Dusting off the tools

Getting back into a bit of woodworking. Making a cover to hide wires on a sailing boat. Here's a few picks.

What we are looking to cover up

  The original cover and wood selection. We decided to go with sapele (far left). It's a very nice hardwood often used in guitar making.

 Closeup of the dovetail corner joint. This makes for a very strong joint. Decorative as well.

 Original cover on the right. Replacement cover on the left. Due to some additional wiring a cover with some depth is needed.

Inside view. All that remains is to dryfit the piece. position the holes for securing the cover and a nice finish.

-Tim

Glasgow Rose II

Decided to tweak the design a bit and make a second Glasgow rose. Moved a couple of lines. The bottom leaves made the panel weak in one area. I moved the bottom right slightly to the left and made the roses different colours.

Here's the revised pattern with the roses cut out

Here's the final piece hanged. Sorry, I forgot to take progress shots on this one. 

It's a foiled piece. I used black backed copper foil and the patina is black.

-T

Sun & Moon #2

Quite a few years ago I made a large sun and moon piece. It was a pattern from Paned Expressions Studios called "Summer's End". It had a large triple border and is quite a nice piece. It was, however, 2.5 feet square.  It ended up with my brother. I always liked the sun and moon medallion in the piece and decided to make a smaller version with one layer of blue around the sun and moon medallion. Without the additional border the piece is 15 inches round.

Here are some photos from beginning to end. The lower portion of the moon is gray as I was trying to give him a beard.

Completed sun and moon medallion.

Foiled and ready for solder.

I went to my local stained glass store, Cranberry Stained Glass, and borrowed their came bender to bend a 1/2" piece of zinc came around the panel. 1/2" took a bit more effort to bend, but I think the result was worth it.

Here's the finished piece at night.

And here she is during the day. She's my green eyed lady , which is also a classic song from 1970 by Sugarloaf. :-)

The panel really comes to life in the light. 

-T

Glasgow Rose

I finally picked up my cutter again after a long hiatus. I had no reason for not working on my stained glass, it just fell out of favor.

A friend of mine at work and got talking about designs one day and she led me to Charles Rennie MacIntosh (1868 - 1928) who was well know for his use of the Glasgow Rose. I went on line looked at the rose patterns and from the volume of work out there came up with my first pattern.

That was it. I printed out the pattern, Sandi put it on the wall in her work station and we went back to work. A few weeks later I was out in my garage cleaning up a bit, looked at my tools and decided I really needed some glass cutting therapy, but what to do? The Glasgow Rose. But I looked at it and realized I had crazy lines, and too much stuff happening on the pattern. I needed simple lines and a cleaner design that focused on the roses.

The final version of the pattern you see here went through a number of iterations as I could not get the leaves right. Several critiques from work mates set me straight :-)

The next weekend I set to work on my pattern. I decided to try two tone roses. Dark on the outside and light in the interior. I tried to get creative and mix the interior with random dark pieces. It didn't appeal to me

So I replaced them with a solid interior, which looked much better.  Work progressed over a couple of weekends. I would cut a few pieces here and there until I completed the pattern. 

My interest stuck and I kept up the pace on this piece. It has been nice to get back into my stained glass. Finished foiling

Framed in zinc and soldered. 

I used copper backed foil as I expected to patina this one in copper. All that's left is to patina it and frame it.

and then I broke it. While washing it in the laundry tub it slipped from my hand and dropped. There was enough flex in the frame or something that the largest piece cracked in two. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated.

I really did not want to take it apart. I went to a stained glass group I am subscribed to and one recommendation was for me to fix it by foiling over the crack. It was in a spot that actually looked like it could be part of the design. 

That's what I ended up doing. Here's a pic of the final piece.

and here's a picture of it in it's final home

Stained Glass Panel: The Phoenix

One of my favorite pieces designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is the Lake Geneva Tulip.

It is from a resort hotel overlooking Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, The hotel was designed by Wright in 1911. Full details: http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%20Pages/PhRtS171.htm

It's gone now, but one of the design elements of the hotel were the windows which had a "Tulip" theme. Wright named the design "Tulip" because of the flower shape pattern in the cente

http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%20Pages/PhRtS171windows.htm

While I can see the tulip, which is in line with Wright's philosophy and his connection with Nature, I also see wings. With a little colour change I have a new piece I call the Pheonix

-Tim

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I transferred the design to paper using Visio. My original intent was this piece was going to be a leaded glass window so cut the glass with this in mind. I had some nice red glass left over from a previous project and decided to use it. It makes this piece look more like a phoenix than a tulip and I am okay with that :)

I started leading the piece and ran into the pattern "growing" with each piece of lead added. I need to figure out where I went wrong with the cutting. So instead of fighting with it I switched to foil. Given the switch was relatively straight forward I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong. I also decided to add a bit more colour to the center. I need to work on my smaller cuts. I got a little impatient here.

Once foiled I set to work on soldering. I chose copper backed foil as I intended to use a copper patina on the piece. Soldering went okay, though a bit messy in the center. It's a hobby so flaws are good right ?

I had some left over cherry from another project and just enough to frame it. I guess you could say this project was made from the scraps of other projects. From the ashes a new piece is created

Here's the piece installed

Thanks for reading!

The final piece installed

-T

The Palate Panel. I need to get moving, moving

I put the design of this panel together several years ago. I finally have gotten around to getting the glass cut out for it

The plan is to use a combination of lead and copper foil to complete this one. I like how the white looks now. It will be very different once the lead/foil are in place.

More to come later this month.

-T