Collaged Glass Plates

 

Here's a recent Art Club project that I just love!

 

We used Mod Podge and assorted tissue papers and a few handmade paper on the back of clear glass plates. I encouraged the kids to limit their choices so the papers would have unity, a design principle. (The younger the artist, the less they wanted to limit their palette-they loved all the prints and colors!)

 

I love this use of print tissue paper from House of Blues. I bought some hot sauce for my sister, but I kept the paper they wrapped it in. (Are all art teachers hoarders like me? Well, at least all my tissue paper scraps are in one box. Umm.... make that three boxes. In my garage. On the shelves. Every time my husband suggests we downsize, I realize I use at least 75% of all the space in the house and 99% of the garage. But we can still park two cars in there, so it's not THAT bad....) And all that hanging onto supplies is worth it when I see the results from my artists!

The kids and their familes loved how these turned out. A couple of things:

• Light colored tissue needs more than one layer to maintain color. White tissue almost goes transparent.
• In the past, I've allowed for choices of paint color to finish these. For ease this time, we only used gold acrylic. If I do it again, I'll offer silver or gold. Some of the plates would have looked better with cool silver instead of the warm gold poking through. 
• Handmade papers are pricey, but they add so much interest. 
• Remind kids to build backwards-applying small bits that they want to show first. (Younger kids had trouble remembering that they had to glue prints face down for them to show through the plate.)

Make it a Wonderful Day!