Comment on 1312
cheesyxpickle@lemmy.ca 3 days agoEssentially, yes. I can say that for curves I’ll do more tapping and hoping than smacking lol but there are different pliers (grozer and running pliers) that help the job along. For deep curves, I’ll score a bunch of lines in the space that I’ll be removing, tap, and use the grozer pliers to work away the bits… I actually made a video of the process with this piece, if I ever post it, I’ll tag you!
bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 3 days ago
Ha, that’s awesome, thanks for explaining. Yea, I’ll definitely check out the video when it goes up, sounds like a nail-biting, rewarding process.
cheesyxpickle@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Here it is!
It’s fast and tiny and you can’t see too much of the cutting… but it’s my first time attempting to share the process. Enjoy!
bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 3 days ago
oh wow and it’s a time-lapse, you legend!
that definitely gives me a better idea of how the process goes, thanks a lot for sharing, that was very cool to see.
so that’s the copper foil at the end and then do you use a blow torch or something to melt all the pieces together?
that must be so much fun for you also, do you have a lot of projects going on at the same time or do you tend to focus on one at a time?
cheesyxpickle@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Soldering
This is another piece, but you can see pretty clearly here. The brush is applying flux, that helps the solder adhere only to the copper foil. Without flux, nothing happens!
cheesyxpickle@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Yeah I did not get to add the soldering part to the video… with a soldering iron, I use 60/40 (lead/tin) solder and go over the front, back, sides, then the back again and finish the front as smooth as possible.
On this piece you can see the solder work is black, that’s a patina that’s applied after roughing it up with some steel wool. There’s black and copper patina, or you can leave it silver.
After cleaning it all up, I finish with a microfibre cloth and some car wax to protect the piece and keep the dust off. I’ll see if I have any soldering clips I can upload.
It’s fun! With all art, sometimes projects get bumped for a commission or because I working on something new is more exciting haha… I am down to one glass project on the go right now… I can’t wait to share it!!
cheesyxpickle@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
You’re welcome! It’s definitely stressful and the reason it took me so long to quit smoking… but totally worth it when the sun shines through that glass.