The first time I witnessed a roll up was at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. It was absolutely amazing to watch. The piece being made was a very large, and would become the globe for a lamp. I never saw the finished piece but the process was forever stuck in my mind. I used to think I really wanted to do roll ups. Then I had a dose of reality. I am not going to be a glass blower. My interests are in lampwork and kiln forming. Ah, kiln forming. That’s how a roll up starts. I’ve watched more and more roll ups and realized I could make a cool piece of glass and someone else can roll it up. So finally I got one done. It’s lovely and it was blown by Ryan Staub from Washington. He comes into town regularly to do roll ups over at Pacific Art Glass. In fact, he’s there right now. Doing roll ups. Check out this video from Eugene Glass School. Also you can check out an explanation of the process at Bullseye’s web site. And the picture is of the piece Ryan blew for me…
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Printable Houses to Use as Christmas Decorations
I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.
If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.
This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.
The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.
Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.