Thanks to everybody / new web site

Roderick Treece · Post by **Roderick Treece** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:58 pm

I would like to take this oportunity to thank everybody that has helped me in the last few years with all the technical advice.It's inspiring to know that there are so many people out there that love to do signs and glass work and are willing to share.That we can share ideas freely and get together to see those ideas come to life.I am sure if it had not been for some of you I would either have given up trying or never had known about some of these wonderful techniques that I now use everyday in my work.
I have always loved to work with gold leaf and glass so learning to do all these great techniques over the years has lead me to the point were I have finally put together a web site dedicated to custom glass signs and mirrors.
At this point the site is more about the custom mirrors than signs but you can see the influence all of you have had on it.From the glue chipping,screen printing on glass,goldleaf ,inlayed abalone,mother of pearl and mirroring to the use of vectorized artwork and computer plotter stencils for screen printing, all those ideas have come together for me because we have been able to share freely.Thanks for all the hours on the phone and at the meets.
I think we have been truly keeping the concept alive that Rick shared with us ,to share information and help keep the art alive.
I am hopeful that the new web site will have a link page with names of my freinds that always inspire me and other ,to show the outside world all the great work being done and where to get it.
One of the hardest things for me has been to see where all this investment of time and money will lead ,always keeping in the back of my mind that I'm doing this for myself ,but I am hopeful that I can make a living doing custom glass signs and if not ,Somebodys gonna get some cool glass signs when I die!

Thanks again and I look forward to sharing what I know with you.

Roderick Treece

www.customglasssigns.com

Sarah King · Post by **Sarah King** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:57 am

Roderick, that is a seriously cool web site you have - a beautiful show case for some seriously cool mirrors and signs. It's time that more folks realized that a great mirror doesn't have to be just a flat silver mirror in a fancy frame. Congratulations on several jobs well done.

Roderick Treece · Post by **Roderick Treece** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:02 pm

Sara,
Thank you so much.You are one those people that without your help I don't think i'd be doing mirroring.I have been into reverse back painted glass for years and being able to do my own mirroring adds so much to it,then adding antique mirroring on top of that ,it really finishes off a peice.
Keep an eye out for a revised photo with detail of the gold leaf screen on the web site.That was the only photo I had at the time.
Now that I have all the art on a screen I will be making small wall mirrors of that same style.
With All of the David Butler vectorizing workshop info ( and with alot of help from Danny) I was able to recreate the border art, vectorize it and make it into a screen to print,useing tranparent ink for the art and then useing tinted 24 hr size ( to soften the gold) I guiled the back of the glass.Then the gold was rub back so it was very ,in the end and reddish burnt seinna color ws used for the back up.
That room divider screen is on it's way to a show room tommarow.

Thanks again for the help.

PS I bought some stannous chloride for my tining solution and mixed it up,it seemed to not have the same kind of soapy quilty of the kind I've used before and I don't think it worked that good as everthing came out very lightly silvered ( great for antiqued look)?

Roderick

Sarah King · Post by **Sarah King** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 9:26 pm

The soapy quality of our tin (and Peacock's) is caused by adding a wetting agent to the tin concentrate which breaks the surface tension in the water and allows the tin to stick more evenly to the glass. The wetting agent we use in the Tin for Gold doesn't foam very much but it helps to get an even distribution of tin.

Experimenting with different types of tinning solution is a great way to get different "antique" mirror effects - and you learn a lot about tin in the process.

I would love to see a good close-up of that screen. I can't figure out how you attached the different pieces of mirror. I would have done it with lead came as a stained glass window but how did you do it?

Roderick Treece · Post by **Roderick Treece** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:22 pm

Sara,
I just use a mastic adhesive.I had a product call rainbuster 900,But I'm sure you can use any mirror mastic.As for the mirroring deal right now it seam somthing is wrong with mt chemcals because I'm getting only antique mirror.I couldn't do a perfect mirror right now if I tryied.I'm not sure whats going on.John Studden taked to me today and said the same thing.So It's back to the drawing board as they say.I will be posting new photos of the screen soon.
www.customglasssigns.com

Roderick