Project 22: Boxes Upon Boxes

You may be be thinking "Wait, didn't you just make a box?" How very observant of you! Yes, indeed I did. Project 20 was a box. So what's the deal? As you may remember, last week I was in Ohio to attend a friend's wedding. While I was there, I was able to go down to Kenyon (my alma mater) to visit some friends. One of those people was my stained glass teacher Carol. Carol worked for many years as a glass artist and one of the ways that she was able to live off her art was to make glass boxes to sell wholesale to retailers, like museum gift shops. I took the opportunity to pick her brain about how to improve my box-making and she had a lot of good advice. So even though I just did a box, I was anxious to try out all my new tricks. 

The Process:

To start, I made myself a board to make the boxes on. I made two different sized corners so I can  ensure my boxes are square. 

The first tip I learned from Carol was that you can't draw up a pattern for the entire box before you start. You start with the top of the box, make that first and everything else, sides, base etc are cut in relation to the top. I bought little mosaic tiles and soldered those together to make the top.

Next, I cut glass strips of uniform width. I used the top to mark the length of the sides.  Tip number 2 is to measure the the length of the sides and then cut off a piece twice the thickness of the glass.

The funny part is that these aren't the pieces I ended up using
These were too short and I had to cut new ones. >.<

The sides and lid were tack soldered into place and I used my board to ensure that everything was square. 

I cut a piece of mirror to serve as the base (another one of Carol's ideas!).

I soldered both the base and the lid fully.

The last trick that Carol taught me was a new way to do hinges. Instead of using the pin hinge like I used earlier, I took a brass tube and cut it to the length of the side. I soldered the tube to the lid. I threaded a piece of copper wire through the tube. I bent the wire at either end of the tube to keep the lid from sliding back and forth. Finally, I soldered the ends of the wire to the seams on the base of the box.

Final Product:
So here's where I need opinions. I decided to patina the box, so my solder lines wouldn't look so lumpy. But I can't decide if that was a good choice. If you're bored and feel like giving me input, let me know if you prefer the silver lines or the black ones. Thanks :)

Silver:

Black

It's so tiny!

A big thanks to Carol for being so willing to answer all my questions and impart so much wisdom and guidance!

Project 21: Wedded Bliss

This project was a secret project! My lovely friends Kyle and Melanie got married this past weekend and I decided to make them a window as a wedding gift. But I couldn't post about it until after I gave it to the happy couple, so I'm a little late. There is a picture of Kyle and Melanie on facebook that I absolutely love. It is of the two smiling lovingly into one another's eyes. Sounds sappy when I say it, but it's an adorable picture. So I decided to do an interpretation of that picture. 

The Process:

So the first step was the make a pattern. I simplified the photo a lot. I intentionally took out as many specific facial features as possible. I left in the lines that would give the illusion of their faces and expressions without potentially cluttering and muddling things.

Next step was cutting the pieces and then foiling them.

Then I soldered everything.

And framed it.

Finally, I added a patina.

Final Product:

As you can see, I had to stray a little from the colors in the picture. For example, Kyle is not in fact a member of the Weasley family. Also, I chose to make Melanie's shirt a purple instead of a gray because a) I like the purple glass and b) I didn't have any gray glass.