of applicator bottle in whatever color I wanted.
Allowed to dry 24 hrs then fired in my own oven at 300 degrees (150C) for 35 minutes.
The paint is more dimensional so it is slightly raised but I think that adds to the charm.
As I write this I am putting a much used dish in the dishwasher with not even a slight concern as to whether or not it will come out as I put it in.  It will!

So keep drawing with those Sharpies but make your dishes dishwasher safe with Porcelaine paint plus add colors.  Colors come out fairly true!

And thanks, Lisa for correcting my two year old mistake. Cyndi Lauper not Madonna sang "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Another design but made for the kids at Making Fun Making Faces 
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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Wreath, Angels and Bells...Oh, my!




Finished wreath hanging on my school shelves.  Well, it even makes the storage shelves pretty.  Now it adorns the door in the main office. 

Cardboard tubes for wreath
Spray painted red with a touch of diamond dust...all we need is a bow now.
Student's Angel
        My room at school is overloaded with fun projects my students are working on and it is like the kids are on bungee cords.  They keep coming back to my class when they are supposed to be in other classes. 

One magazine folded and attached to a hand painted mat board. 
They must be having fun. 

Here are some of the fun things happening in my classroom.  (All photos are student projects.)

More photos as projects are finished.

Two National Geographics Magazines
Origami bell with embellishments of diamond dust , ribbon and bow

 
Front view of Old Book Angel
Side view: Book cover/ wings



 
 
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