I have a bad problem of being excited by many things. Well every so often when I can't sleep I'll watch YouTube. Recently I was looking at videos and came across a guy making things out of cement. I thought...that looks cool...why not. Lately I've been doing quite a bit of perusing, and have come across quite a few things that I want to try. So, I decided to make it a mission as part of my year of returning to art, to experiment with materials that I don't normally use. Sounds fun huh? I think so. First up, glass. I have left over broken glass from an old project, and a box full of Clip Frames.
The first project I want to try is making a glass mosaic. I some how have managed to obtain a small collection of Clip Frames from IKEA. I actually don't plan on keeping this project. It is more of a test to see what happens. If I like it, I may turn it into something bigger. I started with a piece of glass from a 5x7" frame and a piece of scrap wood from my stash.
I started by painting the wood with Navy Blue acrylic paint. For the glass I added different shades of blue to the surface, and worked the paint in until it was completely covered. I put both pieces aside and let them dry.
Once both pieces were dry I spread a layer of Mod Podge over the top.
Then glued it down to the piece of painted wood.
This next part is going to sound weird, but I took a hammer to it.
That's right, I smashed it. The goal was to break the surface apart while still glued down.
I thought the painted top would separate, and create a cool collage situation. Not so much. It was more like shattered dents.
A couple of pieces broke off, but for the most part it didn't turn out as interesting as I thought it would. Maybe I'll try it again on a larger scale. To be honest it actually looked nice before I smashed it. So, I could always leave the tools alone, and not be destructive. We'll see. Experiment 1 - COMPLETE.
For the next project I utilized a few pieces of broken glass. I was making a glass top for something, and attempted to cut the glass myself. I was clearly part of team doing too much, and ended up with a bunch of jagged pieces. It was a big mess honestly. Needless to say I have not been able to add glass cutter to my repertoire.
To start the process I grabbed 2 pieces of scrap wood from the garage. I traced the shape of each glass piece to the top, and cut around it. I spray painted the sides silver, and then sanded and painted the top white as a base.
For the larger one, I added a few pieces of masking tape to the top. Then I painted the exposed sections black.
Once it partially dried I removed the tape.
For the glass, I started by drilling 3 holes into the surface. In order to do that I used my Dremel, and newly purchased Diamond drill bits.
It took awhile to drill the holes. However, it wasn't too difficult. I just had to take my time.
Once my holes were drilled, I painted the underside using various colors of acrylic paint. This wasn't going to be handled at all, so I didn't see the need to get specialty glass paint.
While it dried I added some blocks to the base. I wanted the glass to float over the top, and the blocks serve as spacers. They were also a means of securing the glass to the base. I painted them black to blend in.
With both pieces complete I added the glass to the top
To secure the glass to the base, I used Thumb Tacks and extra glue. Unfortunately the Thumb Tacks did not push as easily into the wood as I had thought they would. I tried to use my hammer, and ended up breaking the glass.
A little frustrating, but not the end of the world. To rectify my issue, I cut a portion of the tack off, and used a liberal amount of E6000 glue to secure it. As for the broken piece, I just put a few dabs of clear glue and adhered it directly to the wood. Not my first choice, but still looked cool.
For the next piece I tried a different technique. I added the paint using straws. I've seen this before, but never tried it. You stick one side of the straw in some paint, and then blow from the other side. It came out kind of cool, and was not that hard to do. Definitely took a few tries to get the hang of it, but once I did I was on to something. I started by adding black to the white base.
For the glass portion I used the same technique, but used the same variety of colors from the other glass piece.
This time though I added the tacks and blocks to the glass first.
Then added the whole thing to the base.
Experiment 2 - COMPLETE
To hang the pieces, I added a picture hook to the back of each one.
I added the finished pieces to my top floor gallery wall.
So what do you think? I think they turned out nice. I wasn't sure what I was going to get when I started this whole thing, but that's kind of the whole point. This was a fun experiment. Not really sure what the next project or material will be. I do know I need a new patio table though. Hmmm...I'm thinking a good outdoor material.
....Until the next project
