Lisa begun the day with an explanation of the days brief and how the students would be working with the theme Modern Day Icons. The group were split into two teams and were asked to write on a board what they considered to be iconic. After the icebreaker exercise the students had to collage onto a pre-prepared wooden board, images cut or torn out of magazines – keeping in mind the theme. These boards formed the base for their Crash Mosaics pieces.
In the afternoon the students worked in the glass studio. A demonstration of toughened glass being shattered was given.
Toughened or tempered glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and the interior into tension. Such stresses cause the glass, when broken, to crumble into small granular chunks instead of splintering into jagged shards as plate glass (a.k.a. annealed glass) does. The granular chunks are less likely to cause injury.
As a result of its safety and strength, toughened glass is used in a variety of demanding applications, including passenger vehicle windows, shower doors, architectural glass doors and tables, refrigerator trays, mobile screen protectors, as a component of bullet proof glass, for diving masks, and various types of plates and cookware.
In this instance the shattered pieces were used to make art.
The students collected shards to cover their collaged boards and spent the afternoon gluing pieces into place.
