This is a project for a private residence that Mark Yearwood and I worked on together. Mark sold the project and got the glass, and my son, Mike, and I did the etching and glue chipping.
They needed a glass panel that would allow light to go through but also allow for privacy.
I designed the layout using Golden Era Studios clip art. The scroll work is sand carved and the finer lines and borders are etched. The background around the scrolls is glue chipped. The two vertical lines on each side and the diamond at the top were painted with metallic copper. It's hard to see, but the scroll work at the bottom is filled with clear.
Mike drove up to Weatherford to deliver the piece and then Mark took it from there to installation.
The glass was .25" clear and was to be laminated after we did the carving and chipping.
It was a joint effort of our studio and Mark Yearwood. We did all the work and Mark got all the glory! Just kidding.
Posted by Barry Branscum (Member # 445) on :
and yet look who's braggin'
Just kiddin' Raymond. GORGEOUS work.
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Not bad for a Texan... I thought that everything was big in Texas? Your ego certainly qualifies! Hahahahahahahahahaha!
I should talk... Texas ain't big enough for mine! LOL!
Seroiusly, that is one sweet piece. You do some of the coolest stuff, Raymond!
Posted by Dale Manor (Member # 4858) on :
Nice work considering no router was used!
Posted by Jeremy Paul Taylor (Member # 4441) on :
Lovely work Ramond, goregous infact!! I'm interested in glasswork myself , but sruggling with glue chipping ,infact i have only tried it the once , living in Scotland at this time of year is asking alot for the sun to shine sufficiently enough to get the glue to chip.. i believe you can heat it artificially with some sort of heater !! i did infact try this out in my garage after leaving the glass over night , i used my blow heater & the glass started to chip but only in small areas on the letters!! Great work again , cheers Jeremy
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
Nice piece Raymond!
Mark keeps threatening to do a project in collaberation with us here... but it hasn't quite worked out yet.
A MultiCam would certainly have enabled you to route some fancy stuff into the door so it would have matched the great window you did....
-just trying to help you justify a new MultiCam of your own...
-grampa dan
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Thanks Dan (and the rest of you)....we had nothing to do with the wood parts. In fact, we never saw what the completed door looked like until Mark mailed us the photographs. But it would have been nice to have done the whole thing.
I will have to admit that I had very little to do with the project other than designing it and cutting a mask for the glass. Mike did all the glass carving, etching and glue chipping...he even drove the piece up to Oklahoma.
Dan, working with Mark is unique. Now, some will take that in a positive way and others will see it as negative. It would be interesting to see who interprets it in what way.
As a side note, I will have to admit that he got twice as much money for the job as I did.
[ September 23, 2005, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
I sure would like to see a bigger picture of it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Kelly Thorson (Member # 2958) on :
Raymond, I'm curious as to how you handled the carving and the gluechipping. What was the sequence and did you run into any glitches? I'm thinking either chipping first or carving first it must have made for a little difficulty in masking, or are they separated by unaltered glass lines?
I, too, would like to see a bigger picture. I'm sure it will be even more impressive.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Raymond, I sure hope there is a bigger image you can post. It looks gorgeous.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Here's a close up photo that Mark sent me. The scanning process takes away some of the detail and, of course, it's an Okie taking the pictures....
Process: a mask of the entire design was cut on the plotter using Gerber Mask II (in reverse, of course). The front of the glass was covered with transfer tape to prevent any accidental scratches.
Mike removed the mask from the areas that were to be deeply carved. He blasted those areas using aluminum oxide. (We have two panels chipping now that were etched with silicon carbide and this works much faster.) Since he was using thick glass he could get a nice depth to the carving. This is done carefully so as not to heat up of the glass in one spot.
The next step was to remove the lines that were to be etched but not as deeply as the carving.
The final blasting stage was to remove mask from the areas that were to be glue chipped - a light etching, just enough to give the glue a good grip. There is a clear glass "glow line" between etched areas and those to be chipped.
The mask was left on the glass and the areas that were not to be chipped were covered with transfer tape.
The glass was placed on a level surface and the glue was mixed and heated in a glue pot. We applied the glue with a squeeze bottle like you use for mustard and ketchup in a cafe. The glue begins to set up immediately.
When the glue dries to a state that it still has a "rubbery" feel it is necessary to make a cut to separate the glue from the mask. Unfortunately, we had left the shop and by the time we returned the glue was too hard to remove the mask. This resulted in some "plinking" - the glass chipping past the etched area into the clear part.
The glass was then placed into our chipping box that has two heat lamps and a circulating fan. It took about 24 hours for the glass to chip completely.
After chipping, the transfer tape was removed from the areas that we wanted to paint. A copper metallic paint was airbrushed into those areas. The bottom scroll work was given a coat of clear.
When dry, all the tape and mask was removed, the glass cleaned, and then crated for the trip to Oklahoma.
This piece was for a private residence in Oklahoma which was a part of their home builders annual Parade of Homes.
No one mentioned anything about my comment about Mark getting twice as much money as I did. Actually, neither one of us received a dime for this project. It was done as a speculative piece in hopes that we might get more of this type work from local builders.
Mark says that it was well received by those that visited the home.
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
Thanks for describing the process and showing a closeup. It looks great!
We can get those kinda prices here too.
I hope it brings you lots more work of similar nature in the future - only paying well next go around.
-grampa dan
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
Wow, that really looks top notch. I would love to learn how to do work like that.
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