Finished window project

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tbach
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:35 pm
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon

Finished window project

Post by tbach »

Please accept my apologies in advance for the long posting, but I felt that it would be better to explain the whole process than just to post a picture.

Started this project more than a year ago – speedbumps and chaos put it on the back burner. Our daughter took a digital photograph in Noble Woods, a beautiful wooded park less than a mile from our homes. Once I saw the photo, I wanted to screenprint the design on glass and reverse paint it with glass enamels. I tested the process by making a 10”x15” hanging panel (can be viewed at http://www.tedbachglass.com), and decided to use the same design for a 22”x46” window in our home. The only major change I made was to screenprint the basic design on the front of the glass and to apply spot colors on the reverse side instead of doing both on the reverse. This change resulted in more texture when viewed from the front side.

The panels are not that large, but they are almost too big for my Skutt 1014 kiln. Each panel is 10”x17” – soon I discovered that the images were too large to be processed on my laser printer, they were too large for the silkscreens I normally use, too large for my exposure setup, and too large for my printing setup. I encountered problems with every step because of the larger scale. Once I actually set my mind to finish the project, however, things went more smoothly that I had expected. Each speedbump became a lesson learned.

The original image was tweaked in photoshop to render a sharp black and white image. The image was then separated into four panels, which were then sent to a blueprint company in digital format to be printed on vellum for exposure on my silkscreens. Each panel was screen printed on Uroboros 90coe 6mm clear glass with FuseMaster low fire black glass enamel and fired. The next step was to add spot color with FuseMaster Transparent enamels on the reverse side of the glass, using hand cut clear vinyl masks. I chose to airbrush the enamels to get even coverage, and that choice allowed me to do some shading, most noticeable in the sky. When all of the spot colors were applied and fired, the back of each panel was airbrushed with several coats of Reusche Matt White Translucent enamel to emulate sandblasting. Then each panel was fired once again. In total, these panels were fired over twenty times from start to finish . . . and that doesn’t include the re-do that was necessary when I foolishly leaned my elbow on the middle of one panel while trying to remove a piece of vinyl mask from another panel next to it. I still can hear the sound of that crack in my brain!The completed panels were placed in the custom wood frame using glazing points, and the frame was installed in the existing window frame.

This is the largest glass project I have ever attempted, and it was fun, interesting and exciting at every turn. I am very pleased with the final result. After this experience, I’m not so easily convinced that “size doesn’t matter!”
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Last edited by tbach on Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
glass-lady
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:43 pm
Location: Wilmington, NC
Contact:

Re: Finished window project

Post by glass-lady »

This is so impressive! Thank you so much for posting; it's inspirational.
Drewcilla
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:10 am

Re: Finished window project

Post by Drewcilla »

Wow! Truly beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing and thanks, too, for the detailed information about your process.

Drewcilla
tbach
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:35 pm
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon

Re: Finished window project

Post by tbach »

Thanks for your encouragement.

Corrected the link to my gallery page . . . you can view my smaller test panel and original photo there.
JamesL
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 1:08 pm

Re: Finished window project

Post by JamesL »

Very impressed! Beautiful work.
Vonon
Posts: 194
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:32 pm
Location: East Tennessee

Re: Finished window project

Post by Vonon »

The completed piece is just beautiful and I,too,appreciate your descriptions of both process and problem solving. Your website is a wonderful catalog of your progress through the fused glass adventure. Thank you so much for sharing.

One question. After you fired the translucent white (on the back to simulate sandblasting) did you then flip and fire to polish the front?
Vonon
tbach
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:35 pm
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon

Re: Finished window project

Post by tbach »

Actually, that's one of the "lessons" I learned through this project. I discovered that when I fired the spot colors on the reverse, I had to use thinfire between the prefired black enamel on the front and the kiln shelf. That is the only way to keep the enamel surface flat and shiny - on the one panel that I fired directly on the shelf, the enamel picked up a "texture" from the kiln shelf . . . didn't like the look of that at all. Luckily, that texture almost disappeared in the multiple firings done afterwards for other spot colors and matt white enamel . . . although subtle, I can still tell the difference in that panel from the others.

The other lesson I learned is one that I can use on the next similar project - the matt white lightens the color tints under it. Not sure how that happens, but it does. So in the future I will aim for more color saturation in the spot colors when I air brush them.

Thanks for your comments.
lavender_guitar
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:07 pm

Re: Finished window project

Post by lavender_guitar »

Im inexperienced. Did you consider firing it on a piece of white?
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