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Foxy's Stained Glass

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:49 am
by FoxyJama
I promised a few folks that I'd post some of my past and current stained glass projects up here for you guys to look at. So, when I'm not at work, or DJing, this is what I do with my spare time.

These are some of the projects in progress. They have been cut and some of them have been foiled and are almost ready for the soldering process.
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This was my first original piece, done on a pattern that I drew for myself. I had limited luck with varying the patinas I used, but you can't see them in this pic, so it doesn't matter. :) I'm very proud of the final results and the glass that I chose seems to work very well for a night sky and moon.

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This is a piece that I cut and tack soldered today. It shows how messy the initial soldering is before the piece gets smoothed out and finished. I'm going to be making these little votive candle holders for my family for Christmas, I think.
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This one was my first non-rectangular piece, and it has a copper patina, which is different. My mother actually drew the design based on a piece of jewelry I have (a celtic triscele) that I really love. This was also the first piece that I was able to use my circle stripper tool on. Fun, but definitely one of the more challenging pieces I've done.
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This was a particularly challenging piece because it was my first attempt at 'free floating' rocks within the glass. I used a table vise to hold the piece up, and my mother and I took turns holding the stones in place with salad tongs while the other one soldered the tiny copper wires to each stone. The real beauty of this piece is the tiger-eye river stones in the center, which don't show up well in the the window, so this piece might be better suited to a wall-hanging.
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Scrap glass is inevitable after a few pieces, and I had tons of blues, lavenders, and some nice textured border pieces, and I put them together to make this piece a month ago or so.
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My largest project to date, and still not finished after 65+ hours spent cutting, grinding, foiling, and soldering. So far it used about 7 square feet of glass, 61 pieces, 2 pounds of solder, and I'm still not finished. You can notice in the picture it's missing a border, and it needs hangers and trim.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:51 am
by psykotropik
Oh my Goddess, that is fantastic work! Start a buisness! I'll buy some of your work! *claps* :D

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:52 am
by Ashval
That second one is really fantastic, Foxy! :)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:53 am
by Britt9081
2 words

holy crap girl, you got skeelz

ok, that was 6 words ;p

what Im trying to say is: AMAZING very nice work Foxy, I like every piece.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 6:03 am
by Nexeus
I remember you telling us about this, and FOXY these are cool, WOW!!!! the fact you do this is just amazing and cool at the same time, make GSP one :-p

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:21 am
by Mivat
Foxy, those are just damn nice! Especially the #4 pic. Love it!

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 9:29 am
by Xtrophic
I LOVE them Foxy. Excellent work! As an artist myself I see the true beauty in what you've done. Keep up the good work! :)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:29 am
by Darth Bootay
Holy crap, Foxy, you're GOOOOOD. <envies the moon piece> So pretty.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:24 pm
by Innari
Foxy!! That's amazing!! Wish I had your talent for that! All I do is write :P

Beautiful work!!

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:16 am
by Rhul
Those are some awesome work! The artist in you comes out in many everything you do! I especially like your original works. . . even how you put together scrap pieces!

~~hugs~~
Rhul

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:41 am
by Merkaba
That right there...is some nice effin' stained glass rofl... :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:45 am
by Tarryk
How did I miss this thread?! WOW, Foxy, those are eye-piercing AWEsome!!!!

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:49 am
by Merkaba
I mean, like seriously...how long do one of those take you to make? Because those are so cool looking...

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 3:36 am
by Tacz
Oooh, thats fantastic, Foxy! I don't know how I missed this thread until now :shock:

I particularly like the green-squiggly-vertical one.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:35 pm
by Gridfan
Holy crap!
You could even get a pro auction house to take those in and sell'em for like thousands of dollars easily!

Thats! Wow! I mean. dude!
It's...(runs out of stuff to say).

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:44 am
by Chippel
h00t =D Those are fantastic Foxy! Come give me lessons? Heheh.. But really, those are truely fantasic and you have inspired me to find where I buried my sketch pad! Wait.. what does glass have to do with sketchs...

PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:43 pm
by FoxyJama
Thanks for so many of the compliments, and sorry I've missed the questions on here until now. I got a few questions in game as well, so hopefully this will cover:

1) How long does it take? - This is, of course, entirely dependent on the size and complexity of the piece. The French window (the sunset), was 62 pieces, and took over 65 hours to complete. Because of the size, it required reinforcement, which took a lot of time, plus the rays of the sun were hard to cut, and most of them had to be cut 2-4 times apiece. (that's where the tears came into play as I broke those repeatedly). A small piece (like my scrap glass piece above), can take as little as an afternoon.

2) What are the steps? For Tiffany glass (the CopperFoil method), which I use - In order:
A) Transfer the pattern onto your glass using a light box or adhesive pattern paper
B) Cut the glass using a variety of tools depending on the type of glass, shape, and thickness.
C) Grind the glass to fit the pattern and roughen the edges (this is the first of the time consuming processes)
D) Clean the glass and apply copper foil around the edge, and burnish it to the glass.
E) Tack and solder the pieces together inside a temporary frame.
F) Apply a lead or zinc border, or bead solder around the edge, attach a hanger.
G) Clean, scrub, patina and polish (sometimes this takes more time than the rest of the process combined)

3) Can I get lessons? - Yes, you can! If you're here in Texas, I give lessons for $20 to my close friends, I'll let you use all of my supplies, and you'll have a small project all your own when you're done! If you live elsewhere, contact your local hobby shops and find out if they know of any glass studios that give lessons. I got really lucky in my town, the local glass shop only offers 3 lessons a year, and I was one of the lucky 3 folks this year. I did have to pay close to $300 for my lessons, though. It is NOT a cheap hobby. The materials are quite expensive, and there's a lot of materials that you require. A grinder, a soldering iron, a good oil cutter, a foiler, these things can add up, and quickly. It's quite addictive, though.

4) Do you sell your work? - Yes! Or at least, I will. Soon. When I can bear to give it up. I'm making a brochure/flyer now, and my mother and I are taking commissions for pieces. We had our first large order for 10 crosses, so we're actually making money on it now. I'm already working on my second "dead tree in the moonlight" piece, it's a new design and I really like it. Right now our commissions are going for $100 per square foot, for the complexity that you are seeing in these pictures. More complex, rounder squiggly shapes, and expensive glass (like the French window) would be $150/sq foot. (making the window around $450) Blues, lavendars, purples and greens are less expensive, Reds, yellows, pinks and oranges cost almost twice as much (they use gold or selenium to create those colors). I don't have any plans to spam advertisements on the board or anything, but I will put a link to where you can order glass as soon as it's up and working.

stained glass projects

PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:10 am
by dirkgently66
Those are extemely sweet I'm glad I got to check them out, put them on your site when you can so other can get a glimps of your talent(Awesome)!!!!

See you at a gridparty...later

PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:59 pm
by Boinky
Wow - 65 hours to complete that one. That's 65 hours not in AO :wink:

PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:36 am
by Ms.Ice
Just the same as the others... amazing work Foxy. i love it! Makes me miss all my little creative projects.