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DICHROIC GLASS

MOST INFO FROM HOWARD SANDBERG OF COATINGS BY SANDBERG

Dichroic glass is one of the most beautiful things SGE carries and it has been one of the most challenging. It was kind of nice to see on CBS page “the history of dichroic glass” that Howard says, “When you look at the history of an artist using Dichroic coated glass, it appears that the artist has been under the major handicap of not having any information on what he or she was working with. These artists were exposed to a piece of glass that had interesting color effects but came from a very complex and scientific industry not easily understood. These ‘high-tech’ coatings were capable of reflecting a narrow band of light (or one color) and at the same time, transmitting the remaining part of light.” So at least it was not just us facing challenges. I could go on about how the development of this metal film was done by our military and aerospace industries. The text would make your head hurt! It was 30 years (mid 70s) ago when CBS started production for art applications. When SGE first brought in some dichroic glass it was a big deal. We made a special display rack for it. We were displaying 1 piece that was about 2x4 inches of each one. We outgrew that fast! Then we would get questions about what it was going to do. We had some idea but not much. To complicate things, we didn’t even always know what we were getting. A customer would buy a piece that was rainbow or mixed and one part of the glass would behave one way and another part another way. Then our suppliers started to drill down and offer a standard stock and good descriptions. We changed our sku system and our descriptions to help our customers know what they were buying and to help us have them organized in a way that the customer could find what they wanted, and we would have a way to see gaps in our inventory and keep our stock consistent. About five years into stocking this glass we bought a shrink wrap machine. We bring in the glass, cut it, shrink wrap it and label it. No more ruined pieces from scratches and no more fighting to get the glue from the label off the glass. The only manufacturer we currently have is CBS.  Coatings by Sandburg.  Occasionally we see some Duncan (which has little designs like dragonflies on it) but not often. We stock both 90 and 96.  We also stock some 104 and 33 Coe for flame workers and glass blowers.  We also have dichroic frit flakes.  

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TIFFANY LAMP 1901. Wisteria

This incredible lamp is on display at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida. This is one of the lamps designed by Clara Driscoll. This lamp was exhibited at the 1902 decorative arts exposition in Turin, Italy. Both this lamp and the Pond Lily lamp won a grand prize for transforming previously utilitarian devices into electrified sculptures from nature. Most of Tiffany designs were oil lamps that required the base to serve as the oil source. Electricity gave more opportunity for design. Clara Driscoll led the Women’s Glass Cutting Department that was established in 1892. It was very progressive for an establishment to employ women. This book, which has become a national bestseller, is a delightful story about the women workers at the Tiffany studio. It is well worth the read.

A THOUSAND CRANES

Info from Glass Art Magazine, Wikipedia and Philly Voicee

Japanese legend is that if you fold 1000 cranes you will be granted a wish by the gods. The crane is a symbol of happiness and eternal youth so some believe that the 1000 origami paper cranes will bring you long life or recovery from illness or injury. In Japan the cranes which are strung together are very popular as wedding themes.

GERM’S 1000 CRANES PROJECT

Jeremy Grant-Levine (aka Germ) in 2018 started glass blowing 1000 cranes. Jeremy is being back by $92,000 Kickstarter campaign. This project will take 250 pounds of glass and approximately two miles of wire, totaling $20,000 in materials. The completed work went to The Aviary Gallery: Philadelphia in 2019.    Jeremy is based in Philadelphia and has been flameworking glass pipes for over 20 years. He has exhibited at galleries in Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, Miami and Tel Aviv.

Application 1. Clean glass is a must! Use ammonia or alcohol if needed. Avoid touching glass surface with your hands. 2. Remove the wax paper barrier before soaking. 3. With a good pair of small scissors trim about 1/16 inch away from the decal card 4. Curved-tip tweezers are very handy. 5. Wet the surface of the glass when applying the decal, it allows the decal to easily move into position. 6. To apply the decal, slide it slightly off of the paper and hold the paper edge with the tweezers. Position decal and hold exposed edge with finger, or a second pair of tweezers, on the glass while pulling paper from underneath. When the decal is in place hold with finder and blot excess water. Continue to gently blot, using an inside out rolling motion, until all the water and bubbles are out from underneath the decal, a small squeegee (credit card) is useful. Continue until the entire decal, including the edges, are firmly affixed to the clean glass surface. 7. Allow to dry completely before firing. The smallest amount of moisture can stream apart the decal from the glass. Firing Conditions 1. Over-firing is disappointment. Decals are temperature sensitive, some colors more than others. The best results are achieved with the lower temperatures and slightly longer soak times. 2. Good ventilation in the kiln during the burn off phase, (500-900f), is important for all decals and critical for hi-ire and low-fire) accents) metallic decals. Leave the lid vented till the kiln reaches 1100f. Info from Profusion Studio.

 1908

I am a fan of the Morse Museum. The Morse is in the college town of Winter Park, Fl. They have an extensive collection of Tiffany artwork. This is part of the collection. The panel was originally the center piece of a 10-panel window designed for the landing of a massive marble staircase in the Pittsburg home Of Richard B. Mellon. The panel was divided up when the 60-room house was demolished in 1940.

The piece is done totally in opalescent glass. It must have been a remarkable sight at the top of the equally remarkable marble staircase.

The basic thing to remember here is that Lead Came stretches. That really is the base fact in deciding when to use what.

Use Foil:

1. Lamp Shades should always be done in foil. All those beautiful Tiffany Studio lamp shades were done with foil. He was the master so just do what he did! If you make a lamp with lead, over time it will collapse unless you reinforce the lead. That just adds to the work and to the weight.

2. Lead is heavy. If weight is an issue, use foil.

3. Items like jewelry boxes should be foiled. It is way easier to deal with the angles with foil.

4. When you have little pieces that will be lost in the lead, use foil. You can even mix. A lead came panel can have a section that is foiled. Most little projects are done with foil.

Use Lead:

1. When you are making a project that will be in the weather, use came. Came can be puttied/cemented to make it more weather tight.

2. Geometrical patterns lend themselves nicely to lead came.

3. Really large piece, like Church window are nice with lead came because of the size. The boldness of the came fits the size. To get the bold width with foil would be difficult and probably irregular. Came stays nice and uniform.

this picture from Alamy.com

4.  Little suncatchers are sometimes made with

hobby came, which is a tiny came.  Simple ones.  It is fast.  

4. Even though lead stretches, it takes time. Most Church windows do not need to be releaded for 100 years. When you see that a window is budging at the bottom, you can usually bet that it is old, and the lead has expanded and contracted over time and the weight of the glass has been pushing down during this unseen activity. If you used foil on a window that is exposed to weather and weight, you may see stress cracks in the glass.

Criteria	Copper Foil	Lead Came
Design Complexity	Intricate, detailed patterns	Simpler, larger geometric designs
Size of Project	Small to medium pieces	Larger panels or structural pieces
Structural Strength	Lightweight, non-load-bearing items	Heavier, load-bearing installations
Style Preference	Thin solder lines, modern styles	Bold lines, traditional styles

 

Though not really new, because it has been around since the 19th century, bead making is gaining momentum.  One way to get into it is to buy a Hot Head torch like you see in the pictures below.  This is easily something you can do at home.  That is just propone you see attached.  

Hot Head Torch – Stained Glass Express

 

If you really want to dive in, you can buy a bench burner which needs to be hooked up to gas and oxygen.  The one below is an Alpha.  You can use a 3-gallon propane to run this and a oxygen generator. 

Bethlehem Burner or Alpha Glass working Torch – Stained Glass Express

 

 

 

 

I just went to the retail display where we keep pliers.  There were 7 different ones.  So many pliers—so many uses!  Or just a little difference, like the width of the jaws that someone might prefer.  

Your first plier should be a breaker/grozer. Double duty! Their primary function is to grasp the glass securely on one side of a score when breaking it apart. Both jaws have serrated teeth to assist in their second duty, grozing.

Second pair you should buy is probably a running plier. This plier is designed to apply pressure under a score causing the break to follow (run) along the score line. Metal ones have the advantage of being adjustable for the thickness of the glass you are working with. Plastic also available.

Breakers. These have straight jaws and are designed to grasps the glass to assist in breaking long thin pieces of glass. The wide jaws meet only at the tip and not serrated.

Search: 30 results found for "pliers" – Stained Glass Express

I originally wrote this blog in 2013. I am not sure why we used this picture of unrelated glass, but I was way younger so I'm keeping it.   Lampworking is also called flame working or torch working or bead making. All those words make sense to the process except Lampworking which is the official name of the process. So, I looked it up. It is called lampworking because way back when this process started, they did it by oil-fueled lamps while blowing air into the flame through a pipe. So, there you go! This type of glasswork is where a torch is primarily used to melt the glass. Once it is molten, it is formed by shaping with tools and hand movements. Lampworking is different from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a furnace called a glory hole as the primary heat source. The methods today use torches that burn propane or natural gas for the fuel. It is mixed with air or pure oxygen as the oxidizer. MAPP gas in portable canisters can be used.

Plugging a soldering iron into a rheostat (or temperature controller) does NOT reduce the temperature. It reduces the amount of electricity coming in but doesn't change the temperature the iron will heat up to. It will just take longer to heat up. It's the same as the tap on your sink. Turning the tap down will make the water come in slower, but the water will still fill up your sink. It'll just take longer to fill up.

1. Basic Concept of a Rheostat:

• A rheostat is a variable resistor. It adjusts the resistance in a circuit, which in turn controls the current flow.
• By increasing the resistance, the current flowing through the circuit decreases, which reduces the power delivered to the soldering iron.
• Conversely, reducing the resistance increases the current flow, increasing the power to the soldering iron and therefore the temperature.

2. Operation with a Soldering Iron:

• Input Voltage: When a soldering iron is plugged into the rheostat, the device controls how much of the mains voltage reaches the iron.
• Power Control: Turning the rheostat's dial changes its resistance, altering the amount of current flowing through to the soldering iron’s heating element.
  • Higher Resistance = Less Power = Lower Temperature.
  • Lower Resistance = More Power = Higher Temperature.

The most popular iron right now is Hakko Fx601.  It comes with an internal thermostat.  A thermostat automatically maintains a set temperature.  That makes it way easier to learn to solder with a nice line.  If you don't have to constantly adjust for your temperature you will have an easier time.  

Hakko Soldering Iron FX 601 – Stained Glass Express

Not that there are not reasons for an iron with a rheostat.  One is price.  Not everyone wants to pay over $100 for an iron when they are first learning.  This person can buy an inexpensive 100-watt iron and hook it up to a rheostat and find out if they like the hobby. 

100 Watt Pro Soldering Iron – Stained Glass Express

Stained Glass Express

The tough economy of 2011 and 2012 caused some glass manufacturing to cease. The GNA (German New Antique) factory has now been closed for some time. At first it was thought that it would be retooled and reopened. That has not happened. As distributors run out, they will be gone. Colored Glue Chip has also disappeared.  We can still get clear but that is all.  Oceanside does manufacture a line of Artique glass which is quite beautiful and are great substitute for GNA.

 

 The green is glue chip, the blue is GNA and the purple is Oceanside's grape artique. 

 Wasser has also disappeared. This was a less commonly used   glass, but some have made beautiful, fused jewelry and plates   with it. It was a thin 90 Coe glass.  We also had a customer who made doll house items with this glass.

 

Kokomo Opalescent Glass had a series of difficult situations during and after the pandemic.  They are manufacturing glass,` but it continues to be very scarce and many of the numbers have not been seen in a number of years.   

  

This is Camouflage, Hawaiian Sunset and Dragons' Breath which are hopefully going to be available soon.