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Fabulous Fused Glass Tutorial: Pattern Bars

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pb_tutorial_bluestreakdetail3Fused glass pattern bars are a great way to really personalize your work. Even if you repeat the recipe each one will be slightly different and more one of a kind. I like that in glass work. It’s so easy for a lot of glass fusings to begin to look alike. So I found this great tutorial on how to make fused glass pattern bars and then fuse them together. There is no one way to make pattern bars but this one is a good place to start if you haven’t done it before. I found it on the web site Clear Water Glass Studio. Such amazing glass work!! The artist whose site it is, is Steve Immerman. Read more about him.patternbar2

And when you’re done checking out the site look at the tutorial. The possibilities are endless with what can be done. What are your favorite colors? What’s the feeling you want to create? You can take the resulting bars and cut the slices and use them for another fused piece or use the slices as tiles for a mosaic or tiles in a bathroom. How about jewelry? They can be set in silver or metal clay or drill a hole, add a jump ring and there’s a pendant. If you try this I’d love to see what you do. Send pictures. It’s such a cool project!

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Reflecting on the Past Year with Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

  • Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
  • NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
  • Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
  • The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]