Sanford Tree Brightens Longwood Gardens

Faculty members Betty O'Regan and Nina Silverman directed the work of the students who created mosaic balls and metallic stars. The ornaments were created using a variety of techniques, including the painted paper technique developed by Eric Carle. The mosaic balls were created with metallic cardboard pieces that were cut and glued onto the surface and then grouted. Other ornaments were created by students who made textures using found objects and tools which were pressed into slabs of clay, bisque fired, and then decorated with metallic paints.

The ornaments served as an exploration of the possibilities of textures pressed or indented into soft clay. The large textured slabs that the students created for the next project (musical instruments—shakers or rattles to be used at an upcoming concert) were bent, folded, or molded to create pods (such as a cone, pillow, box, cylinder.) Students were charged with figuring out how to make an instrument to hold bits of clay inside, so that the instrument will make a sound when shaken.

The exhibit opened Thanksgiving day and will run through January 6, 2013.