Looking into the theme of architecture and textures that will influence my product range for 3rd year at University.

A day of polishing. Hand lapping and then on the linisher. Long day ahead but a beautiful polished glass piece always put a smile on my face!

Patina

 

 

 

Tried to experiment with the method of patina onto copper. The copper is 0.7mm thick so great to use with this particular method. I was considering placing these pieces into glass, and I did... but as you would expect once fired at 815 degrees (fuse temperature) the beautiful colour disappeared and the ferocious red colour of the copper was exposed. But look how beautiful the pattern is and the vibrant blue! gorgeous!

The recipe I used for this was a shallow food container with a mix of ammonia and water (do not use the container again especially for food) and then I filled a spray bottle with 50/50 salt and water. I then sprayed the metal every 30mins to an hour until my desired colour was achieved. Allow to air dry and then spray a thin coat of clear lacquer to retain that beautiful colour.

The metal above was left over night, make sure you do this in an aerated area. Safety first guys and always remember your gloves!!  

Having fun in the workshop

While investigating into the marriage of materials between metal and glass, I wanted to test the expansion rate of the metal to glass, as apparently they have the same coefficient rate! Exciting! So now I am testing out different thicknesses of metal and rolling them down to about 0.4mm thick and see how it reacts in the glass. Fingers crossed it has the outcome I am looking for!