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Glass
Artists Newsletter - October 2006 |
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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. |
There
is an art show we want to enter our
"Women Of Faith" series in this
month. So we have to have all seven of
them complete. We worked on two during
September and we'll have to complete two
more between now and the entry deadline.
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| Last
month we showed you our plans with
instructions on how to build your own
inexpensive glass workbench. This month we
want to show you steps to clean and then
patina a window. |
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How
To Clean And Apply Patina
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Okay, it's not brain
surgery, it doesn't even sound that
complicated, but if you follow these
steps, you'll have success when applying
patina, and if you don't, you'll end up
with very mixed results.
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1. Patina is a
chemical that changes the color of the
outer layer of a metal. Sculptors apply it
to statues to age them and copper roofs
sometimes get patinas applied to them to
hurrying the aging process along.
The element that
is common in all applications is that the
metal needs to be clean for the chemical
reaction to work well.
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2. To
get our window clean, we first apply a
blue window cleaner to the window to get
the major debris off of it. The flux we
use in making windows is water soluble, so
the blue cleaner does a good job cleaning
it from the surface of the window. So
squirt some on and then towel it off.
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3. Next
we need to clean the window even more thoroughly
so that it will readily accept the patina.
We apply kwik-clean brand cleaner. It
chemically removes flux that might remain
on the lead we want to patina. So we
squirt some on and then towel it off,
getting it nice and dry.
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4. Now
we can apply patina. The patina will
dissolve the rag that is used to apply the
chemical, so we use one which is very
small and then toss it out when we get
done. We don't use paper towels in any of
the steps because they disintegrate.
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5. Here we are
applying black patina. It's important to
pour a generous amount of the patina on
the window. Flooding the area lets the
patina react properly. If too little is
used, the patina may try to turn copper
instead of black.
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6. Here we are
applying copper patina to a panel. It
needs to be applied generously or it will
try to turn black. Avoid running any of
the patina to the outside edges of the
window if it has a zinc border. Zinc will
react to the patina and turn black and
then try to turn the rest of the lead
black instead of copper.
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7. Once the
reaction has taken place we can clean the
window again. We flood the window with
water (or blue window cleaner) and then
use kwik-clean to clean and neutralize the
patina. It needs to be applied generously
so that there is enough to get under and
around all the places where patina might
have gotten.
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8. Finally, we
apply wax to the window to seal the lead
lines so that they won't get corrosion as
easily. We use Clairity brand finishing
compound. we pour a small amount on the
window and rub it all over the surface.
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9. We let the wax
dry. And then rub it vigorously with clean
dry rags. We rub and buff vigorously till
the window glistens.
The only time we
skip this step is when the art glass is
insulated. In that case the wax prevents
the binding butyl rubber from sticking to
the art glass.
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We used black
patina and the metal begins to shine and
glisten and almost looks silver, but it
really is black at the right angle.
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Here are the completed, backlit copper
panels. They glisten
from the waxing and the polishing. They
really look like a piece of art.
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