Eigenbrot Brewery Curved glass signs

[DAVE SMITH]

I chipped and gilded these two glass signs this last week . The gold one I get to keep as I made it for a corner in my workshop but the other will go to a client. The customer owns an American bar and wanted a glass sign for part of the decor. The advert I found in an advertising book. I chipped one in the kiln and the other on a light table. The black glass was chipped in the kiln , I managed to get the tempratures wrong and took the heat way to far up for chipping and melted the glue before it had a chance to chip.I left it on and it still chipped but with more of a finer chip it still looked ok for this type of sign. they both look really old and in the shop here almost look kind of original. good fun to make as always. taken a few shots to show the chipping. the signs are 2 ft high
Dave

[DAVE SMITH]

different angle picks

[Jerry Berg]

Those both look very nice Dave. I can't decide which one looks best. I like the gold blend on the black one.

[Wayne Osborne]

Nice work mate.
I prefer the all-gold one.-What is the triangle/checkerboard border pattern on the black one.?

[Doug Bernhardt]

Davey.....sweet pieces. Now, you bright lined by hand?....and are they leaf gilded? If not you need to tell us how you screened or masked and how the heck you got silver and angel gild into them!! Its a nice blend in the chip.

[vance galliher]

....hahaaa, it's like everything you do Dave becomes a monitor bkdg for me. It's great to just sit here every now and then and really look at your work for awhile. I feel so fortunate to witness the skills and talents of so many artist on this forum, but Dave, you just keep upping the bar man. I'm sure I speak for many............thank you !

[Henry Contreras]

Truley amazing. I would love to learn some of this. The closest I have ever come is doing re-production pinaball glass

great work

-loco

[DAVE SMITH]

Once again thanks Everyone . Wayne the triangles are painted through a paint mask ,I at to allow for expansion so to match up the border it was hard but I got there,this was then painted by hand with glazing asphaltum and varnish the same way as Gregg Hegear creates those fine scrolls for the fire trucks .I then matt gilded over the top. The gold on the black glass was hand gilded and hand brushed bright lines. Doug the gold one I cut a mask and outlined it ,I kept all the file and once the chipping was done placed the mask down and painted through using Nazdars apoxy black ink. Rob from Kelly signs told me where to get the paint from over here, you can scrub away with this stuff all day and it does not come off. A friend from here called Jake Ansell was telling me how well it worked on glass while he was at Kelly Signs. It is simalar properties to sericols to pack system and both work extremely well for silvering over. I tested 3 different paints out for chemical silvering and all work very nicely. I then water gilded using 22crt gold over the whole piece ,the matt border was done first and then I cut a design through a clear mask and burnished two ways varnished this and gilded using wax paper . I have noticed when buying distilled water for gilding ,to avoid any cloudiness in the gild it is best to buy sealed containers the ones with a foil seal over the end ,some come with just a screw top and the dates on the side may only say 1 week old but if it is not sealed with the foil the water is no good and your gild will be bad. The gild looked so clear you could not tell the difference from chemical silvering with the sealed water. I appreciate it would be quicker by spraying with Angel gild but I used the Tip I designed and it worked great for curved glass and the amount of gold was just 3 books. at £6.00 each. anyway glad you like them.
Thanks again.
Dave

[Tony Segale]

just might make some sense to start over.

[DAVE SMITH]

Then now is that time!

[Kent Smith]

Ditto...just wondering if the kiln mellowed the scallops?

[Larry White]

Yo, English-
I was kinda curious as to how these signs get hung. I don't see any holes in them for mounting with screws, and you certianly wouldn't want to cover up the scalloped edge in a frame. Are there some sort of clips you would use to hang them?

I really don't understand.

-whitey

[DAVE SMITH]

Larry.
Yes the clips we get here are standard chrome finish mirror holders they usually scew back to the wall and then you move down the 1/4 overlap over the glass which is part of the clip it self , they hold the glass but these glass signs will need a wooden structure making to hold the clips in place. The frame will be a triangle section made of ply and the clips will fix to the ends as if they were fixed to the wall for flat glass. Make sense? because I am lost already... trust me it works and I will post a pic of them mate. To be honest I wished I had put some holes in them just to make it easier. Aho Whitey! Kent the scallops do not mellow with this amount of heat, anything above 750-830 would start to round over but 590-630 is enough to make the panel sag to the curve needed. I can control where I want the glass to stop bending but there is some experimenting and time settings needed.
Dave

[Robert Schwieger]

Dave,

Your observation about the distilled water and the foil caps is hopefully another addition to improving glass gilding. I do believe that we all struggle with trying to achieve the best gild so I am heading for the store today. Thanks for your superb images and text. I agree that they are spectacular and set a high standard for all of us who are fascinated by glass gilding. Bob

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Robert. I do think it does make a differece ,let us know your own results mate.
Dave

[Miles Cullinane]

Hey Dave, Where does one go to get Distilled water? what type of company sells it?

Love those pieces, The gold background one is easier to read but the other has a lot of effects that add to it. Love them both. Nice one Matey.

[DAVE SMITH]

Miles me old fruitcake. Car supplies like Autoquip,Halfords look for Carplan Products they sell them with silver foil sealed tops and also buy a watersize brush that has no metal end holding the hairs on as this rusts big time .Ron Percell sells some nice brushes give him a call.
Thanks
Dave

[Kent Smith]

We can get steam distilled at Walgreens and other drug stores, which has a seal (though not foil). I have always advocated being sure we use steam distilled, not ionized, "purified" or other processes which are sometimes call distilled. Some truth in labeling laws have corrected this but not everywhere. Use the same for cleaning too so that there is no contamination left on the surface.

Just to clarify, the ferrulle of the size brush can be solid brass or aluminum without significant contamination. Brass coated copper will allow cupric sulfates to contaminate and brass covered tin will rust inside. Ron has the right ones though.

[Miles Cullinane]

for people like me who don't know suppliers by name, what company does Ron Percell work in/ own?

By the way Dave, my mum makes a nice fruitcake but she didn't make me one when she made me!
The slang of Devon needs some dictionary to go with it!

Or in Cork you might someone say to you 'you better be doggie wide sham boy!' which is a threat to be careful or else!

another question more to the topic, you mentioned 'Nazdars apoxy black ink', are you using that as the black paint in the gold background piece or what? and is it a regular screen ink with it's own thinners? available in the UK?

Thanks

[DAVE SMITH]

Yes I used Nazdar ink on these Miles.
I will dig yer out the details for yer me handsome.

Ron Percell is Letterhead sign supplies..

Dave

[cam bortz]

M'Turk: "E's at it wit' th' bleedin glass again. Shockin' bad. Make us look like bleedin amatuers, 'e does."
Beetle: "It's just not fair. I've practised for weeks, and I still make a beastly mess of it."
Stalky: "You've been here four years and you still expect fairness? Well, you really are a blithering idiot."

[DAVE SMITH]

Cam. I always thought there was something missing, It's to do with your height..
Blithering idiot, you got that bit right...
Dave

[Larry White]

...I never saw a place like this in my life!

Oh gawd Dave...

Please, please....please...

please...