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Blown glass is one of those things you can't help but "oooo" and "aaahhhhh" over. One of the favorites is still the large Chihuly sculpture in the center of the Indianapolis Children's Museum.
Blown glass is also an art that little kids can't really experiment with. The basement of the museum has an activity that allows kids to experience glass art with plastic pieces.
In fact my kids loved this activity so much we made our own version of these glass sculptures.
But after our second visit to the museum, we wanted another way to experience glass sculpture at home.
My aunt had made an amazing version with one of her art classes, and she won her school an awesome prize with it too! So while we were out there this year we started one with her (and finished it at home when we had more materials).
I cannot take any credit for this awesome craft; it was all my aunt's idea!
Supplies to Make Hanging "Glass" Art
- Plastic Water Bottles (the cheaper the better)
- Colored Sharpies
- Scissors
- Wire Hanger (or other piece of wire)
How to Turn Plastic Bottles into Awesome Sculptures
1. First you need the really cheap, thin water bottles with their labels removed.
2. Gather a bunch of them and color them all with permanent markers. Any permanent marker will do; we have a ton of Sharpies, so that is what we used at home.
3. Then starting just a little above the bottom, cut the bottle in a spiral almost all the way up!
At this point my kids found they were a lot of fun to play with like this. The girls also enjoyed coloring designs on the bottle and then watching how the designs changed once the bottles were cut!
Once you get the kids back on track, you need some sort of wire. We used a coat hanger.
4. We opened the top and threaded the bottles on the wire. Once they were all there we closed it back up and it was ready to hang.
Once you have them all attached, hang and enjoy! Here are a few pictures of ours! It finally ended up in the play room in front of a window because I wasn't sure it would hold up to wind and rain.
May not be as impressive as the Chihuly sculpture, but it is still quite pretty (and much safer for little hands).
Make one as big or small as you want, and it is fairly mess free as long as your little ones can handle markers well.
Definitely a fun art project kids can use to explore glass sculpture safely! A big thank you to my lovely aunt for sharing it with my kids (and now all my readers)!
Find more amazing art projects on our Pinterest Art Board!
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