These are the Next Steps in Making the Sunflower Suncatcher
After cutting the pieces of glass for the petals and shaping each one using a grinder when needed, the next thing to do is to wash each piece of glass in warm soapy water to remove all traces of the cutting oil. Then the glass is ready to be copper foiled.
Copper Foiling the Glass
On this Project I have used 3/16 silver backed copper foil. I have wrapped the edges of each piece of glass with the copper foil and then flattened it by hand. I then use a crimping tool to apply pressure to it and to seal it to the glass. This is what the sunflower looks like once it has been copper foiled.
Soldering the Sunflower
The next job is to solder the glass pieces together. First of all I have to flux the copperfoil seams so that the solder will melt onto the copperfoil. Then I tack solder the pieces together - this involves melting a drop of solder to attach one piece of glass to another. When I have done this and the piece is secure I remove the horseshoe nails and it is time to solder the seams.
I solder all of the copperfoil seams to achieve a continuous rounded solder bead. Then comes the tricky bit which is putting a solder bead around the edges. This is done by taking a drop of solder onto the tip of the soldering iron and patting it onto the edges - the trick is not to take so much solder that it runs onto the seams and glass but ensuring that there is just enough to give a raised edge. The soldering process for this project took approximately 1.5 hours.
Once all the soldering is done, I solder some jump rings to the suncatcher to take the chain or wire to hang it in a window or where the light will catch it. Finally, another thorough wash in soapy water is required to remove all of the flux and then I attach either a chain or fishing line to hang the suncatcher.
The entire project, from the sketch to completion, has taken about 5 hours.
Here is the finished sunflower suncatcher hanging in the window.
Jackie
Sketching a Sunflower
I am making a sunflower suncatcher and the first thing I did was to sketch a sunflower which I then used to make a pattern. Here is my drawing:
Cutting the Pattern
The next job is to cut the pattern. To do this I traced over the drawing which I had placed over a layer of carbon paper and thin card.
Once I had traced the sunflower I took the original drawing and traced over the pencil lines with a black marker pen . This thick black line represents the solder line. Then I numbered each of the pieces on the drawing and also put the same numbers on on the copy I had traced onto the cardboard. This is essential so that I can match the pattern pieces to the drawing. There are 22 pieces in total making up this sunflower.
Cutting the Glass PIeces
Next I cut the pieces of glass to make up the sunflower. I selected hammered glass for the centre of the sunflower in a dark amber and it gives a nice textured feel to the middle of the flower.
I cut the petals from yellow water glass and slipped in the occasional petal in amber restoration glass which helps to give the appearance of depth and shading. Below is the sunflower cut out and held in place by horseshoe nails which is the traditional method for keeping the glass pieces in place.
In my next post, I will tell you the next stages in the making of my sunflower suncatcher - through to its completion.
Jackie
A Stained Glass Father Christmas in the Making ........
I have been trying out some new Christmas decorations and I have come up with this Father Christmas carrying a sack of presents. So far I have cut out all of the glass pieces and I am pleased with how he is looking.
What I Need to do Next
I now need to give all of the glass pieces a good wash in soapy water to remove the cutting oil. Then I will wrap the edges of the glass in copper foil and make sure it sticks tightly to the glass and it is nice and smooth.
The next job is to brush flux onto all of the copper foil seams in preparation for soldering. I will then solder all of the glass pieces together and give it a final wash in soapy water to remove all traces of the flux.
