Kanji, Part Deux...

Another piece I foiled today at work, and soldered when I got home...

The yellow most definitely stands out better when the piece is laying down (way more so than the previous kanji piece I made). Still have some pretty special magic when the sun hits it:



This piece is supposedly kanji for "family". I think there might be two symbols with it, this being the first one of them. I might have to get some verification on it, since I'm woefully ignorant on most things Japanese.

If anyone has further contribution or clarification, by all means, please feel free to share with me.

Kanji! SO VERY EXCITED about this one!

Ok, so I've been dying to try some common Japanese characters just to see how they'd turn out. Well, it definitely came out better than I expected. Take a look...

Looks pretty droll, doesn't it?

Now, here's where the magic comes into play:

The symbol is Japanese kanji, and represents the word "eat".  The colors are absolutely PERFECT for this medium. I'm not even sure I want to sell it now, I'm thinking it might go perfectly in my own kitchen window!

Can't quite finish this piece yet because we're short on zinc came, will have to wait until payday so we can procure more supplies.  Next piece is the kanji symbol for "family", and it look like this:

so we'll see how that one looks tomorrow once I get it foiled and put together.

Stay tuned!

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Koi fish update...

I'd been looking forward to soldering this bad boy for days now, so without further adieu, here is the koi fish, freshly soldered:

Piece soldered together very nicely. Not alot of variance on the glass width, so the solder lines laid down very nicely.  Piece was then framed in zinc came, hangers attached, scrubbed down in ammonia bath and gone over once again just to ensure lines were solid and beaded up as they should be. Finished piece:

Next up, I have some Japanese kanji letters that I've snagged off the internet, modified them in Photoshop, and made into new patterns. Will continue with that tonight, and hopefully get some of those cut out for tomorrow.

The anatomy of a cool stained glass project...

For this series, I wanted to take the time to illustrate the process behind actually putting together a stained glass piece.  This piece was inspired by a dear friend of mine who suggested that Japanese themed handmade is really popular right now. So I set about to find a pattern that illustrated a nice, simplistic version of a koi fish or a koi pond. So I found this pattern and modified it in Glass Eye to make it my own:

The pieces print out from Glass Eye with numbers, so with my two copies in hand, I set about to cut out the pattern pieces by hand, using the foil scissors that cut a slight margin to account for the foil and the solder lines and make the piece fit so much better. This is what it looked like after I was done...

I drew the arrows on the water pieces to illustrate a sort of "flow" in the blue glass that I'd planned on using. So I picked my glass, washed it and set about to gluing my pattern pieces directly to the glass for cutting.

I chose four colors for this piece...a semi-opaque brown for the ground, a semi-transparent blue for the water, the koi with a white body and orangey detailed fins. Once the glue was dry, it was off the the cutting table:

And then to the grinder:

One more final fitting, then I take the piece with me to work to foil:

Foiling completed and another fitting check, and now the piece is ready to solder:

So now you can see how the water "flows" in the same direction, and the ground is also somewhat "molded" around the bend of the pattern. Should have this ready to solder and finish by Sunday. Will update once piece is finished.

The infamous "Butt Panel". :)

Believe it or not, this is the very first cut glass panel I've ever made:

It was from a pile of very old patterns that Kim had buried in a file somewhere. I saw this pattern, and I knew I had to make it MINE. weg  So I modified it a bit, scanned it into Glass Eye so I could perfect it and make the design changes to the garter as I wanted to, and make the piece my own. I had very few fitting issues, and was quite pleased once it was finished. The solder was then patinaed black, quick wash and wax, then ready for the market.

Not bad for my first piece, eh?   LOL

The only complaint I had with the piece is that the sides are a bit floppy, because there are no side joints that I could solder to stabilize the frame to the panel.

This is such a neat little kinky piece, I just had to make it. :P  I'd really like to improvise on this theme here sometime, and do an Andy Warhol sorta thing with it...shrink it down a bit, then create multiple copies of the same thing, with pieces cut in funky alternate colors.

The original piece is for sale here--->> Sexy, Sensual Art Garter Stained Glass Panel

The Green Eyed Monster is now complete...

UPDATE:
Piece is live and in the store! Go here--->> http://www.etsy.com/listing/72808094/green-bullseye-glass-sampler-patchwork?ref=pr_shop  to check it out! 


This piece came out very nicely, as I knew it would.

I'm quite pleased with the colors, and I'm really happy about the bevels that I inset in the panel (new twist on the panels that have previously sold), and used as a border around the edge.  I'll have this one listed here fairly soon, hopefully will have it up in the Etsy store by Sunday.

This piece is 10th in the series of Bullseye sample glass that I've been working into panels. As I'd mentioned earlier, the glass was in a sampler kit that Kim had kept for years, but never quite knew what to do with it. For me, since I'm a relatively new artist in the stained glass arena, it was a good, simple piece in which to hone my skills...easy, straight cuts, straight solder lines, lots of corners to learn how to NOT puddle the solder into, etc. This style is fairly forgiving, and a little "fudging" of some of the irregular pieces would not be noticed overall in the panel. 

I believe I have enough left over from all the color groups to make two multicolored panels. Then I'll be on to petting a few more sampler boxes from Kokomo glass that I'll be forming into full window pieces. Stay tuned!