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[Stained Glass Gems] All About Copper Overlay July 19, 2009 |
Issue 007 Welcome to all of you stained glass enthusiasts. These Stained Glass Gems have been found during my frequent browsing and deep digging for helpful and or unusual stained glass web sites, as well as other information pertaining to stained glass. I have a long list that I will share with you over the months ahead. I do hope that there's a gem or two that will brighten your day and be helpful during your stained glass journey.Thank you to everyone that helped after the last ezine. A special thanks to Theresa for the 8 blogs she recommended.
I couldn't believe my eyes as her emails kept coming. Also, I was very impressed with the answers you gave to the question
about hanging a zinc framed panel. You people are a real blessing to me. :-)
Copper Overlay Lately I've had many questions about how to do a copper overlay. Since I've only done this one overlay (the picture on the left) in my entire stained glass career, I'm not the one to be showing you how to do it. However, I have found quite a few web sites and tutorials that will be excellent help for you. You will find most of them under Web Site of the Month and Useful Tutorials. Enjoy! Anne Ryan Miller Glass Studio
be sure to look at her Metal Overlay work...it's a great source for inspiration. To find it, click on the second
leaf on the bottom row. And Here is
a brief description of how she does her metal overlays. Do you know of a web site that you think others would enjoy? Let me know about it
here. All of these web sites will show or tell you how various artists do copper overlay (or a variation of it). Everyone has a slightly different technique and their styles differ as well. You will find a broad spectrum of ways to approach overlay, and I hope they will inspire you enough to give it a try. I know I'm ready to do more overlay work! Here's how to do it: How To 1 and
How To 2 Also, here's a Slide Show well worth looking at. Tony Banfield shows his overlay techniques and how to make wire trees for overlay. Tony posts on quite a few forums. I have come to know him through the Warner-Criv forum. Robert Oddy's The Anatomy
of a Commission Robert talks about a custom design he did with copper overlay. There are pictures showing
how he does it. It's an interesting article to read, full of good information about making a stained glass window. Cathy Claycomb's Class Pictures will give you some ideas of what's involved. Cathy teaches classes about her technique called "Hidden Images". It's about
choosing a sheet of glass that has unique streaks and swirls, and using it as the background for her copper foil overlay.
Here are some great pictures of Copper Overlay and
a short description of how and why it's done Description
Dave's Garden Mosaic and Stained Glass Forum is a very friendly forum for anyone that works with stained glass or mosaics. If you're into gardening, there are quite a few garden forums there as well. Here's where you can get Sheet Copper Foil, for doing large overlay work, or you can do a Google search to find copper sheet elsewhere. The sheets are 12" x 12"
Cathy Claycomb's VHS "Hidden Images" is available from her web site. She also has patterns for sale. Solder Sculpting and Beyond This is a short tip, but useful if you are doing copper overlay. Some people prefer to work on the overlay somewhere other than on the actual glass. A piece of marble is a wonderful surface to work on. When it's finished, the overlay peels off easily and is ready to apply to the glass. I recently found a piece of round marble that appears to have been an insert for something (perhaps a cheese tray). I got it for $2.00 at a garage sale. It's 12" in diameter and will work perfectly for doing overlays and solder sculptures.
Nothing in the works for the next month or so. I'll be having knee replacement surgery at the end of this month, so I'll be taking some time off from any active glass work for a few weeks.
The Score, Spectrum Glass Summer Issue is now available online. It is
full of patterns and ideas. For anyone that enjoys looking at medieval stained glass windows The Medieval Stained Glass Photographic Archive is
a new website featuring over 10,000 images of (mainly French) stained glass. The focus is on glass before c.1320. If you use DiamondCRETE cement for your stepping stones, I recently received this notice: Due to circumstances
beyond their control, DiamondCRETE has had to discontinue production.
Have a look at SmartFlix.com How-To DVDs
You're going to find hundreds of "How To" DVD's for rent. They have some very interesting
stained glass tutorials which can be found at Glass
Do you need a pattern resizer or a design program? I can highly recommend
Pattern Wizard and Rapid
Resizer. They are reasonably priced and you get a fairly long free trial before you
have to commit to paying for them. You have the option of buying one or the other or
both. Just in case you don't know, the Stained Glass Gems ezine is
mailed out the third Sunday of every month. Be on the look out for [Stained Glass Gems] Issue 8 on
Sunday, August 16th. I want to encourage you to have fun and experiment with your glass. Try new things and different techniques. It's amazing what you can do when you "think outside the box."
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