Stained Glass
Christmas projects finally revealed
0So this past Christmas I did an order for a friend for his girlfriend. He wanted to have me make a mini tiffany lamp for her. He picked out a pattern, colors, and away I went!
Unfortunately I was rushing towards the end to get the lamp done and to him that I forgot to take a final picture. When I get one from him I’ll make sure to post it. Until then, here is a series of pictures to show the creation of the gift.
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 Pinned pattern to lamp form and cut out pattern pieces. |
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Copied pink pattern pieces to glass and cut out |
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 Cut out pink pieces and pinned to form. |
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 Added the yellow pieces. |
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 Green leaves. |
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 Copied background pieces to glass to make sure I had enough before I began. |
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 Added background pieces to form. |
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 All pieces done, foiled, and ready to put together. |
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 Top view of the previous. |
design contest
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You may remember this cabinet from way back. I have decided it’s time to finally finish this project once and for all. And to make it even more fun, i’m opening up my project to everyone in the form of a contest.
What you should do:
Download one of the templates below, draw what you think the windows should look like and send it back. You can print it out and scribble all over it or you can get out paint/photoshop and have-at-it graphically.
Winner:
Winner gets their design created and installed into the cabinet. While you don’t get the cabinet, you do get the bragging rights. Design may also be placed on myglasspatterns.com along with artist name & picture. I may come up with other prizes, but we’ll see what entries come in.
Templates
Low-quality GIF
1-page PDF
Adobe Illustrator (Zipped)
finished the lamp
0I finally finished the lamp after working ALL DAY on it. My tummy hurts from the stress. At least it finds it’s new home tomorrow.
I should be thrilled, but I’m not. I’m rather depressed and cranky. I either need lots of love or plenty of alone time, I don’t know what it is.
*pout*
work, spayed, glass, christmas
0I keep meaning to write about things happening, but then something always seems to come up and stop me. It turns out I will not be in the office full time. Evidently my “boss” (I have no idea what to call people sometimes) intervened and told headquarters that being in the office would be a big loss of productivity for me…. so now I’m just in the office on Mondays.
In other news, Monkey and Ms. Cleo were spayed two days ago. They are still hopped up on painkillers but are almost back to themselves now. They still are not jumping around too much, but it is a great improvement from KC having to help Monkey get each paw into the litter box. Ms. Cleo has really seemed to chill out, she really has not been demanding any attention and Monkey is even more lovey than before. I am happy that they do not hate me for taking them in. I was warned they could hold that against me for a while.
My glass project is nearing completion. I began foiling it last night and hope to have it done by Friday evening even if it kills me, heh. I was up till 3am last night working on it and didn’t get that far.
Last of all, KC and I exchanged gifts last night. We decided it would just be easier to do it now since weekend plans include driving to the coast and we did not want to drag it all down with us as we did last year. Besides, several gifts were too big. I’ll post more on this later!
1 more color down
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I’ve pretty much grounded myself this weekend from going out or doing anything. Projects had to be worked on and I couldn’t make excuses.
I got quite far this weekend and am pretty happy with the progress. I have 1 color left to cut, which is about 10 pieces or so, and then I can put it together and get it off to the buyer for christmas!
12 days left
0I have 12 days left (.. i think) until all my projects need to come to an end. I didn’t get as much as I would’ve liked to have finished last weekend, but I still have this weekend also.
My newest project consists of 5 colors, 2.5 of which are already done. I still have 2.5 colors left and then soldering it together. I’ve been grinding as I go, so I am trying to keep in mind I actually have more done than it seems.
I put several more rows on my blanket today…it is now at 1.5′ about…still a lot to go, but I’ll keep plugging away at it every night before dinner.
Today is actually going well…i kept really busy. I don’t have time to feel stressed, hehe.
locked in
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I pretty much just locked myself in for the weekend. I have a lot of projects to get done before christmas. This weekend I plan on spending all weekend cutting glass and getting as far as possible on my current order. It’ll be a christmas gift for someone, so I can’t make any excuses.
Talk about holiday stress… oy! Also a blanket I’m making for someone is not far enough. I spent several hours on it last night and it’s just over a foot long so far. *slams head on desk* I kept starting it over since I didn’t like it or for a number of other excuses. Now I’m on take 4 and pretty much keeping it a straight blanket without any frills. I kinda have to if I’m going to finish in time. I can already see myself sitting there on christmas morning still working on it in front of the person who gets it, lol. I’m going to keep going at it and hopefully that won’t happen. That would suck. |
stressing on projects
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I have my next project’s pattern all cut out. Now I’m selecting the glass.
Yes, I’m even stressing out over colors. What if this isn’t what they wanted? What if I run out of this color and can’t find more… what if… *screams*
everything begins anew
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After every project, I like to clean my whole work area. It is my own practical little ritual, sad and exciting. Sad that my latest creation is done and either packed away or on its way to its new owner. Exciting in the sense that a new creation is about to be brought into existence. From my mind to paper. From my paper to glass.
I never know how I am going to feel at this point. It usually depends on whether my next creation is an order, or if it will be something I decide to create on my own. My next few pieces will undoubtedly be orders or Christmas gifts. This is fun but also can be mundane.
Since I know the next one will be a gift, I suppose I will have to cut out the daily updates until after they are given.
What a bummer.
wrapping the project up
2And the last few steps were completed today as well. YAY.
After having worked on it today, it was covered in flux and general grime. I took it to the sink and splish-splashed it around in hot soapy water. After having worked on it with a hot soldering iron it is extremely important to use HOT water. Dunking your glass into cold water would thermo-shock it and shatter the whole thing… like throwing ice cubes in hot coffee. SNAP! After having spent so much time, it’s really the last thing you want to do at this point.
After washing, I dried it thouroughly and then took some patina too it. Patina, like flux, is magic in a bottle. Patina is even more magical in my opinion. My antique black patina instantly turns the solder black. Patina comes in several colors (copper, green, etc..), but black is obviously the most popular. It brings out the colors in the piece by dimming the shiny silver of the solder. And if your soldering is sub-par, patina will hide a world of sins.
After applying patina, I gave it a quick rinse with plain water. No scrubbing or soap is necessary as they may remove the patina. The only thing left is to shine it up with some finishing compound, which works just like a wax. So that’s it, a whole project in a nutshell! Time to wrap this one up for christmas and start on the next present.
Jingle bells…jingle bells…
If you are interested in this pattern, it can be purchased at http://myglasspatterns.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_21&products_id=30
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