VOA标准英语2014--Students Fuse Art from Shattered Glass

 

Students Fuse Art from Shattered Glass

BETHESDA, MARYLAND — When Lynda Slayen first discovered fused glass about 10 years ago, she immediately fell in love with the technique.

“I’ve always loved glass. I collect glass. I have a lot of antique glass…and then I went and I saw some fused glass and that was it," Slayen said. "I took a class and that was it.”

She became a fused glass artist, which involves fusing multiple pieces of glass together to form a single object. Her vibrant¹, one-of-a-kind art is both practical and aesthetic².

Sharing the passion

Five years ago Slayen decided³ to share her passion by teaching others the technique. She holds fused glass art classes at local schools as well as in her home studio both for children as well as adults.

Brothers Luka and Hugo Bryne, ages 12 and 9, showed up at one of her workshops on a cold winter afternoon recently, eager to make some fused glass art for their family. Both had taken the workshop before.

“Here I can express and be free and I don’t have any rules to follow,” said Hugo.

Luka likes wearing the safety goggles⁴. “It makes you feel macho.”

Creating art

On this day, the brothers and four other young students will each create at least one glass object during the hour-long session.

After they choose a piece of glass, they cut or hammer other, smaller pieces of glass and combine them to make a design.

Some of the young artists will use ground glass or glass rods to decorate their pieces.

Once they finished designing, the students will glue down their pieces and get them ready for the kiln⁵, a heating chamber⁶ like a type of oven used to transform materials at high temperatures.

The students today have made candle holders⁷, dishes and paperweights. And with Valentine’s day approaching, some of the students have also made objects with a heart theme.

Mia Fontana, 8, made some glass hearts that can be used in a pendant.

Zoe White, 11, who’s been taking Slayen’s classes for the past five years, made a dish for her mother with a heart on it.

“And I made her two sets of earrings⁸ that were pink and red and white. I usually like making glass for my family; like my grandparents and my uncles and aunts because they like getting them and they love that it’s homemade,” she said.

Finding inspiration

Teaching children inspires Slayen.

“Because they’re so creative and they’re not inhibited⁹ and they’re willing to try anything they’re like ‘Oh sure, let’s do this and let’s do that,’” she said. “Whereas adults feel it has to be perfect.”

Sophia Fontana, 11, got creative with pastel-colored glass for her dish.

“I like making the glass with different colors and then seeing it after it melts,” she said.

?“I really like having the anticipation¹⁰ of knowing how it turns out,” said Evelyn Gregory, 11, who has been a regular participant in the workshops.

During the day’s workshop she made several colorful pieces of glass art, including two pairs of earrings, a butterfly paperweight and a small dish.

Slayen also enjoys the anticipation.

“Every time I open the kiln, it’s a total surprise,” she said. “You never really know what you’re going to see and how the colors and how everything comes out.”

That surprise ending is part of the reason the students keep coming back for more. 

1 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

2 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

5 kiln   

n.（砖、石灰等）窑，炉；v.烧窑

参考例句：

• That morning we fired our first kiln of charcoal.那天上午，我们烧了我们的第一窑木炭。
• Bricks are baked in a kiln.砖是在窑里烧成的。

6 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

7 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

8 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 inhibited   

a.拘谨的，拘束的

参考例句：

• Boys are often more inhibited than girls about discussing their problems. 男孩子往往不如女孩子敢于谈论自己的问题。
• Having been laughed at for his lameness,the boy became shy and inhibited. 那男孩因跛脚被人讥笑，变得羞怯而压抑。

10 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。