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You
can read our current newsletter here
on-line each month, free of charge. We
hope you will take the opportunity to let
your stained glass artist friends know
about the newsletter and if you have
students, encourage them to read it.
If
you'd like a reminder when a new issue is
published simply send us your e-mail
address.
In
the meantime, we welcome your input and
support. Let us know if you have tips and
techniques or product information you'd
like to share. |
Last
month, we finished one of the two
sidelights we're building for a
consignment shop in Pleasant Grove. They
are called "The Finer Consigner"
and you can see them at www.thefiner.com.
They haven't been delivered, since we're
still soldering the second panel (10 hours
of soldering and about 15 lbs of solder
per panel.)
Jeanne is
still taking airbrush classes from Joe
Flores and getting close to finishing the
first of two painted pieces for our angel
panels.
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It
took longer to rebuild an old leaded
window than I anticipated. A friend helped
with the rebuild.
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Jeanne
is getting closer to having the first
airbrushed glass complete for our angel
window.
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| Last
month we finished showing how a sandblast
cabinet is generally setup. This month
we'll show the basics on how to sand carve
a rose in glass.
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How
To Sand Carve A Rose In Glass
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The rose we're going to carve is the
pattern to the left. To print your own copy of the rose pattern, click
here.
You'll want to print two copies of
the pattern for the next step.
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Go over the pattern and determine which pieces of
the design need to be blasted and in what order. Mark them in order
of blast and add some hints as to which direction you want to blast the
pieces.
The color bar at the bottom is a reminder as to which
color means which order. Red is going to be first and the most deep,
black will be last and the lightest blast.
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We selected thick 3/16" glass so that there is
plenty of glass to carve into. The edges have been ground and polished
so they are safe to handle and they look good.
This could have been done on 1/8" glass, but
the back where the first blasts are might be quite thin. If it were
going in an insulated unit, I would have used 1/8".
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You've got to really clean the glass well so the
resist will stick to the glass. If it doesn't stick tight, it will rise
up during blasting which will result in blurry lines.
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Once the glass is clean, you can apply the resist. We
use Anchor 18 mil rubber resist. Cut the size needed, remove the
protective paper and put it (sticky side up) on a table.
Then, place the glass on to the resist.
This avoids most bubbles in the resist.
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Then the resist is folded over onto the back of the
glass.
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As a final protection on the back of the glass,
contact paper is applied.
On little projects we sometimes leave off this
step, but when doing a multistage blast the risk of over spray on the
back is great.
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Spray the back of the paper pattern with spray
glue.
Then place the rose pattern where you want it.
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Use a brand new blade each time you begin to cut
out a resist. If a blade has been left out overnight, it tends to become
dull.
As you cut the resist, cut every single line in
the pattern. The lines will be gone after the first blast so you have to
cut them all in advance.
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Referring to the colored pattern (above), remove
the pieces for the first blast.
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Then go to the blast cabinet for the first of six
blasts. Let this first pass be the longest blast of all, you want the
lines to be deep and crisp. They will get dulled down some as the levels
of sandblasting hits these first edges. |
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You can check the depth of the cut with the tip of
a craft knife. This depth is nearly a 1/16th of an inch, so nice and
deep.
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Then take out the next pieces to be blasted. Make
sure and burnish the resist down to the glass so it won't pull up while
blasting.
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Then pull out the next pieces for the blast...
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...and the next. There's still one more blast to go
after this photo. Blast each successive level a shorter and shorter time.
This allows lines to form between each level, but not wiping out the
previous detail.
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Then you can remove the resist and clean the glass.
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We took several pictures with different lighting,
different backgrounds and never did get a shot that showed all of the
details of the rose. This one on a table showed the most detail. |
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You may want to try several
sandblasted projects. You can prepare them in advance and then just put
a contact paper resist to shoot an anniversary date to make a personal
gift.
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