Glass Icicle Fun

When we made our heart pendant last month at the Bergstrom-Mahler Glass Museum, I saw that the Mach Art Activity D ay was to make an icicle. As much as I enjoyed making the pendant, I thought the icicle project would be something I would actual use. I figured it would make a great Christmas tree ornament. I managed to snag a FAN pass from the Appleton Public Library for 2 admissions to Art Activity Day so Danielle and Gavin joined me.

We decided to avoid the initial rush and got the museum a little later than last month. We were advised that it was still crowded in the classroom so we might want to enjoy the craft activity first.

The craft activity to make pipe cleaner icicles with beads. Each of opted for different color beads and pipe cleaners.

It was a simple, fun craft but twisting it onto the pencil to make to the curls was a bit tricky.

I think used too many beads but I wanted double blue and gold. It really doesn't look like an icicle...

Once we had our pipe cleaner icicles constructed, we head downstairs to the classroom to make our glass icicles. The first thing we had to do was pick out our icicle -- oh the decisions... big, short, fat, skinny, lots of jags, no jags... I finally settled on the one I thought looked most like an icicle.

Then we used glass rods, beads, and confetti to decorate our icicle. Because I wanted to do ornament, I decided I wanted an "Wisconsin" icicle so I broke red rods into little pieces to construct the "W". Then I added red confetti to the rest of the icicle. It definitely look kind of what I envisioned. I just hoped when they fired it, the "W" wouldn't melt into a blob.

Gavin was more of all or nothing kind of guy while Danielle stuck to more of blue color scheme.

Like last month we had to wait to pick up our icicles... We happened to go to Art After Dark this month and actually got our icicles a day early.

And it turned out very cool. I can't wait to hang it on the tree this Christmas.

I really like the Art Activity Days. Maybe one day I will look into taking a class at the museum. Art Activity Day is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to glass crafts since we don't any of the fusing or fire work. I would love to learn more about glass fusing or glass bead making. Who knows maybe I will get lucky and score a FAN Pass to one of the classes.