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Ruby Flash Glass

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Jeff Lang
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:31 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Ruby Flash Glass

Post by Jeff Lang »

In another post by Erik, the subject of ruby flash glass was mentioned & I thought it should be started into a new post.
I was asked to do a repair a while back of a side lite for a entryway that was clear embossed ruby flash glass. The customer had a couple pieces of the orginal, so I was able to take a pattern from it. The design wasn't too complex, but my first challenge seemed to be where to acquire a piece that was 9" wide by 45" long. All of the suppliers I frist called upon turned me away, stating the largest the pieces were made was 24" x 36". After more calls to Lary White, Pat Mackle, Dave Smith & others I found from a local stained glass man the supplier who carried the ruby glass in the size I was looking for not too far away in New Jersey, http://www.rainbowartglass.com. As luck would have it, I was to travel to New York the following week, and a side trip to their facility was only a 30 minute detour. The person I spoke with on the phone was very helpful with directions, & insuring me I would find what I needed. When I got there I wasn't disappointed. The inventory they had was very good & I was able to get the piece of glass with no problem & be on my way.
When I got the glass back to the shop, I just needed to etch away the red layer of the glass to reveal a clear area of glass for the design. This proved to be a bit more challenging than I had originally thought. When I began my tests, I found the acid to leave patterns in the glass when I was doing a face down exposure to the acid, almost as though it was leaving waves in the glass.
The face up etch proved to be troublesome, as the acid would remove the ruby glass, but leave residue on the surface of the glass still being etched, which left an irregular pattern in the glass also.
After afew more tests, I concluded I was trying to remove too much of the ruby surface of the glass at one time, so I decided to etch in three stages, cleaning the residue off of the surface each time, resulting in a successful reproduction of the original glass.
The customer was so excited to have the finished piece & I learned a few things along the way with the help of Pat, Dave & Larry.
Attachments
the face down etch test left a wavy surface on the clear glass...
the face down etch test left a wavy surface on the clear glass...
ruby glass wavy etch.jpg (55.51 KiB) Viewed 5232 times
The face up etch left an irregular, bumpy surface on the clear glass...
The face up etch left an irregular, bumpy surface on the clear glass...
ruby glass bumpy etch.jpg (51.86 KiB) Viewed 5229 times
Close up of the finished panel, the clear glass was very smooth, but not totally transparent, but matched the original perfectly. Notice the seed, or air bubble in the clear part of glass...
Close up of the finished panel, the clear glass was very smooth, but not totally transparent, but matched the original perfectly. Notice the seed, or air bubble in the clear part of glass...
Ruby Glass finished close 2.jpg (75.69 KiB) Viewed 5226 times
the finished panel
the finished panel
Ruby Glass completed .jpg (51.54 KiB) Viewed 5225 times
Jeff Lang
Olde Lang Signs
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
412-732-9999
Jerry Berg
Posts: 369
Joined: Wed May 02, 2007 3:17 pm
Location: pacific northwest

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by Jerry Berg »

Thanks for the follow-up Jeff. I'm going to get myself some of this glass just to have on hand as it is nice looking.
The work I needed to do was a lot easier, just masking and then blasting off the top color to reveal white copy.

Jerry
erik winkler
Posts: 1097
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:48 pm
Location: Amsterdam Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by erik winkler »

Jeff this is a most interesting post, thank you for the insight and photo's
Have you ever tried to use sulfuric acid in your HF?
It acts as a kind of washing soap and slides of the glass crystals that remain on the glass when etching with HF.
This is how they would polish etch their cut glass in the early days.
Even more dangerous I must ad, but I think you can definatly handle it.

Strangely I found your supplier-link yesterday or today (I can not remember), but did not find the doublelayered glass.
Now I just have to find a large sheet supplier on this side of the Ocean.

p.s. Have you tried in glue chipping the colored side of the glass with a leftover piece?

Erik
Realizing we are in the 2nd renaissance of the arts.
Learn, copy and trying to improve...
Still in the learning phase ;-)
Amsterdam Netherlands
www.ferrywinkler.nl
www.schitterend.eu
www.facebook.com/Schitterend.eu
Jeff Lang
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:31 am
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by Jeff Lang »

Erik,
I haven't tried to glue chip the flash glass, yet, sounds like something to try. As for mixing the acids, I will leave that to the experienced folks.
To find the flash glass on rainbow, just type in "ruby flash" or simply "flash glass" in the search box & the results will appear. They refer to the smooth flash glass as commercial flash if I remember correctly, & the flash glass that has the irregular or unsmooth surface on the color side as "artistic flash glass", but i can't be sure.
I did find the red flash:
http://www.rainbowartglass.com/index.ph ... uctId=5210
I have sandblasted the flash as well, & it is available in multiple colors, like red over amber. The possibilities seem endless with acid, gilding, sandblasting...
Good luck with the search Erik.
Jeff
Attachments
A broken glass panel to be reproduced for a customer...
A broken glass panel to be reproduced for a customer...
fish old.jpg (134.08 KiB) Viewed 5080 times
The new sandblasted ruby/amber flash panel
The new sandblasted ruby/amber flash panel
fish new.jpg (118.71 KiB) Viewed 5079 times
Jeff Lang
Olde Lang Signs
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
412-732-9999
David Slade
Posts: 104
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 7:01 am
Location: Osaka, Japan
Contact:

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by David Slade »

The ruby red posts have been blowing me away!! Thanks!!
Can't imagine myself getting to that level.
Just soaking it all in right now.

Eric,
If you chipped the red side, you would get red glass with silver chipped design. Chip the clear side, you see the chipped design through the red. Right??
It would be great to see the comparison.

Would the seeds in the ruby red glass make the chipped glass to weak?
erik winkler
Posts: 1097
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:48 pm
Location: Amsterdam Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by erik winkler »

David,
I haven't tried it myself, but is saw this on Belgium/French stained glass doorpanels.
The effect was like this:
sandblast the ruby side, chip the ruby side.
The ruby layer will be chipped away untill you see the clear layer.
The nice effect is to been seen on the edges of every chip, because the glass breaks in an angle downwards ofcourse. This will give you thousends of different shades of ruby-white.
Sorry i can not show you any photo's, the discovery of this place was an unplanned one and the photo's from my mobile failed.

Erik
Realizing we are in the 2nd renaissance of the arts.
Learn, copy and trying to improve...
Still in the learning phase ;-)
Amsterdam Netherlands
www.ferrywinkler.nl
www.schitterend.eu
www.facebook.com/Schitterend.eu
bob gamache
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:38 am
Location: New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Ruby Flash Glass

Post by bob gamache »

Nice work Jeff! Rainbow art glass is about 20 minutes from my shop. Small world. Next time you're out this way shoot me an email.
Bob Gamache
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