Monday, April 19, 2010

Art Project Final

Ages ago I did a post about the stained glass I made for my art project. I promised to do another when I was done giving more details about the project, but I procrastinated finishing and, once I finished, I procrastinated writing about it. Finally, here it is:

First, cut out one copy of your pattern and trace the pieces onto your glass. Next, use a hand tool glass cutter to score the glass.
Use pliers or a gripping hand tool to hold onto the glass, grabbing close to your score line to ensure a clean break. This part was always scary for me, especially when it took a good deal of force to snap the glass. Sometimes you will mess up, so try and have extra glass.

Once all your pieces are cut, place them on the pattern (in a placement frame) to see how everything fits.

A grinder can be used to smooth rough edges or file down places that don't fit.

Once all the pieces fit (with just a little wiggle room), place copper foiling around the edges. Make sure the foiling is pressed tightly so that it stays in place. The foiling is what the solder will stick to.

Apply flux to the foil you will be working on. Using an iron, melt the solder, placing it on the fluxed foil. This part is tricky, but you can go back and touch up the metal if there are uneven patches.

Lastly you will cut the frame, solder the edges in place, and apply tiny hooks at the top.


Obviously this is not a detailed guide, but I just wanted to give a look into the process. I thought it would be very difficult to do, but it really isn't that bad at all. My soldering isn't great and I had to redo two pieces, but it was my first time and I think it turned out nicely. Hopefully my teacher will think the same.

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