Explore colour and light with this activity for kids inspired by Ilan El’s 'Colours of Light' exhibition.
Play with colour, experiment with light and be creative. Can you make your very own colourful creation? This fun activity will teach us how to make a stained-glass window from paper and cellophane, adding beautiful colour to your room.
Firstly, let's create the frame for our window!
You can make this by folding a sheet of coloured paper in half and cutting a rectangle out of the middle.
I made my border around 3cm wide
The next step is to attach the contact paper to the back of the frame.
Cut a piece of contact paper slightly larger than the size of the frame. Remove the backing paper from the contact.
I found it best to weigh down the corners of the contact paper and then place the frame onto the sticky side of the contact paper.
You can then cut the contact paper down to the size of the frame
Using the scissors, cut the cellophane into long strips and then into squares.
You might like to separate each colour into different piles.
It’s now time to add the colour to our frame.
Take a square of your cellophane and apply it to the contact paper.
Make sure to push down on the cellophane so that it’s tightly stuck to the contact.
Continue to add the squares until your frame is full.
You might like to overlap the squares slightly, as this will create new colours.
This is the final stained-glass window!
You can hold up your creation to the light and see the wonderful colours created.
You might also like to use a torch to shine light through the cellophane and see how the colours change the environment you’re in.
If you feel like a challenge and have spare materials lying around, you can also make a stained-glass window that depicts a scene.
Do this by adding pieces of coloured paper first to the contact paper to map out your image. You can then fill these sections with cellophane to create your scene.
This example is inspired by Ilan El’s work Western Wall Eastern Sky currently exhibited in the gallery.
We hope our examples give you great ideas to make your own stained-glass window.
Ilan is a master of colour, imagery, and light. We invite you to visit the gallery to see his work soon!
We would love to see your creations!
Upload a photo of your artwork below and we will share your creations on this page.
Happy making!
IMAGES > Clare Niere and Shelley Xue
Activity > Clare Niere
