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Glass Curtain

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:25 am
by deena
I would like to do a glass curtain of 3x3 tiles on my bathroom window. Does anyone have any suggetions as what to use for connectors. I have tried wire wrapping but would prefer a cleaner look.

Thanks Deena

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:31 am
by rosanna gusler
how big is your window? rosanna

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 9:49 am
by Bert Weiss
deena wrote:I would like to do a glass curtain of 3x3 tiles on my bathroom window. Does anyone have any suggetions as what to use for connectors. I have tried wire wrapping but would prefer a cleaner look.

Thanks Deena
Deena

Sounds like a neat idea. What about brass tubing glued on with 1/16" cable running through the tubing pieces . If the tubing is longer than the glass, it will keep glass from touching glass. You could also do some sort of decorative spacers like a wooden bead or something.

Post pictures after you figure it out

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:08 pm
by charlie
you could fuse rings in the corners of each glass piece, and then just wire them together with small jump rings, or run wires from top to bottom and thread the glass tiles on the wires.

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:54 pm
by Don Burt
You could get 'H' shaped lead strips and cut them and solder them together as channels. I've seen it done before.

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 1:01 pm
by Brock
db wrote:You could get 'H' shaped lead strips and cut them and solder them together as channels. I've seen it done before.
What a fantastic idea. Do you have pictures? It sounds interesting. Brock

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 3:19 pm
by Cynthia
deena wrote:I would like to do a glass curtain of 3x3 tiles on my bathroom window. Does anyone have any suggetions as what to use for connectors. I have tried wire wrapping but would prefer a cleaner look.

Thanks Deena
http://community.webshots.com/album/62967227AfKlWJ

Take a peek at these. I did Charlotte's piece for a large ground floor bathroom where she needed both the light and some privacy. The tiles are 6" x 6". Joni's is similar, but smaller in scale.

The concept isn't mine but was adopted and a bit adapted from a book by Bettina Eberle called Creative Glass Techniques. She used copper wire, but I used steel cable for Charlotte's. It worked, but I didn't like the look so swiched it out for 180 lb. test fishing line to thread through the channels. I used 1/4" stops and ferrules to finish off the ends of the cable and to create the buffer between tiles. They are both fabulous looking as well as functional. It's an easy piece to work up as well.

The channels are made by placing fiberpaper strips between each piece of glass then reaming it out after firing.

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 3:38 pm
by JoanB
Cynthia...

Those are so gorgeous they dragged me right out of lurk mode :-)

How did you get those textural patterns on the glass? (If this is a really basic question, or has been covered, just direct me to the place in the archives)

Thanks!

JoanB

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:05 pm
by Cynthia
JoanB wrote:Cynthia...

Those are so gorgeous they dragged me right out of lurk mode :-)

How did you get those textural patterns on the glass? (If this is a really basic question, or has been covered, just direct me to the place in the archives)

Thanks!

JoanB
Thanks Joan. Glad I could entice you to come out of lurk mode. It's done with ceramic fiber paper. It's called "kiln carving" by Bullseye but is simply a technique for creating bas relief in any style you like. Regardless, info on how it's done can be obtained through their Tip Sheets. If this link doesn't work, just go Bullseye's site from the sponsors header on this page and look under their education header or the like.

http://www.bullseyeconnection.com/pdfs/ ... eet_01.pdf

This is the site addy. You'll need acrobat reader for it to come up.

It's something I learned to do in a "basics of fusing" class I took years ago when I first started in glass, and it's still a technique that I use frequently today. The possibilities for imagery or texture are innumerable and it's easy to do.

Enjoy.

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:35 pm
by Don Burt
Brock wrote:
db wrote:You could get 'H' shaped lead strips and cut them and solder them together as channels. I've seen it done before.
What a fantastic idea. Do you have pictures? It sounds interesting. Brock
Dick Weiss is pretty good at it:
http://www.travergallery.com/artists/dw_main.html

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 5:01 pm
by Rebecca M.
Dick Weiss is pretty good at it:
http://www.travergallery.com/artists/dw_main.html
Ooooooh! Those are lush. Somebody slap me because it makes me want to take up glass blowing. 8)
Hmmm, I wonder if fused glass interior shutters would be possible? Too much weight?

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:27 pm
by Clifford Ross
Becca- - - no weight is too heavy when you can figure out how to mount the thing. :wink:

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:42 pm
by Patty Gray
Nice work Cynthia, using color instead of just clear is a nice addition to Eberle's pieces. Patty

Glass Curtain

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:14 am
by deena
It is 2 1/2' by 3 1/2'. thanks again for all of the great ideas. I will post a picture when I get it done.

Deena

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:21 am
by deena
Cynthia, the curtain was beautiful. the connectors do not distract from you tiles.

Thanks for the information
Deena

(I forgot to put this in my last post, sorry)

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:29 pm
by Terry Ow-Wing
Is each tile made separately or do you make one row of tiles with the fiber inserts and cut them apart after firing and then refire? How do you keep the fiber paper absolutly straight so that the grooves will line up in the finish piece. Thanks - Terry Ow-Wing


"
The channels are made by placing fiberpaper strips between each piece of glass then reaming it out after firing.[/quote]

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:41 pm
by charlie
Terry Ow-Wing wrote:Is each tile made separately or do you make one row of tiles with the fiber inserts and cut them apart after firing and then refire?
depends. do you want the interior edges to be cut, or rounded?
Terry Ow-Wing wrote: How do you keep the fiber paper absolutly straight so that the grooves will line up in the finish piece.
carefully. cut each tile the exact same size. cut the fiber paper with a razor knife using a straightedge. measure where each fiber channel will be, perhaps drawing a template on paper so you can overlay the glass and fiber strips the same for each tile.

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:51 pm
by Cynthia
Terry Ow-Wing wrote:Is each tile made separately...? How do you keep the fiber paper absolutly straight so that the grooves will line up in the finish piece. Thanks - Terry Ow-Wing
http://community.webshots.com/photo/629 ... 1181QgroGy

I made up each tile separately. I center and place the fiberpaper for the channels in the same measured location for each tile. They aren't perfectly lined up, but that didn't create any issues. The biggest issue was that the fishing line stretches from the weight, so I let it hang for a week, then snugged it all up from the top to get it to hang straight. As long as you have it lined up from top to bottom, side to side sorts itself out. This isn't a tight, hard line kinda finished project, so you don't need to be ultra meticulous and getting them absoulutely straight isn't a must. Look at the image again and you can see that it's rather loose in it's overall look and execution.

Pick up or borrow Bettina Eberle's book Creative Glass Techniques to see how she tackled this project.

Re: Glass Curtain

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:06 pm
by Paul Bush
Cynthia wrote:
deena wrote:I would like to do a glass curtain of 3x3 tiles on my bathroom window. Does anyone have any suggetions as what to use for connectors. I have tried wire wrapping but would prefer a cleaner look.

Thanks Deena
http://community.webshots.com/album/62967227AfKlWJ

Take a peek at these. I did Charlotte's piece for a large ground floor bathroom where she needed both the light and some privacy. The tiles are 6" x 6". Joni's is similar, but smaller in scale.

The concept isn't mine but was adopted and a bit adapted from a book by Bettina Eberle called Creative Glass Techniques. She used copper wire, but I used steel cable for Charlotte's. It worked, but I didn't like the look so swiched it out for 180 lb. test fishing line to thread through the channels. I used 1/4" stops and ferrules to finish off the ends of the cable and to create the buffer between tiles. They are both fabulous looking as well as functional. It's an easy piece to work up as well.

The channels are made by placing fiberpaper strips between each piece of glass then reaming it out after firing.
Great look Cynthia. I have this book, and have been wanting to do something like this. I get the ferrules between the tiles as spacer, but what did you use at the end of each run that looks everything in place?

Cheers,

Paul

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 1:00 am
by Cynthia
Ferrules. I just looped the line back into the ferrule and crimped it.