Fire and Art

I got a text this morning at work from Danielle

Danielle: Did you see? Fire Demonstration at 5:30!
Me: WHAT??? I like fire
Danielle: At the Glass Museum tonight -- the kids are doing a demonstration

We talked about going to the Art After Dark at the Bergstrom-Mahler Glass Museum but since we were there on Saturday and saw the exhibits, I figured I'd skip out on it since the hubby and I had plans to go to Neenah Library for a history talk tonight.

After figuring out logistics, Danielle and I were headed to Art After Dark to see some fire demonstrations. The latest exhibit at the museum featured area students glass work projects and area high school students were demonstrating making different types of glass art.

It wasn't the large scale fire demonstration with outside fires Danielle was expecting. There were several students demonstrating in the downstairs classroom how to make glass animals and one was demonstrating bead making. The only fire came from the blow torches they were using.

The glass animals were a bit hard to distinguish initially as the students were using 2 clear pieces of glass to shape the animals. As the process continue, we were able to see the animals take shape. As their animals took shape, the students added colored glass to them.

The glass beads were quicker to make and a lot cooler to watch. The student started with a color glass rod and heated it up until it started to melt. Once it get got liquidy, she "dripped" it on a metal rod while rotating the rod.

The exhibits by the area high school students were fascinating, imaginative, and creative. There were fused glass pieces, tile pieces, glass animals and other glass tube art. Each piece was very well done. It made me kind of wish there was a glass art class when I was in school.

Once we finished watching the fire workers, we headed back up stairs. Since we already checked out the exhibits, we grabbed a bit to eat (again) before donning fun hats for a quick photo shoot.

Despite not having a massive amount of flamage, it was interesting to see how some of the pieces were created. I would have liked more flamage but since the students worked with glass fusing and not glass blowing, the amount of fire was big enough. Besides at times the flame coming off the blow torch was quite impressive. I am glad that we decided to go check out the fire demonstration as it was a fun diversion to my evening.