Paper-glass windows

Arts & Activities, Oct, 2006 by Claire Blatchford

When they saw the stained-glass windows I was making with the older students, my 10- to 12-year-olds begged, "Please, can we do that, too?"

I knew I wouldn't be comfortable with them handling sharp bits of glass, using glass cutters or working with epoxy, but I didn't say no. Fostering a can-do attitude in hearing-impaired children is a significant part of what the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Mass., offers its students. I also can't say no to enthusiasm, and decided there must be a safer way they could work with bright colors, simple bold shapes and light to create a stained-glass effect.

The answer came as I was cleaning up after class. I had left a couple of stars we'd made earlier in the year on top of the filing cabinet. The stars were made of different colored folded papers and, as some were a bit fragile, I'd encased them in contact paper. Of course! We'd make paper-glass windows!

When the kids came to the next class, they found a small transparent reproduction of a design by Henri Matisse titled Christmas Eve taped to the classroom window. Although this particular design is not stained glass, it could be. Also, despite its title, it's a beautiful design for any time of the year.

I did not present any historical background on Henri Matisse or stained glass because the language of hearing-impaired children is usually not as advanced as that of hearing children. The Clarke School for the Deaf uses the oral method. For me, that meant familiarizing the children with simple words like "stained glass," "arch," "matching shapes," "repetition" and so on.

As we looked at Matisse's Christmas Eve, we talked about the arch at the top and the flat base at the bottom, and how the piece was divided into sections as if into sky and earth, with the sun and blue heavens at the top, and shapes that looked like they were growing up from the bottom. One of the girls said the stars were "raining" down on the plants!

I gave each student a sheet of 12" x 18" white paper. They were to draw an archway and base, and divide the inside of this shape into two sections representing the sky and the earth. The division between the two didn't have to be made with a line--one boy made his division with mountains. I pointed out the matching shapes on each side of the Matisse work and let them to find their own balance of forms and colors.

Next, they cut the shapes they'd drawn out of bright-colored paper and placed them on the white paper, on top of the drawn forms, one by one. I told them that, unlike Matisse's, their whole design did not have to be filled up. (I'd created a sample of my own, which was also up on the window, to show how much larger their paper-glass windows would be than the Matisse reproduction.)

Some wanted every form they cut out of paper to be like the drawing they'd done. Others changed their composition during the cutting as new ideas emerged. As you can see, one student became enamored of the zigzag scissors!

When the cutting was finished, the pieces were transferred, one by one, to a large sheet of contact paper, starting with the archway and base, and ending with the small stars. A second sheet of contact paper was laid down on top of the composition.

I must stress this had to be done very carefully. A student would hold one end of the sheet and I would hold the other, so the design wasn't upset and the contact paper didn't wrinkle. The students cut off the excess contact paper outside their archway forms, and taped their paper-glass windows in stairwell windows throughout the school.

Most of the students completed their windows in a single one-hour class. I showed them how they could cut identical shapes for each side of their window at the same time by folding the colored paper once or more. A couple tried to cut seven or more stars at once and offered the extras to their classmates. It really was "raining" stars that day?

MATERIALS

* 12" x 18" white paper

* Lightweight (16-1b.)colored paper of solid and vibrant hues (pale pastel colors can look too washed out)

* Pencils and scissors

* Contact paper

* Transparent tape for putting the windows up

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will ...

* look for and discuss the symbols, shapes and colors in a Matisse composition.

* design a composition that incorporates similar shapes and colors, paying attention to repetition, symmetry, pattern and motion.

Claire Blatchford teaches art at Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.