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Hi Guy's
I made this design about a year ago and only lately decided to actually try and have a go at making it. I have used this paint before but only through masking materials ,this time I had it made thicker with a higher content of black pigment almost like treacle, anyway I designed it by hand using a pencil and paper, got a little carried away with scrolls and embelishments and one little part of the text I wished now I would of done slightly differently for legibility reasons. made the mistake of to thicker outline on some of the smaller text but viewing it here is probably harder to read than in person ..I guess it's art anyway....The wording ....GOLDS that GLISTEN Turn Back The CLOCK For Those Who LISTEN These Walls TALK ... I seen this text on a small glass sign that Dave and Susie Butler had given to Roger Graham at one of the Conclaves in around 1990 for Rogers Palace Saloon in Orange County . I asked Dave if I could use the wording on a panel of my own and he said yep go right ahead and get it done, so thanks to the Butlers for the wording on this panel. The paint was screened directly to the glass in one pass and then fired to 590 dgrs and held there for 18 minutes with a gradual cool back to room temprature of 15 hours,when it dried prior to firing it was almost like powdered charcoal sitting on the glass but with very sharp detail..I then Brilliant cut punties and edge cuts in the panel and because the paint had been kiln fired into the glass it was like working with flashed glass. Imagine the acid effects on this paint that could be done almost endless effects I would think..
Polishing was done as normal and then I masked out the text for acid embossing, fine and medium acid letters were added and then finally I bent the panel into a curve at 620 dgrs with a slower decrease in temprature to avoid breakage.
I am now slowly in between other work but should have this panel gilded and wer eglomise done in a few days and hopefully towards the finishing line....
Dave
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[/attachment] brilliant cutting the glass through the black fired paint
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curved glass and acid etched
Last edited by DAVE SMITH on Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Imagine that! ...a grown man drawing all those scolls!
Probably sung a little song as he drew it.
CRIKEY! Your poor ole father, God Almighty!
I don't know if you've been told this before,
but it seems both your oars are on the same side of the boat!
Here the top section is gilded in various crts of Gold Leaf.The girl has been scratched and shaded and backed with black paint but you can't see it close in these shots. Spent about 3 hours adding the detail in her face and scrolls
will get some better shots hopefully once finished...
Aho Larry!
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That's a really magnificent piece. I really like the embellished letters, they stand out beautifully on that bent glass.
I see a little hint of red color in the crease of your index finger holding the glass against the wheel. Is that from a marker or are you suffering for your art? lol
Keep up the brilliant work .
Pat
Patrick Mackle wrote:I see a little hint of red color in the crease of your index finger holding the glass against the wheel. Is that from a marker or are you suffering for your art? lol
Keep up the brilliant work .
Pat
That must be Dave trying to catch an infection through his finger.
The paint is simalar Erik but was made thicker for a better one off print .Pat that is a cut on my hand ,I'm always doing that ,need to be a bit more careful.
The lettering in this picture is about 1 and half inches which gives you an idea of size to the rest of the detail.
That is Unbelievable .
Man, I have a thousand Questions. But I'll leave it at One.
The reason for Firing the paint?? Besides making it permanent does firing it for a lack of better terms "Stain The Glass" ?
Still learning the Brilliant Cutting.. Have Mastered Taking a Large Piece of Glass and turning it into Small Pieces. And Complete Natural Blood Transfusion.(I taught myself how to stitch wounds at Home. Saves a lot on Insurance Premiums)
Did you had to leave the edges clear to avoid breakage of the paint when bending the panel? So many questions, but too afraid to ask you your hard earned results of your personal quests.
Erik. You may ask me what ever you want ,as you know I don't mind sharing any techniques. If you paint to the edge Erik it will still be ok no difference no breakage ,the paint can be fired slumped at the same time if you wish but I chose to do it this way because of the brilliant cutting and acid etching ,saves trying to do all that on a curve.
William. By firing the paint it becomes part of the glass almost like flashed glass, infact when I was cutting the punties which are scattered all over this sign ,I could see the possibilities in shading the work as I was cutting through the black paint which had layed down thick on the panel. You could easily acid back the black exposing tones of greys with this paint ...would like to try that at somestage. This sign was made for experiment reasons for a job I think that will come in at some stage in Febuary. See how that goes with the client who cuts back on the nice stuff sometimes Glad to hear your doing some cutting ,good luck with that William.....
Dave
Ok thanks for the enlightment. I am soo excited for you that the paint works and can see all those great possibilities with the opaques, glazes, etching, chipping silvering over the semi etched layer etc.....
Funny to see your preference of the mahogany frames. I thought the dark colors of the ebony or dark rosewood, I choose, makes a good contrast with silver or gold.
Your next piece?: Mica etched paint/flashed glass and then silvered.
Or like Daum Nancy multicolored glass and deepetched in certain points so that a colored painting comes to the surface.
Funny you should say that, I have one on the go right now like that Erik. I can see you making one of these....
Look at this one I seen in York a few weeks back. And one of 8 pieces I made today for a door entrance which at to match original glass. Kelly the kiln is about 6ft by 5ft outside dimensions about 18 deep. Thanks Kelly
Dave
Do you know the feeling when you are powerless and speechless and you just want to swear? Well here it comes: *^$&^() Dave
Good to have you back.
I think this line of work will be the most beautifull yet.
Please do me a favor and send me a high res of the last one.
You are exceeding the old guys....
Erik. Thats funny you changed your wording,what did you call me? lol
It is a nice piece and straight forward to make also, endless possibilities.
Thanks will get that high res to you today.
Dave
I finished this little glass sign recently that was featured in the end credits of a film about my work http://vimeo.com/14985356
I Put some pastel colours into it to make it pop out more....
Hi Dave,
I just checked in first thing this morning to view your progress and you did not disappoint. Really nice job on this one!
Hope you add a picture when it's finally nested in a frame.
Thank you for the progressive photos, it's inspiring to see how you bring it all together.
Pat
Just want to add my praise. It's very enjoyable seeing it come together.
It's very much a Dave Smith design...over the top, complex and tight, but it's a feast for the eyes for that very reason.
I used to disagree with people when they would say "less is more"...I can appreciate clean minimal design in some circumstances, but I still always felt that "more is more"....Dave, your designs exceed everyone else's in the "more" department, especially your beautifully developed and refined scrolls.
I don't want to distract this thread with my own work, but I thought this comparison is amusing. This is a job I've been working on the last few days. It's yet to have the matt centres and a little bit of color in some areas......but the scrolly bits looks positively minimalist by comparison. hahaha
Thanks Bruce that's real nice of you. I do get carried away sometimes and it is easy to over do some work but as you say you kind of know when to stop and call it a day on some of these designs. I like your work very much (big fan) and this little window you have done looks the part with these scrolls,the good thing also is that it is easy to read ,I look forward to seeing your colours on this one mate. What was your procedure on this gold job? On the finer work I always like to use a screen set up (printing upright) and on larger jobs a brush is nice to use as it leaves more of a hand look to the work which I see in this panel of yours. Sometimes in the past I have signwritten onto white card and then made a screen ready for printing this way the job looks kind of hand done. I know Doug B does it this way also.
It is all hand-done. I don't use screen printing at all. I'm not trying to be a purist or anything, it's just that screen printing is something I never got around to getting set up for. Even using masks to apply outlines prior to gilding is something I only started at the request of WDI (when doing Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005) because they wanted it tighter.
Perhaps I'm basically lazy but doing it by hand is often the simplest solution. I was very happy with the tightness of the lettering. It's actually very neat, which I admit is a little unusual for me these days. Some of the jobs I do are deliberately loose and rustic.
so, the procedure....draw a few rough ideas on paper, including maybe 20 variations of calligraphy for the name, all done very quickly in one sitting of maybe an hour. Get feedback from client to refine the idea, draw a rough final design on paper. They also want to use it for printed artwork, so I mistakenly spent a few hours drawing a clean version in illustrator, only to find out later she prefered the hand-drawn version and doesn't want the computer-generated clean perfection. Back-pedal and simply photograph my paper design, printing it out full size for a paper pattern (easier than re-drawing it full size by hand)....paint the asphaltum shading and some linework in clear gold size, water gild 23.5 carat, back-up and clean...that's where it is now as photgraphed...next is fill in the matt centres, some cross-hatching in matt gold and and add some color (maybe in muted dark pink and green in the little panels and open spaces and then varnish. (no black shades. want to keep it light)
.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads