Second Class Works On Second Seating Chandelier

Midday I was back over at Houston Community College Southeast with June to oversee the second group of students who began to cut designs into Clorox bottles. All worked intently with knives and hole punches. Some of the works in progress' are lovely.

For many, this 'making' of an overall pattern is a brand new concept. Also new for some is understanding the differences between abstract and representational cutouts, a swirly form versus a heart or a cross. All kinds of designs and patterns are emerging.

Today we had enough knives for every single student. I bought a dozen more at Art Supply yesterday because Monday's students had to share knives and hole punches and just didn't accomplish as much in the hour and a half of time.

It's really interesting to see all the different approaches to making the design cutouts. Some students map out their design with blue masking tape and are very methodical, others try out a bit of everything. Still others stick to representations of hearts and flowers and arrows and today, even clusters of dog paws.

One student almost finished work on her bottle. Her swirls were graceful and so wide open that the bottle lost much of its inherent strength. As we ran a table cloth through it, the bottle compressed like a spring. The pattern is lovely and we're going to have to treat this bottle carefully.

We have one more week of class time and then we'll string the bottles on white tablecloths rolled on the bias. It's high time that I come to a decision about a welder and chandelier 'builder' to fabricate the structure on which to hang all of these bottles - and a mirrored rotating ball.