fandomhigh | Art, Thursday, Period Three

Class was back in the Danger Shop today and that was entirely for aesthetic purposes. They'd be working with real supplies and would be able to take their pieces home with them, but Hardison was a little extra sometimes and had decided that creating stained glass was absolutely impossible unless the students were working in a holographic version of La Sainte Chapelle.

"Mornin'!" he greeted when the class filed through the door. "So, y'all can probably guess today's project just from our surroundings. Stained glass has been used in decoration for thousands of years, an' was used in Europe heavily in the Middle Ages to teach bible stories to the general populace, most of whom couldn't read. That's why so many cathedrals an' the like have these beautiful stained glass windows in 'em, so that the parishioners could follow along with the stories as they were bein' read. There's a lot more to the history an' art of stained glass, especially its place in Islam, an' if you're interested, I've got plenty of links an' things I can share."

But this was art class and not art history, and Hardison was excited to get going. "Today, we're makin' DIY stained glass art pieces. Now, real stained glass involves a highly technical, very dangerous process with chemicals an' that's a semester's worth of lessons on its own. Since we only got an hour--less if you wanna explore the cathedral--we're gonna take some short cuts."

There were desks scattered all around the main hall of the cathedral. On them were the necessary supplies: paper, fat black markers, pieces of glass in various shapes and sizes, liquid leading, and a variety of glass stains. "Making faux stained glass is easy," Hardison explained. "First, take your marker an' draw a design on the paper. It can be a design, a drawing, it can be realistic, or heavily stylized. Anything you want--except, once again, can't be anythin' you've created for class already." No diamonds, no logos, no horses, no baked goods, no futuristic cities. Hardison was trying to get them to move out of their comfort zones. "Feel free to look around if you need some inspiration, or look through some of the books an' things I brought along about the history of stained glass."

The Islamic geometric patterns in particular were gorgeous and the art deco movement had done a lot for the use of glass.

"Once you have a pattern you like, put it down on the desk, place a piece of glass over it, an' use your liquid leading to follow the lines. Make sure they all connect, or the stain is gonna spread an' mix. Once you've got the outline done in the liquid lead, add your stain. You can mix the stain right on the glass to get different colors, or swirl 'em around for different effects. Just make sure you pop any bubbles in the stain before it dries, or they'll form imperfections on your glass. If you make a mistake with your stainin', a little hot water will clean it up an' you can start all over again. Once you're done, just let it dry an' there you go! Your own piece of stained glass art."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Religiously!

Eric Bittle

Summer Smith

Peridot

Gratuity Tucci

This one had a little bit of learning in it, even!

Huh. Peridot looked thoughtfully at the examples, noting that they were actually pretty similar to the mosaics that were once used to glorify the Diamonds, ages ago. What in her life deserved that much recognition?

Whether you're looking for ideas for your own design or just want to explore the cathedral, Hardison wasn't going to complain. There were also plenty of books to look through, going over the history of stained glass if you were curious.

Or more than one if you wanted to!

Peridot knew exactly what in her life deserved that much recognition, and now she was hard at work with stains in oranges and greens, trying to capture the best likeness possible.

Of course she was doing one to resemble Pumpkin.

"Awwwwww!" cooed Summer when she caught a glimpse of what Peridot was making.

Because, come on. Pumpkin always required a hearty awwwww!

"I believe I made the best possible decision I could make today," Peridot said, looking pleased at Summer's reaction. "Pumpkin deserves to be immortalized in glass."

Or... something.

There were so many directions to go in with this one, and maybe it was the fact that she'd get to use a lot of bright colors, or maybe it was the fact that Hardison seemed to disparage her horses so much, that Summer decided she was going to make a stained glass dedicated to Tinkles.

So, yes, that was a roughly-drawn sketch of a lamb unicorn ballerina with giant blue eyes and sparkles and rainbows shooting out of her butt.

Ha!

...although now she made herself a little sad, because it sort of sucked that Tinkles was never actually even real.

Tip was totally feeling the geometrics from the Islamic art. Since she mostly drew comics with J.Lo, the idea of something totally non-figurative was all new and exciting. She flipped through lots of examples for inspiration, and wandered into traditional mandalas, and almost got deep enough to forget to do her own art.

But only almost.

She started simple, dividing a circular canvas in half four times, then used a ruler to put together a deceptively complex pattern of repeating, intersecting lines, with a circle in each pie-wedge for spice. The result was dizzying, and probably going to end up rather more full of leading than one would generally expect from an art form meant to focus on colored glass. Maybe it was some remaining bits of her creative weaponry class, but she had an idea to mount it on a pole and spin it at bad guys to disorient them. . . .

His glass was based off of security blueprints. He thought Parker might like a set.

I did these in middle school and it was possibly the best art project my sad, talentless hands ever produced.

We did actual cut glass and soldering stained glass in high school!

I bled so much.

When I was in middle school, they made us use black construction paper and tissue paper. At least we got to use exacto knives!

In college I made one out of lighting gel samples and black acrylic paint. Not for class, just for fun. I should totally try that again. . . .

Art, Thursday, Period Three

Sign In 3

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Listen to the Lecture

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Brainstorm and Explore

Create Your Stained Glass Art

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Talk to Hardison

OOC

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