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Glass
Artists Newsletter - January 2007 |
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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. |
In December
we were fortunate to get some photos of
panels we completed a few months ago, but
hadn't yet been installed.
The design of the panels were based on
Greene and Greens architecture which was
very popular in the bungalow movement
circa 1920's.
You can see them by going to our
gallery.
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| Several
times, we've been called upon to produce
several pieces of glass in a French
pattern with many repeated diamonds in the
design. This month, we show detailed
instructions on how to cut many uniform
diamonds for a window. |
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Cutting
Diamonds On Very Rough Glass
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When building French style windows, we need to cut
many diamond shaped pieces and it would be tedious to draw around a
pattern piece for each one. So we came up with a system for cutting them
quickly. When we cut vecchio glass the challenge is even greater because
of the roughness of the glass.
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As you can see in this photo, the
glass has a lot of texture. It has a rough side, which I turn down for
the cutting, but the smooth side has seeds and bubbles in it, so it's
tough to get a clean cut.
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I take one diamond pattern piece and lay it out on
the sheet of glass so I can get the glass oriented. I want all the
pieces to run with the texture going up and down the height of the
diamond, so I turn the entire sheet of glass so that the straight line
I'll be cutting, lines up with the pattern piece. |
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In this photo, I've already cut a few strips and
I'm cutting one which runs the length of the sheet of glass. I dip the
cutter in oil and run the wheel up and down the glass lightly to spread
some of the oil on the surface that I'm going to score. |
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I have to hold the glass from slipping with my left
hand as I score with the glass cutter using my right hand. I exert more
pressure than I do when cutting smooth glass and I try to plow through
the spots where the cutter hits a seedy spot and wants to stop. |
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Then I grab the glass with both hands and rock them
apart to break the entire strip free from the sheet of glass. |
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Then I slide the sheet against the strip cutter
guide edge on the table to set up for the next strip. |
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Once again, I'm able to use my hands to rock the
two pieces apart. Many times I use running pliers when breaking strips of
glass, but these are wide and the glass is uncooperative. |
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This edge cut off leaving a piece that sticks out
and I have to score and break off a bit of the corner before I can line
the edge of the glass up against the strip cutter guide. |
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When I'm done, I have a whole stack of strips. |
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I then take the strips, one at a time and cut out
diamonds. I take the pattern piece I started out with and line up the
glass strip so that I'm cutting the glass at the proper angle and then I
draw a line on the workbench using a sharpie marker so I can line up
future strips with ease. |
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After scoring the diamond, I use the edge of the
strip guide as a raised straight edge to snap the glass off. |
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And I layout the diamonds on my French design
window pattern. |
