Artist teaches St. Vincent Paul students to work with glass

Courtesy of Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic School

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SALT LAKE CITY — Every year, Saint Vincent de Paul School hosts a one-week "Artist in Residence" program to enlighten its students on a different art medium. This year the students in 1st through 8th grades worked with glass artist Allison Klinger from Western Art Glass.

Students learned about Louis Tiffany, types of glass that can be used in kilns, how glass gets its color, strategies on lying out glass, and scoring (cutting) glass. All students then worked together on a glass project to create a 4-foot diameter "Saint Vincent’s Crest." This crest will be fused together, kilned and in a few weeks hung outside at the Saint Vincent’s school entrance. The students’ assistance with this crest will be a great addition to the school.

Also as part of the residency program, each student got to work on their own 4 x4 glass tile, which they will get to take home. Each student created their own unique design by laying out different pieces and shapes of glass. Klinger will then take the items back to her shop to kiln.

Klinger has worked with glass for 12 years. After college, She worked for Creative Glass Company as a manager for six years. When that glass company closed six years ago, she started touring the United States and taking classes on glass art work and opened Western Art Glass. She continues to study glass throughout the country and especially enjoys traveling to the Corning Glass Museum to take classes. Some of her unique glass tiles can be found throughout the Cathedral of the Madeleine in areas surrounding the baptismal font.