I was checking out some of the questions over at glasscommunity.com’s forum and came across a good one that I bet a lot of kiln formers/fusers have trouble with. Sometimes as I look around etsy and other sites where people sell their fused pieces I see the same situation. To me it looks like the piece was fired either too fast or too hot or both. I think this was the situation with the piece pictured at the site. I don’t necessarily want to post this picture since it is their “problem” piece. I’d rather show the solution since I want to show things in a good light. If there were before and after pictures that would be different. Have you had the problem of the sides pulling in when you’ve fired a piece? Doing a dog bone kind of thing? You’ll need to ramp it up a bit slower, fire it cooler and you could hold it longer, especially when slumping. Check out the answers to this persons question. It may help you with one of your fusing/slumping projects…
Have you read?
Mother’s Day Crafts Kids Can Make
As a crafty mom, I love the idea of Mother’s Day gifts that are made by the kids (though I stopped getting Mother’s Day presents from my kid when she aged out of making them at school). If you’re looking for some projects for kids to make for a mom or grandma in their life, these options are pretty quick and easy even if you don’t consider yourself crafty.
Asking kids questions about their parents often elicits funny responses, and a printable book kids fill out is just about as easy as a Mother’s Day craft can get. (For kids too young to read/write, an adult can fill it in for them.) This printable Mother’s Day book from Kitchen Table Classroom includes reflections like “my mom is good at” and “things we like to do together.” Of course there’s room for a drawing of mom, too!
This “circle of love” poem and craft from The Preschool Toolbox Blog is another relatively low-prep and effort craft that’s super sweet. You could also use hoop earrings as your circle, or even a pipe cleaner to make it super simple for little kids to make.
Flowers are a classic project for kids to make for Mother’s Day, and there are lots of easy ways to do it. One year my daughter’s class did paper flowers out of hearts, kind of like these from Happiness is Homemade (this one uses a Cricut, but it would also be super easy if you have a heart-shaped paper punch!). I’m sure they also made coffee filter flowers at some point, because that’s a classic. Get a tutorial for those from One Little Project.
Or kids can paint flowers with watercolors and cut them out to use them on a card, make a garland or make 3D flowers. Get the instructions from Barley & Birch. The 3-D tulips from Arty Crafty Kids are also super easy to make because you can just print out the template, have kids decorate the petals, then cut out and assemble the flowers. The template download is for members only but you can get the idea from the tutorial.
A picture frame with a picture of mom and kids or a piece of a child’s art in it is always a great idea, and with this simple tutorial from Red Ted Art you can add a homemade twist to the picture frame by adding newspaper swirls to a frame made from a cereal box. It’s so cute and you probably already have all the supplies you need.
For a fun semi-homemade gift, decorate a flower pot and add a plant. Crafts by Amanda has a cute paint drip flower pot idea, but there are all sorts of options you can do. My daughter’s class also did this once, just drawing on the pot with paint pens.