Glass Class, Week 2

"Pick a pattern & bring the glass for your first project. We'll be using the copper foil technique."

The whose-it-what?

I don't know what you're talking about. How do I pick a pattern? Does the glass matter? What is copper foil?

Luckily, I have Marsha who answered my many emails and even a panicked phone call last Saturday morning. Long story short, I made a pattern that will hang in our window next to the stairs. Made a small version on graph paper and blew it up using Ken's architect scale to 13x27 inches. Thank you technical drawing classes in high school. Thank you for being an architect, Ken, and having a scale. Thank you Craigslist for the drafting table we bought in Salem. OK, pattern done.

Glass. Very fun. I love buttery yellows. And rich blues. And rusty reds. And browns. Oh, but you have all of these colors in all sorts of textures... Smooth and clear. Wavy. Opaque. Aaah, totally overwhelmed. I bought a few panels on sale and brought them home for Ken to see. We held them up to the window. The buttery yellow I thought I'd use as the border looked retarded. In between football and lattes, Ken and I picked the glass that would be ice-streaked-looking clear center, the wavy goldish yellow border and the rich textured brown that will be the corners and center diamonds. I got excited and cut the pattern and glass into the pieces so I could grind the edges smooth at the next class. And then I got this from Marsha:

"Wowee! Did you cut everything first - without grinding each piece to fit? That might cause you some trouble when you go to assemble. It's best to start at a corner and work your way out to the edges, grinding each piece as you cut so you can make adjustments as you go and have no gaps. But you'll probably be fine if you cut very carefully/accurately."

Good thing this isn't my first piece and I have a ton of experience. Nuts. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. Enter daily nightmares about finishing it and my panic session to Ken about it the night before class.

Class: It ended up being totally fine. People picked some crazy patterns with lots of pieces. But I was the only one who had my glass cut. My instructor said diamonds can be very hard to fit. He was right. I started in the center and worked out since the diamonds need to be in a perfectly straight line. The clear glass away from the diamonds could be ground further to make the borders fit straight, if necessary. Turned out to be the way to go since everything ended up fitting perfectly (without any extra grinding). By the end of the night, I had all my glass ground whereas some students hadn't even picked out their glass yet. It was awesome. I got excited and foiled everything that night. Up until 2 am, but it is finished and just waiting to be soldered next weekend. It looks amazing so far though. I'll post pictures next week after it's finished.

Totally exhilirating. No wonder Marsha loves doing it so much.