When I discovered that faux texture was an upcoming theme at Mixed Up Creative, I knew exactly what my classroom would feature as a tutorial - faux brick! I also thought it would be ironic if under this brick surface was glass. Like our ourselves, we can appear solid on the outside, but in fact be fragile and breakable on the inside.
But back to the outside. Brick is nostalgic for me. One block to the east of my childhood home was a beautiful brick orphanage, St. Thomas. I can to this day remember the scent coming from the open windows of the kitchen, the heady aroma of big vats of spaghetti sauce, a meal (alas) my steak and potatoes Irish father did not think was palatable at his dinner table. Another memory of the orphan’s home was the unforgettable, yet wildly bumpy, iceskating on the makeshift rink that the fire department created for the children in the winter (actually a depression in the barren ground filled with water from the fire hoses).
More brick was also one block to the west of my home at my elementary school. One block farther was the Ursuline Academy, now a historic landmark, where I volunteered as a teenager to polish the beautiful and intricate woodwork of the nun’s quarters. And yet another historic brick landmark just to the southeast: my beloved high school, tucked away in a residential, tree-shaded neighborhood and going strong to this day. Go Big Blue!
After I had disguised the glass of this jar with my faux brick, it took on an air of the mysterious. I felt the jar contained an unknown world. And this world would need a ‘lock’ that would reveal a secret entrance to only a select few…
I hope you will join in me in my classroom for a full tutorial on upcyling a tall glass jar into a brick and mortar mystery.
