Making Art at the Museum of Glass

The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass offered a make your own heart pendant or keychain Activity Day last Saturday. I looked into it and decided it was more than I was willing to spend to make a piece of jewelry ($15). However, when I stopped at the Menasha library to check out what FAN passes were available this month, they had a FAN Pass to make the pendants. Initially I thought it was only for 1 person but they gave you four admissions. Luckily Danielle, Gavin, and Heather were available and willing to come along.

The Activity Day ran from 10-1 and it was a drop in kind of event. We all met at the museum at 10. After registering and picking up our plate, we headed downstairs to make our project. Heather, Danielle, and I chose to do a pendant and Gavin chose a keychain. We all picked out a base piece of glass and 2 hearts to lie on top of the base piece.

Once we had our base piece and hearts, we got to work designing our pieces. Besides the hearts and base pieces, we could use broken glass, beads, and tubes to design our piece.

We glued our design in place and handed it off to be fired in the kiln. Then we waited a week to see the finish pieces.

After we made our pieces, Heather and I explored the museum while Danielle and Gavin made Valentine Cards. From what I understand there is always another take and make craft on Activity Day usually somewhere in the museum. And no trip to any museum is complete without a stop in the gift shop… of course I was the only one that didn’t buy anything.

I came back on today to pick up our pieces because the hubby was afraid to break them if he picked them. They all turned out really cool. Now I just have to figure out how to wear it.

I was slightly disappointed that we couldn’t take our pieces home the same day. It required an extra trip the museum. It is nice that the museum offers Activity Days and you can make your own glass creations. Hopefully I will be able to partake in future Activity Days as the budget and schedule allows.