Sorry for the delay. Bad week. My personal computer hardrive crashed, waiting for order of replacement. Will get caught up ASAP.
Website Updates Pending
August 29th, 2010Changes
August 2nd, 2010Today I gave notice to the property manager of my present location that I will be moving out. Over the last 3 + years I came to realize that what I really want to do is my craft and I don’t need a retail supply shop for that. So, I’m gathering the inventory and moving everything into my personal studio where I will continue to take repair work, artwork commissions, and make stained glass objects for sale at outdoor markets.
Anyone who follows me close enough to be reading this will know how to get ahold of me for coaching/advice. Jones Creek Glassworks new business number is (as of Sept 1) 541-563-7190.
In the last 3 years operating the stained glass supply store, I’ve learned more about my craft, everything I know of repairs, and have made some great contacts that will serve me as I move into this next stage.
There is no special “one reason” that I’m making this move — it’s just time. There are so many things I want to try including lamp work and silver smithing that I simply don’t have the time for while running the shop. Most of you have multiple interests and can probably understand. So, I hope to see everyone around and thank you all for your patronage. It has been an education and my pleasure serving the stained glass community of Lincoln County, Oregon!
Summer Markets
July 29th, 2010Since the start of my participation at the markets, I’ve changed strategies and markets. Seal Rock was a fizzle. We tried it in two locations, not an easy thing to do in a place thst small. The first spot was right at the 50MPH sign (duh), the next spot was better (next to a gallery),but just not enough interest to make it worth doing.
So, now I’m at Nye Beach on Friday Noon til 6PM which is getting more foot traffic every week and is a lot of fun with really nice fellow venders. I started vending at the Lincoln City Farmers Market on Sundays 9AM til 2PM. Have been there 2 times now and it is a very busy market which promises to get busier as summer goes on. Really great folks at Lincoln City, too.!
Markets are a lot of work, especially with glass! Takes me 1.5 hours to get set up and an hour to pack up at the end of the day. I’ve come to enjoy the process and the whole scene. I’ve learned a lot about selling. The basic thing is that you need to show enthusiasm. Just sitting there waiting for things to happen doesn’t work. There is a balance to find, being enthusiastic without being annoying and pushy. Setting up the space under my canopy is a constant “tweaking” exercise. It must be inviting. At first, everything I did was getting in my own way, but, with help from my fellow vendors, I’ve been making changes and making my space closer to ideal. The process is more complicated than it seems on the surface.
All in all, it’s been fun and I will keep doing markets.
Announcement: Summer Hours Begin
May 26th, 2010This summer Jones Creek Glassworks will participate in 2 weekly street markets – one in Nye Beach (Newport, Oregon ocean side old town) beginning the second week of June 2010 on Friday and the other in Seal Rock, Oregon along highway 101 on Saturday.
What this means to my valued patrons is that the shop in Newport will be closed on Fridays and Saturdays as well as Sunday and open for business on Monday through Thursday, 10AM until 5PM. Lessons will be scheduled only on the open shop days of Monday through Thursday.
The shop hours will change back to Monday through Friday for the winter by mid-October.
Authority of the Piece
April 12th, 2010It’s March when everything seems to be on the cusp of beginning. It’s slow in the shop today. A repair job beckons from the work bench; I’m still in the think-it-over and develop a strategy stage - this motion I don’t get paid for, but crucial for me to go through even though I know there will be many detours.
I’ve labeled some pieces that I think must be removed for re-foiling. I’m waiting for that moment when it all gels – when I can say with conviction that the piece was a throw-away when it came in the door, so I can’t hurt it further; the bravery I need to start tearing the piece apart with the confidence that I will get it back together good as (better than?) new, and the right mood. Yup, it sounds silly, but I need to be in the mood to do a repair.
The mood can only be described as a devil-may-care sense of adventure with my mind wide open mostly because I know that whatever I have planned at the onset, the authority of the piece will dictate each move from beginning to end and I need to let go.
Sometimes it is frustrating and I’ll get so wound up in the frustration that I need to put it aside for a day or a week just to back up and get a fresh look. Then, when I’ve nearly forgotten the presence of the abandoned repair project, I’ll look up at the work bench and see a small thing I can do, some ah-ha moment when what had been fuzzy becomes crystal clear . . . I’m hooked again.
Building the piece back together is hardly ever the problem. Most problems and the biggest time factors are with dismantling, getting the broken piece of glass away from the others without breaking more pieces, pulling off came soldered in many places on both sides – heating both sides of a joint with a soldering iron and pulling the came away with only two hands. I always feel sure that some master craftsman solved all my puzzles long before I have put my unworthy head to them and would be laughing . . .but, I get it loose, figure it out, feel relieved and able to move on to the next dictation from the piece.
I repair a lot of pieces made in China and Mexico, I’ve learned to tell which country. I used to rattle on about the levels of craftsmanship evidenced in the piece, why it broke, on and on. Now, the only mention I make is when I give my estimate. Sometimes I will have to say, “This will cost more to repair than what it cost to purchase it in the first place.” My way of commenting on the source. I’ve almost come to be able to say this without much innuendo. Just business; customer needs to know the options. I quit snarking the home shopping networks and department stores who buy stained glass novelties wholesale. If someone loves a piece of art, the only thing they want to know about it is can I fix it.
And my answer is yes. Yes, even if I’m not absolutely sure. Now, you know my secret. Not such a secret, really. Just that I’m willing to risk a bit of my reputation (as I see it) as a business person. And that risk buys me an opportunity to indulge in this passion that has grown through me. I really, truly like doing repairs of stained glass. I like them because just when I feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew (my lifelong strategy for learning anything), something in the art will let me know which way to proceed, you could say the authority of the piece guides its repair and I am just along for the ride.
April 13, 2010
April 12th, 2010Looking back, I’m amazed that I survived the 70’s let alone the 80’s, 90’s, and the wee years of the 21st century! So, I’m celebrating with a day off. Tuesday, April 13 is my birthday and I will be out of the shop. My birthday is traditionally, at least since I was a teenager, a day of reflection and putzing around the house. For anyone who is curious about my actual age . . .keep guessing! LOL
Sal Ammoniac
February 14th, 2010[So many question have come up about this product and its use that it seems wise to give this piece an encore printing. I hope this gives you more knowledge to put in your stained glass toolbox.]
Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride), briefly, is a flux used for iron and steel. This statement nearly tells the whole story of why a sal ammoniac block is used to tin (or re-tin) the working end of a soldering iron. Most soldering iron tips are iron or steel clad copper.
Generally, the action of any flux paired with its corresponding metal is to remove the build-up of scale, rust, and oxides (the dark crusts) that begin to form on the surface of metal when it is exposed to even a few seconds of air. Soldering iron tips are no different than copper foil when it comes to attracting and reacting to pollutants in the air. Heat speeds the build-up of oxides. (The fluxes used to clean copper foil and zinc in preparation for soldering are a suspension of zinc chloride. Historically, tallow and palm oil were used as a flux for lead soldering. Oleic acid has replaced tallow.)
So, how does it work? Placing the heated metal on the sal ammoniac bar melts and partially decomposes the layer of flux (remember, sal ammoniac is a flux) in contact with the hot metal (the soldering iron tip and a drop of solder). As the sal ammoniac “sublimes”(creating that nasty smelling white smoke), the hydrochloric acid part of the compound is liberated. The hydrochloric acid is what dissolves the oxides from the metal surface of the iron and enables tinning. More science than you wanted with your coffee today I bet!
A few warnings about using the sal ammoniac bar:
- Use adequate ventilation during this process.
- Sal ammoniac is abrasive and excessive use can wear away the iron cladding.
A few tips on tip care:
• Keep your tip clean with a wet sponge while working, but avoid constant wiping which will cause the temperature to rise and fall dramatically causing metal fatigue
• At the end of a soldering session wipe the tip clean, “flood” with solder, then wipe again and unplug the iron.
• Don’t allow the iron to “idle” at operating temperatures for extended periods.
With good care a good soldering iron and tip
should give years of service. However, there are
soldering irons out there that do not meet even
minimal standards of quality. So, buyer beware
- it’s a good rule of thumb.
Addendum:
Using the sal ammoniac bar requires some patience; it is not actually working until you see (and smell) the white smoke. When tinning your soldering iron tip with the aid of sal ammoniac, make sure the iron is very hot. Come in to Jones Creek Glassworks for a demonstration (my soldering iron tip can usually benefit from a good tinning).
Dalle De Verre Church Window Completed
February 8th, 2010The Dalle deVerre church window restoration is finally finished and re-installed. The color of the matrix is somewhat different, but still in the background and not even noticeable in the sanctuary lighting.
I mixed 4 epoxy resin pour sections in the whole window; the first pour section was light on hardener, so needed to be removed and re-poured. There is not the “cold joint” problem one might encounter with concrete, thank goodness, so, everything stuck where it was supposed to stick for the “replacement” pour – just a slight ridge in the surface of the matrix at the interface of pour sections.
I got a lot of great advice and encouragement from friends who had used epoxy resin in some form which I remembered when things went a little different than I expected. Thanks to Dave and Karl, I was prepared for whatever might happen during the pour. What I wasn’t prepared for was the lack of functionality of my scale.
I planned to tare the milk carton and pour in the epoxy resin, take the weight of the epoxy and calculate how much hardener was needed exactly. I had a 100:1 ratio, simple math. The plan was to tare the carton with the epoxy and take the scale up to the exact weight of the hardener only. Well, the scale would not tare so much weight and it flustered me at first. The first pour eventually needed to be replaced (as mentioned) because I “guesstimated” wrong on the hardener needed. After that, everything went fine. I just got a tare on the carton, added epoxy, and wrote down the weight of the total epoxy for my calculation of the hardener required. Put the carton back on the scale with epoxy inside, wrote down the total weight, added the weight of the hardener to that total and then poured in the hardener until the scale read the sum. No problems after that on calculating the mix.
I first tried pouring from the corner of the milk carton. The texture of the epoxy resin with hardener is a little like peanut butter thinned with really sticky honey, but the way it “moves” is something I had not encountered, sort of reminded me of liquid-y silly putty. The stuff got all over the dalles, so I moved into the more open sections of the panel since I thought the pour would be going off in about 20 minutes which would leave me little time to clean the epoxy off the dalles before it hardened. A little nerve wracking, but it was not a good time for freaking out. I got as much as possible poured from the carton and did a little mental reassessment of the plan.
What I ended up using for the actual “spreading” of the epoxy resin for the balance of three pours was gallon size plastic storage bags which I filled from the milk carton I used to mix. Just cut a small hole in the corner of the bag to accommodate the narrow “channels” between the dalles and instead of squeezing (like you might do while decorating a cake), I just let the epoxy resin “fall” out of the hole as I moved it around the glass. Piece of cake . . .
I waited 15 minutes after each pour and sprinkled clean sand over the surface. There was one place where I didn’t wait long enough before sprinkling the sand and it sunk into the epoxy resin a bit; doesn’t look perfect, but not too bad.
The matrix began to harden very quickly (except for the bad first pour), and I left it on the work bench until the following Monday (2 days). The following Friday, I removed the matrix that didn’t harden and poured it again. The following Monday, February 1, I called the church to make arrangements for the time to reinstall the panel. Saturday, February 6, Kirby and I prepared the panel for transport to the church and he installed the panel.
The only really nervous moment for me was when he had to adjust the panel during the dry fit with a skill saw using a masonry blade. I had to go inside the sanctuary and calm my mind with meditation while he was taking a power saw to my work. But, it all went pretty well. See photos.
I learned a lot doing this project and plan to do more Dalle de Verre. I need to acquire more skill in shaping and faceting the glass. I have no fear of mixing epoxy resin now. I need to find a more effective way to smooth the aggregate around the dalles to get a nice flat matrix surface on the bottom as well as the top. I’m sure that will all come with practice like with any skill set.
Learning anything requires the willingness to say yes when an opportunity arises. So, my dear reader, go forward without fear and learn. If you are interested in learning Dalle de Verre, there is a valuable booklet from The Stained Glass Association of America which is Chapter 10 of the Reference and Technical Manual, Second Edition. It is available from SGAA, Raytown, MO, 1-800-438-9581.
Inside the sanctuary, the panel on the left is the restoration.
Kirby, my husband, is adjusting the panel for the dry fit.
Waiting for the masonry blade . . .yikes!
Dalle De Verre Church Window
January 23rd, 2010
Pieces stuck down to pattern with glue dots, clean sand (aggregate layer) between dalles, needs fine tuning before epoxy resin pour.
It’s the big day. I’m going in this morning to finish up prep and do the epoxy resin pour. I know I’ve been over-thinking this (thus creating a huge nervous knot in my stomach over it) so, I’m switching gears. The process is down cold in my head, all my reference materials are close by. The only prep I have left is to dam up the deep facets with clay so they won’t flood during the pour and to make sure the sand base is as close to even throughout at 1/4 inch. The actual pour should take less than 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, then the final sanding (top layer of aggregate). Wish me luck.
Update on Paper Mache Aided Lamp Repair
January 10th, 2010Just word on paper mache mold – while it could be useful in some cases, I ended up abandoning the idea in favor of simply cutting, adjusting the shape (with grinder), foiling, and tack soldering the replacement pieces in place. Seventeen of the upper grid of the lamp were broken. Now, I am searching for a good replacement for the mangled vase cap, one that will do justice to the gorgeous patina of the original (still intact) finial. I don’t want to use one of those flimsy lace-cut brass caps on this lamp.