still in there trying

[megan child]

Hi all,

its been a while since I wrote on the forum, but that hasn't meant I gave up.

I took the variety of advice and went away and worked on my mirror.

I found a screen printer who set me up with ink that adheres to glass, and then I did my artwork and proceeded to learn how to screen print in rudimentary conditions - my laundry and backyard.

I created 4 prints, 2 were better than the others. I glue chipped all four, two broke. I angel gilded & silvered the remaining two, (took a photo at this stage) I botched up one so I used that as a test for my mica powder and then just as I was nearing completion after many learning curves, I held up the mirror to show my husband my near finished product with mica applied and the mirror just slipped out of my hands.
Needless to say I was in the laundry with the tiled floor at the time and only slithers of the mirror remained intact.

But! I had already started dreaming of increasing the size of the design and placing it on a larger piece of glass so I dusted myself off took an hour off for reflection and then began planning again

# problems I encountered -
Is there an optimum thickness of glass needed for glue chipping?

The print came off around the edges when I cleaned it for silvering - I'm using a two pack epoxy but the fine print doesn't seem to with stand the rigors of cleaning.

I've since added lettering at the top of the design - Fish Tales - as my critique's were always asking what the image was about.


Thought Id let you see the pics I have and get some feedback - maybe a pat on the back?

[Roderick Treece]

Hi Megan,
Happy to hear your still trying to work things out. It's a life long thing really. Sorry to hear about your loss but at least your weren't hurt.
For me I always try and do all my mirroring first. Then do the painting after. You always take a chance on paint loss when you scrub on the paint to clean it for mirroring.

Best of luck to you !

[megan child]

I had thought to mirror first, but the question of when would I glue chip and angel gild confused me so instead I printed the design, sandblasted and glue chipped the bear, angel gilded the small area and removed the overspilt gold and then mirrored.

I am eager to know what order you would have done the above steps in and why



Meg
consistent in being persistent

[Roderick Treece]

chip first, then mirror.then angle gild , then paint,

[Lee Littlewood]

I would agree with Roderick, but it seems like your art work (the black lines) are important, so they need to be under the silver. So I would change it around a little bit:
1) Register your glass pieces in the silk screen setup. Check every piece, that it is sitting well against the stops. Mark "up" on the front side of the glasses.
2) clean the glass, apply sandblast mask (probably just white vinyl). Now put them in the silkscreen and pounce black powder thru the screen. You can blow the powder out of the screen so it won't affect the printing, and now you have a nice visual to cut the mask. Remember to leave a glow line.
3) sandblast, gluechip, clean off very carefully. This is your last chance to really rub the glass.
4) gild - angel gild or water gild. Back up by hand with the epoxy ink. (You can backup with the silkscreen, but then you'll have to clean the screen and probably lose the register.) Let the ink dry.
5) Clean off the excess gold. Clean the glass as well as you can.
6) Print the black lines in epoxy. Let dry.
7) The glass is still clean, right? So you can just rinse, tin & silver... (Silvering to the edges is extra hard to pull off.) Dry the silver well - a hair drier is good.
Back up all, leaving openings for the mica powder. This backup doesn't need to be super tough.
9) De-silver the openings. Rinse and dry.
10) Put in varnish and dust on mica (?). Whatever you did before.
11) You can do a backup over the whole thing, or flock, or whatever, depending on how it will be displayed. Our system is usually to let it sit around until we drop it on the floor, but you're way ahead of us on that. Post a picture...

Oh yeah, and HAVE FUN!

[megan child]

Hi Lee,

thanks for the step by step instructions, I really would like to put it into practice but until we have some rain down under I have to wait!

We live on dam and tank water and have needed to conserve the little we have for drinking and washing so right now screen printing has been put on hold. I will however get back to you asap when I have completed.

thanks for all your help and input



Meg
consistent in being persistent[/color]

[megan child]

Well the drought broke at home and the tanks filled and I started back onto my mirrors.

I registed the glass and used the trick of charcoal onto the mask to know where to cut.
Sandblasted and chipped the glass - still having some problems with that due to humidity the box went well with damp-rid in the bottom but as it has got colder here it is failing to work.

Although you suggested angel gilding at this stage I went for screen printing. I then used hot glue on the outlines to create a dam for the angel gild, removed the glue and any excess gold and then silvered the glass - this worked great.
Following this I backed up and removed silver in areas I wanted to do other work to. This is when I water gilded the letters and scales, and also added abalone shell to one mirror. I did this to 3 pieces and used one piece to "try" ideas on, that's when I came across the translucent ink and added mica powder to it for the sea.

Well its not perfect and I can see mistakes but wow it's good to see some success after years of bumbling around.

Meg

[Lee Littlewood]

Hey, hot stuff!
I think I see:
In the top one - red variegated on the fish, green variegated on the bear and in the newspaper, and the letters still full of silver, everything mirrored
#2 has abalone in the fish, same green variegated in the bear, red variegated in the newspaper, and maybe copper in the lettering??, everything mirrored.
There is something going on with the fish's fins; it actually looks pretty cool.
(taking pictures of mirror is HARD)

So, you got any questions? It seems pretty right-on to me.

and I'm glad your water is back on...

[megan child]

Guess What! I entered the mirrors into our town show and I won 1st and 2nd prize - total prize money $8 and a $30 framing voucher, but the response was priceless!!!!

I am now keen to get on and do some more.

Meg

[BruceJackson]

Hi Megan,
congratulations.

From your last comment, it appears you have completed your journey to addiction...hahaha

Looks like you are throwing a lot of different techniques into it. I note the mirror finish seems to have some interesting patina in it. I wondered if you gave it a bit of a spritz with liver of sulphur to develop that effect.

[megan child]

Hi Bruce,

Actually I think I didn't wash the tin off properly.

I have no idea of what liver of sulphur is but I'm off looking in google.

I keep on finding new things to try and this weekend I'm looking at bringing out all my unused pieces of glass and trying some new things including engine turning, and making letters look bevelled with gilding.

Yep I've had the bug for a long time I have struggled with this for a few years now trying to find ways to "get around" the fact that I can't signwrite.

Meg
consistent in being persistent