First Glass Piece Review

[Ciaran Gallagher]

This is a glass piece commissioned by the Owner of The Duke of York Pub in Belfast who wanted a piece of glass for a display cabinet he will have hand built and use to store antique Whiskey and Tobbacco products and memorabelia. Willie Jack wanted the piece for a new bar he is currently developing that will be furnished in a 1900s gin palace style and the piece had to be designed accordingly.

im pretty pleased with the piece and delighted that i got away withot sandblasting anything for the embossing i used armour etch glass embossing cream
im also very pleased with the shell laminate leterring which i applied using latex craft glue and it seems pretty clear

my main problems where with the procedure i used to paint the detailed black outlines.
for this i used semi transparent sign makers vinyl cut out with an exacto knife and spraypainted with 'plasti-kote' gloss super.
i used this because it seemed like the toughest paint i could find and i knew scrubbing the gold off afterwards could be problematic.
however my process involves peeling the vinyl of after the paint has dryed to avoid mess but the paint was so tough that it tore the edges of the image when i peeled the vinyl off leaving some of my writing with a really rough edge.

any ideas on a better paint or system for applying exact stencil work? im in northern ireland in the uk im going to look into screen printing

also
although i used latex gloves the glass still got pretty grubby with gelatine size and tiny gold particles and would really need a good clean around the letters.
but with the main gold and embossed prismatic letters (distillery co 5-23 hill street etc) there is no backing paint so they are too delicate to clean round the style of the letters means there is no outline so any backing paint would need to be very precisely applied and ive run out of time on the project

the display cabinet will be permanently locked so backing up shouldnt be that big a deal on this project but would like to know for again in kent smiths gold leaf techniques he discusses some options such as fine golds back up enamel, common wealth varnish etc these products seem to be no longer in circulation and the japan colour scrubs off pretty easily

i have included some photos of the process and a photo of the 'D' from Distillery which is badly torn at the edge as i mentioned ....also i used variegated leaf which was a nightmare to scrape of the glass again and i will never use again! there are still traces of it peeping out past the ragged edges if the letters because i couldnt scrape it off completely without damaging the black out lines furter

thanks for reading
and any feedback would be gratefully recieved

oviously i think it would be rude not to mention that i have been greatly inspired and influenced by the work of David A Smith and Bruce Jackson!

[Doug Bernhardt]

Hi Cairan. There's just SOOO much good advice on the process here I would just take the time to read over all the posts and follow the processes used. It is worth noting that Dave Smith is just across the channel and gives workshops.

[DAVE SMITH]

Ciaran. Beautiful work mate! seems like you are already onto a good think here. If ever I can help you just send me an email or give me a call. I'm not always on here as much these days, I pop my head in now and again. Great to see new talent coming through. I know a Ciaran that I taught back in 97 from Belfast, is this you?

Dave

[Kent Smith]

Many of the products that are listed in the text are not the same, no longer available or not available in your area. Perhaps Dave can help you find the ones you need.

The overall appearance of this piece is great so I hope you will be able to find materials that will make this work viable and last.

[Ciaran Gallagher]

Cheers for the positive comment dave it has made my day, cant see myself reaching your level in the glass arts as im more comfortable jumping between mediums, jack of all trades and all that.
No not the same ciaran by the way.

[Ciaran Gallagher]

actually forgot to post final result decided to spraypaint the back of it this petroleum blue-y colour feel it works well with the gold and wood frame. This actually hangs in the new Harp Bar on hill street in belfast same owner as the duke of york

[Roderick Treece]

Very nice work Ciaran.! I was going to ask who mirrored it until I viewed the last photo. Keep it up.

[Ron Berlier]

Ciaran, a very nice looking piece.

[Ciaran Gallagher]

dont know of anyone in ireland or northern ireland that does mirroring. i have been doing alot of white 12 ct gold mirroring for people but its really expensive and always seems to make the final piece look unclean, dont have the space or recourses at the minute to do it properly myself, but if you know anyone let me know
thanks

[erik winkler]

It looks very nice Ciaran,
If i look at your work i think the 12crt leaf does it make more original looking.
If these panels are to perfect it looks like they are machinemade.
Silvering costs a lot of money also, setting up the silvering takes 4 hours at my place (i cook up my own silvering chemicals).
In those 4 hours you can have a lot of leaves payed for and placed.

Nice to see that it all worked out.

[Scott Martin]

Great looking piece Ciaran! Love the blue background.

Scott