UNK Art Day
Stained Glass Trip to Omaha
By: Mrs. Allison Varah
By: RaNay Casper
Litchfield students had a chance to walk the halls as college
students along with sitting in class with UNK professors last
Wednesday, September 14. Students were able to see what it
would be like to take a glass-blowing class with Prof.
Ramsey or a printmaking class with a world famous
Professor from Russia! Some students tried out the college
graphic design computers and made zombies out of famous
people’s photos just in time for Halloween. This was a pilot
day for UNK, Litchfield was one of the lucky schools to be
personally invited along with seven other schools including
Grand Island and Kearney.
The art program treated us to lunch at the Union and
professors took time to look at student portfolios. Students
enjoyed stepping into the shoes of college students and all
said they could see themselves in that setting as art majors.
UNK sent us on our way home with freebies including neat
art supplies and ‘stylin’ UNK bags. It is obviously a good
recruiting program for UNK but also showed interested
students what a major or minor in art might look and feel
like anywhere. From my standpoint as the art teacher, no
bias here, we have many students who would thrive as art
majors, so much talent here at Litchfield!
Arriving at Rainbow Artistic Glass Richard Baines gave Metal
Art students a tour of the business where they create
commissions for churches and individuals alike. There were
beautiful examples of the two types of stain glass, foiling
and leaded stain glass techniques. Then Richard began
taking students through the steps of creating an entire stain
glass piece which we completed in one day. First we cut out
the glass pieces, used a grinder to get them to the perfect
shape then foiled them. Then we cleaned them up, added
flux and learned to solder it all together. Tessa LeFever’s
favorite part was soldering because she liked putting it all
together for the finished product. My favorite part was
designing the way the colors would be arranged. Lori Bay
said “I liked learning to cut the glass and finding out that I
could cut any shape or size I wanted.” We ended the trip
with a picture of all of us at the Artistic Glass studio in front
of the largest collection of glass in the state of Nebraska. We
will be continuing with stained glass projects for the next
two quarters, this was a great way to kick start our stain
glass experience.
Students at UNK Art Day- photos by Allison Varah
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Students at Metal Art Field Trip- photos courtesy of Allison Varah