Using the Heavy Equipment

Although very time consuming, planning and executing cold work can be very rewarding.  A colleague who has been working with glass for several years (since retiring,) has been experimenting with nightlights recently.  They are relatively small, so easy to handle and store.  The cost of glass and firing is relatively small, as wells  (in addition to being small, it stays flat - so only ONE firing!.)  And of course, they are functional!

In the spirit of the season, I decided to try a new challenge on one of these small plaque-like beauties - grinding and shaping on the heavy equipment.

For the background, I simply cut two 3" X 4" rectangles - one clear and one "bunny" pink.  For the rabbit, I cut 7 rectangles and one small square and headed to the grinder.  Anywhere there is a curved edge, indicates where the grinder wheel was applied.  Notice the roughness of the edges.

Rabbit cold work - assembling the pieces after grinding and cleaning

Scoring and breaking glass, when done successfully, results in straight edges.  Scoring techniques lend themselves easily to the creation of all things geometric with straight sides.  The key to attractive end products is careful planning and measuring (and of course scoring and breaking.)  Even plaids, window pane openings, and frame-like bordered square and rectangular plates, plaques and bowls are a ruler and glass cutter away.

Once the rectangles and squares are cut for these free-form "collages," the time consuming part of grinding begins.  Each of the 8 pieces designed to create the rabbit require grinding and shaping. On e go the safety goggles AND if I do much of this type of work - I need a good, waterproof apron!

Rabbit cold work - assembling the pieces after grinding and cleaning

Additional care and measurement is needed if the edges of the final piece  align or border one another perfectly.  I decided in this rabbit, to overlap the pieces.  The end result would probably look better if I had selected a different glass - such as a 2mm French vanilla or a 2mm opaque white; this glass in thin (1mm) white.

Rabbit cold work - top of head and ears before firing

As I have continued to work with glass,  I have become more aware of how the appearance and properties of the material change after firing.  Notice the texture in both the white and the salmon pink and white streaky; there appear to be small waves if texture in both materials.  When I first began, I was troubled if these textures ran in different directions or changed directions mid-stream. 

Rabbit cold work - top of head and ears after firing

 Comparing the before firing and after firing of the ears, however, reveals that even when tacked (as opposed to full fused,) these surface textures go away.  Also notice around the edges of the rabbit.  The bond between the two glass pieces does not maintain a smooth, continuous flow or edge, as I expected.  This appears to be true whether the edge is white on salmon streaky or white on white.  The roughness created in the grinding process appears to exaggerate the break in the fusing line of the edge between pieces as in the top left on both ears.