New glass panel--Day 4, cutting the border

Another great tool that I'm so lucky to own is a strip cutter.

Its a glass cutter with a ruler and a base combined together. The cutter can be set to increments on the ruler depending on the width of glass desired. The base rides on a surface higher than my cutting surface and scores the glass in a nice even line.

Then the glass pieces are broke apart from each other. Next, I'll need to fit the border pieces to the original design. I've chosen to have a 1" border in the same pale green color that is in the body of the panel but in a different texture. The border texture is called rough rolled and it is translucent with a slightly rippled texture. For the corners I've decided to use 1" square clear glass bevels.

In the next few days I'll go to the next step in this project--foiling the glass pieces.

Shown: strip cutter, fitting the border to the body of the panel.

New glass panel-Day 4

Finally we are going to get to the glass grinder. Its a great tool. There's a flat grid surface with a water basin beneath. The grids allow crud from grinding to fall into the water pool. There's a motor in the base that turns a diamond coated grinder head/bit which smooths down the uneven surfaces of our mishapen glass pieces to allow them to fit tightly. A sponge sits behind the grinder head and wicks water up to the surface to cool the glass and provides lubrication to insure a smooth finish.

So, I always start in the center and work outwards. Each glass piece surface is grinded smooth to follow the paper pattern that's been glued to it. Then, I'll soak the glass piece in water to release the paper, dry it off and see how it fits onto the working design.

Now that we have the body of the piece done we'll go ahead and cut the border.

Shown: glass grinder, fitting the glass pieces onto the original

New glass panel--the work begins

Now, I need to think about what colors I want to include in the new design. I've chosen 4 colors: pale pink, pale purple, pale green and pale amber--all pastel colors that will look might lighter off of the paper and hanging in a window. The four colors are all of Waterglass--its translucent with a delicate texture that resembles water rippling on a lake's surface. I also need to choose a clear glass for for this I've chosen clear seedy. Seedy is lightly textured and appears to have thousands of tiny bubbles trapped within. The bubbles pick up light and makes it sparkly.

I have taken my carbon copy and have cut it apart keeping all of the different color sections separate. The original and the carbon have corresponding numbers so that I know where each piece belongs. Next I brush each edge with liquid paper for two reasons--first, the edges are easier to see and second, liquid paper makes that craft paper waterproof and the edges won't peel up later when I grind the pieces...more about grinding later. Now, I'll glue with a glue stick the pattern pieces directly to the glass. I'll let the pieces set overnight to dry well and go inside where its cool and have a couple of cocktails.

Shown: glass selection and pattern pieces glued to the glass.