Stained Glass Picspam
So I finished the glass project yesterday... at least to the point I'd meant to finish it before leaving town. I need to remember how good it feels to actually work with glass... I procrastinate too much at the unpleasant pattern-making stage that's a necessary precursor to the really fun stuff.
Anyway...
This is how I arrange colors... I put 'em in the window and play musical glass till I have a progression that pleases me. I was trying to balance out heavy/light texture and light/dark hues.
Pattern pieces marked, and cut in strips off the bigger sheets. I didn't have to buy any glass for this project; it was all leftovers from other things. But I didn't have very much of one, and another hasn't been manufactured for years, so in the interests of conservation I smoosh the pieces together as much as I can. This was as far as I got on Day 1.
Pieces all cut out and set in "beer flats", which is what my mentor always called the cardboard thingies that used to hold a case of beer, and which she'd regularly beg off the convenience store two doors down from her studio. They're good for storing cut pieces safely. Note: get ones not sticky with soda or smelling of spilt beer. This was as far as I got on Day 2 (for values of "day" meaning the period after lunch and before the Mr. gets home).
Half-leaded up. This was Day 3's progress. On Day 4 I was 8 measley pieces from finishing the leading, but it was 12:30AM and I was tired and careless and cut open my finger, so I had to stop for the night. I blogged about that because man, could I really be so stupid as to forget that glass which has not been through a grinder or saw is, y'know, SHARP? BTW, I left the Sharpies uncropped in this photo because I just discovered their paint pen, and I ♥ it muchly. It cleans up with 70% rubbing alcohol, so I don't have to fetch out the acetone like paint pen usually requires.
Day 5 was soldering day, and I did take a picture but it's pretty uninteresting, as the only difference between soldered and unsoldered is little blobs covering up the gaps between lead. I don't have enough hands to take a picture whilst posing with the solder and soldering iron poised over the work. (Though having a third hand would be useful... but then again, hard to find clothes to fit.)
I did juggle the camera enough to take this pic of what it looked like when I finished soldering the first side and lifted it off the board to flip it for doing the second side. This is the first time in any project where I get to see what it actually looks like, and whether it looks like I planned for it to look:
I was struck by how very light the pieces are around the diamond intersections top and bottom in the middle, where four rings meet. I guess since I was trying to balance light and dark it's not surprising that lights would end up all around my darkest pieces, but the concentration of blocks of color there was unexpected. I don't think it's distracting though. You can decide for yourself in my semi-finished photo, here:
Although the lead looks dark here, that's just a function of it being backlit by the window. I need to putty, patina, and polish it when I get to Mom's house. (Or more accurately, I'll putty, and then wander off to cook something while she does the more fiddly work for me.)
There will be a few more pictures of the remainder of the process, but the window is safe enough to travel now, well-wrapped, and I've got perfume, cookbooks, and a laptop to pack, as well as laundry to do. But first, I need to go sew some buttons on a corset. I am SO looking forward to that 18 hr drive... it will be the most rest I've had all week. =P
Anyway...
This is how I arrange colors... I put 'em in the window and play musical glass till I have a progression that pleases me. I was trying to balance out heavy/light texture and light/dark hues.
Pattern pieces marked, and cut in strips off the bigger sheets. I didn't have to buy any glass for this project; it was all leftovers from other things. But I didn't have very much of one, and another hasn't been manufactured for years, so in the interests of conservation I smoosh the pieces together as much as I can. This was as far as I got on Day 1.
Pieces all cut out and set in "beer flats", which is what my mentor always called the cardboard thingies that used to hold a case of beer, and which she'd regularly beg off the convenience store two doors down from her studio. They're good for storing cut pieces safely. Note: get ones not sticky with soda or smelling of spilt beer. This was as far as I got on Day 2 (for values of "day" meaning the period after lunch and before the Mr. gets home).
Half-leaded up. This was Day 3's progress. On Day 4 I was 8 measley pieces from finishing the leading, but it was 12:30AM and I was tired and careless and cut open my finger, so I had to stop for the night. I blogged about that because man, could I really be so stupid as to forget that glass which has not been through a grinder or saw is, y'know, SHARP? BTW, I left the Sharpies uncropped in this photo because I just discovered their paint pen, and I ♥ it muchly. It cleans up with 70% rubbing alcohol, so I don't have to fetch out the acetone like paint pen usually requires.
Day 5 was soldering day, and I did take a picture but it's pretty uninteresting, as the only difference between soldered and unsoldered is little blobs covering up the gaps between lead. I don't have enough hands to take a picture whilst posing with the solder and soldering iron poised over the work. (Though having a third hand would be useful... but then again, hard to find clothes to fit.)
I did juggle the camera enough to take this pic of what it looked like when I finished soldering the first side and lifted it off the board to flip it for doing the second side. This is the first time in any project where I get to see what it actually looks like, and whether it looks like I planned for it to look:
I was struck by how very light the pieces are around the diamond intersections top and bottom in the middle, where four rings meet. I guess since I was trying to balance light and dark it's not surprising that lights would end up all around my darkest pieces, but the concentration of blocks of color there was unexpected. I don't think it's distracting though. You can decide for yourself in my semi-finished photo, here:
Although the lead looks dark here, that's just a function of it being backlit by the window. I need to putty, patina, and polish it when I get to Mom's house. (Or more accurately, I'll putty, and then wander off to cook something while she does the more fiddly work for me.)
There will be a few more pictures of the remainder of the process, but the window is safe enough to travel now, well-wrapped, and I've got perfume, cookbooks, and a laptop to pack, as well as laundry to do. But first, I need to go sew some buttons on a corset. I am SO looking forward to that 18 hr drive... it will be the most rest I've had all week. =P