Posts Tagged ‘flowers’

Mosaic Picture Frame

I am starting to really like doing Mosaic, pretty soon I will be making something big. I had a hard time deciding the grout color, I started with a tan color but didn’t like it to much so I had to stain the grout. I think I am getting a handle on it though. I made this picture frame in a couple of days for my daughter hope you like it as much as I do. Maybe one day I can start selling some commissioned items.

Mosaic picture frame

 

 

My First Mosaic Using Stained Glass

Mosaic 1

I have just completed my first Mosaic and am very excited to share this with others, hope you like it. The project took me about a week because I kept changing my mind on what design I wanted. I found the mirror at a garage sale for 2 dollars and thought this will be the perfect mirror to try my first mosaic on. All of my glass was left over pieces from previous stained glass projects, what a way to use your scrap glass. The photo’s below show what the mirror looked like when I purchased it and in process through the final grouting,  please ignore the person in the mirror. All the glass and edges had to be masked so when I was ready to grout it wouldn’t get on the mirror.

Next was to draw the design on the frame, I am not a very good artist so that was a bit difficult, but I made it through with determination. Next I cut all the pieces and laid them in place. Looking pretty good by then so I carry on with the next step which was to start gluing all of them down (I used Glass Metal and More glue by Beacon adhesives) and applying the grout (Simple grout). The glue and grout both came from Home Depot premixed, which I like very much. Final drying time was 48 hours. This grout also comes in different colors, I chose the grey to match my decor.  The only thing left was to clean up the the entire piece with a sponge, clean all the edges and finally clean the glass. I am very happy with this first Mosaic project, I hope you also will enjoy viewing this piece. I will have to do some more of these little projects, to share with my family and friends.

 

photo        image (1) - Copy_edited      image (2) - Copy_edited        image (3) - Copy_edited

 

Bring Focus to your Stained Glass Projects

Patinas are used to color or darken solder lines. The most common patina colors are black and copper. Using patinas brings the focus on the glass and the design of your stained glass piece. This makes the glass colors, textures and designs of the stained glass piece the main focus. Below is one without patina and one after patina.

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Before you apply patinas, be sure all flux residues is removed. This can be done using a commercial flux remover or washing the stained glass piece with dish soap and baking soda.
Steps for Applying Patinas
Use a brush, rag or cotton ball to dab patina on to the zinc frame. Do not use a brushing action, as this can leave streaking or patchy coverage. Read more »

Our First Stained Glass Project

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Our first stained glass project looked to be pretty simple at first, but after my husband and I started we quickly realized it was not going to be as easy as it looked.

First we had to pick something we were going to make. The teacher told us the less pieces you have the easier the project would be, so we chose a project that only had five pieces. We picked a tulip, the patterns are just like pictures from a coloring book, my husband was probably hoping for something other than a flower, but he is such an easy fellow he just chose the tulip with me.

Now that we have finally made a decision its time to cut the pattern out, you need two or three copies, one for your cut pieces to be placed on and one you can cut, the cut pieces will be used to glue to glass you are going to be cutting. After all the pieces were cut out we then had to choose our glass colors. So many choices of glass to choose, I never would have thought all those decisions would be required, like color, texture, with a pattern in the glass, solids, swirled of course that took a bit of time especially to me, I love all glass.  We final chose our colors, which were purple for the flower and of course green for the leaves and we were ready to start. Read more »