Cames, Flux, and Solder, Oh my!

As our presentation of the finished project approaches, I still feel a bit jittery, though I'm very proud of our work. I thought I'd add an entry on our last day of work, with pictures as per usual. We were definitely very jittery as we headed over to Brenda's on Wednesday, because we knew we had to finish our window that night. We still had some caming to do, and then we had to solder all the many many joints on both sides, paint in the axe, and add a patina to darken the lead and solder.

Fortunately, Charles had offered to stop by after work and lend us an extra pair of hands if and where we needed them. (I think all my non-stop talking about the project had made him rather curious about this caming and soldering stuff. He also had experience soldering electronics and wanted to see how it differed with glass.)

So after class we arrived at Brenda's and got straight to work on the caming. As you will recall, faithful readers that you are, we had camed everything except for the red and yellow arches bordering the right side of the piece. (Pictures, then comments.)


As I said, we got to work straight away. We had to do a little bit of extra cutting and grinding to make things fit, but it was very smooth-going compared to the wheel.


Before too long at all, we had finished the red arch and wrapped the whole length of it with a single piece of lead came. We nailed it in and got started on the amber (which you can see down in the bottom corner).

And lickity split that was done too, with even less finagle and fuss. Altogether, the caming took us less than an hour.

We wedged tiny pieces of came into certain spots to umbrella any extra large gaps where our original caming hadn't been measured properly. Just as we were finishing up with that step, Charles arrived and accepted first round at flux duty. So, while Hilary's fingers got a break, he brushed the lovely caustic material onto the joints in the came, and I melted the solder onto the iron and then applied it in theoretically controlled drops to the fluxed areas, resulting in a hiss and a tuft of smelly flux smoke. Over the course of the evening I inhaled a lot of that, and it probably wasn't very good for me.

We kept at it steadily, trading off when we started getting frustrated or overly flux-fumed or just felt our focus wavering. Those are Hilary's hands now operating the soldering iron. I think that's still Charles holding the flux brush, since I am not a fan of flux and avoided it like the caustic plague that it is (except when it comes to inhaling its fumes, which an outside observer would say I did with great gusto).

And faster than we could have hoped, we were almost done. Brenda came by with another wonderful tray of tea and cookies for us and tried her own hand at soldering for a little bit. She said she'd been resisting temptation this entire time, and we assured her we were delighted to let her play as much as she wanted. She proved to be much better and faster at soldering than we were, using the modern technique of applying the solder to the join, heating it with the iron, removing the spool of solder, and then removing the iron, all in quick smooth motions. There is something to be said for practice/experience.

After our delicious tea break, we finished up the front and turned it over to work on the back. It didn't fall apart, so I breathed a big sigh of relief. We did find one spot where the glass had slipped behind the came rather than into it, but we bridged it over with yet more came and it seemed to stick okay. In this image, we've already gotten a good start, and Charles is brushing solder onto the next spot.

After we finished soldering, which happened even faster on the back (we really got into a rhythm), we used "liquid leading" to paint in the details on the axe. We wanted to compare the looks of different methods. We're calling fusing the medieval method even though we didn't have the time to mix the black glass paint ourselves, and the liquid leading a modern shortcut. The liquid leading goes onto the back because it bumps out a bit, but on the front should hopefully maybe if we're lucky look like black fused into the glass.

The final step was to turn it over and apply a patina to darken the really shiny solder and slightly less shiny cames. I know the lighting in this photo isn't super helpful, but compare the darkened upper left corner with the bright cames around his feet. If you're attending the presentation in class you'll be able to see better, since we left the back alone, so you can compare back to front.

Anyway, I was a little nervous because it was already nearly 9:00 so we didn't have time to wait for the liquid lead to dry before we turned it over. I was even more nervous because the black patina is even more caustic than the flux and has all sorts of warnings about not getting it in your eyes or on your skin and clothes. Hilary was brave and put on Brenda's rubber gloves (which Hilary loved because they were pink and lady size and had frills) and applied the patina, and it all went much faster than expected. Unfortunately, the bottle did not say what to do after it was applied, so we just rubbed it with a clean section of cloth and wrapped it in paper, deciding to rinse it off the next morning after it theoretically had enough time to set.

The next day I unwrapped it to find that the liquid lead (which actually contains no lead, for the record) on the axe had smudged a bit on the paper and as a result isn't quite opaque. The patina had set in really nicely though, so I gingerly rinsed it off and got rid of all of the shreds of rag that had been snagged by the sharp bits of solder while we rubbed in the patina. I admit I kind of miss the shiny-ness, but the darkened metal looks more authentic somehow. Hilary will have to confirm, but I believe Theophilus said they would rub in clay or something to darken it back in the Middle Ages.

Well, that's it for the construction of this stained glass. My weekday evenings will feel a bit empty now that it's done. Good thing we have the construction of a website to fill them with. I'm sure we'll post a link to the website once it's ready for public viewing. And we'll probably post an entry about project presentation day. So, until next time, faithful readers!

Let the Cames Begin!

Hullo all, whomever you may be, tonight we give thanks for the continued existence and relative sanity of Jessica and myself. It was touch and go there for a bit.

After class Tuesday we made the trek over Brenda's again, stopping in the park near her place to have a bite to  eat, oblivious to the frustration and rage that would later consume us. I had stopped by a tea shop on my way to school and Jessica had brought along one of her beautiful bead necklaces and so we had a gift for Brenda, to thank her for all her help and the use of her studio. After our little lunch break we hopped over to Brenda's to get started.

As you may recall we finished on Monday having cut out all of the pieces and leaving a nicely tacked in half-wheel. 

We were excited to be using the techniques outlined in Theophilus' text on the subject which told us to start with the head of the figure and next place the body and continue outward. Having decided that the wheel was a more likely candidate for the "most central figure" award we started there.

 

Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that modern techniques have been established and widely adopted because they are easier than medieval ones. Working ouward from a central point means that nothing is anchored in very well. This leads to angry faces (which we carefully hide behind long hair) and angry noises (which we cannot convey online, not having recorded them) and angry gestures (as seen here).

We did make some progress, although it was tough going.

And we persevered with the medieval techniques despite an inordinate amount of cursing and threatening to murder inanimate objects (mostly on my part).

Once we had the inner potrions of the wheel tacked in place v-e-r-y care-full-y it was time to wrap one long piece of lead came around the outside edge. 

This turned out to be MUCH easier said than done.

After struggling with constantly moving pieces (and yet more cursing and frustrated/angry gestures, and stress relieving stomping - think four year old having a hissy-fit) and asking the advice of our lovely mentor, we gave up...

and pulled the whole wheel apart and put it back in place on our pattern.

We may not have mentioned this, but we arent master glassworkers and we only have until the 21st to complete this thing so we gave up on Theophilus (who I'm pretty sure was a liar and a crook who obviously just wrote the book as a laugh, to see how many stupid university students would think he actually knew what he was talking about and try to base the procedure for their projects on him.) 

*sigh* Anyways... We then went for a restorative, calming, not-murdering-inanimate-objects-or-throwing-the-whole-project-in-the-glass-scrap-bucket tea break. Brenda, also known as "The kindest and most generous woman on the planet" made us a pot of the 'thank you' tea we gave her two hours earlier and I discovered kindred "Flanders and Swan" fan (if you dont know who they are look them up - a comedic piano duo of excellent calibre). Once we had relaxed a bit (and the red rage had died out of my eyes) we headed back to work. This time with music!

We decided to cut our losses and start again from a more sane point. With lovely bracing and everything!

From this point on the work went fairly smoothly and quickly, and where it didn't we used the grinder to smooth down the edges. Do excuse my terrible jokes, the rant up there reminded me how frustrated I was earlier. Anyways... (again)

As I mentioned it started going at a really nice pace.

Before we knew it the wheelwright was in place and we were almost ready to start battling our nemesis once again.

We decided on one long lead came for the outer circle of the wheel, to make life easier. At this point we were quite happy with our progress, though we were still concerned about how long the stupid wheel itself would take us, not to mention soldering...

It was helpful to see the difference between what we had accomplished and what we had left to tackle. It calmed me down a bit at very least.

I would like to take another moment here to say how unimpressed I am with Theophilus right now. Working from the centre outward: stupidly difficult!!! Working from a braced corner: pure freakin' genius. That is all.

Sorry guys, that was mean, getting your hopes up like that: thats not all. Around this point Jessica's significant other arrived (the one who helped with the painting) and assisted us yet again (thanks Charles!!!).

It was about 8pm now but we decided, despite our earlier decision to leave at 8, to tank the wheel and leave the borders for another day (along with all the soldering). 

And so that is just what we did with a much appreciated assist by Charles. I led the parade, pulling nails out while Jessica followed, wrapping the long outer came around, and Charles followed her, tacking nails in to hold the newly added came into place.

Now we just have one more invasion planned during which we will finish the two borders and 'solder the hell outta this thing.' 

Now, everyone, listen up. Fingers and toes crossed that we get this window completed! That means you! Yes you! Cross 'em! 

And the real work begins

Well, faithful readers, today has been another busy day for window-making. It began early when I had a prescient vision that the glass would not be ready (by which I mean I hadn't slept well so I opted for another hour or two of sleep this morning) first thing in the morning, so I rescheduled my day and planned to stop by the glass studio in the afternoon just before my group meeting instead. It turns out this was a good plan (I mean true vision!) because apparently the glass had misfired on Saturday night and needed to be fired again this morning, so it wasn't quite ready when I arrived at 12:45. I'll admit I was rather irked with fate since if all had gone according to plan (aka if the glass had finished by Sunday morning and was ready for me to pick up and go) I would have had plenty of time to make my bus, but that just goes to show that glass is a finicky solid-liquid/liquid-solid thing. After a frantic phonecall to Hilary to let her know she might need to go to our group meeting alone, we took the glass out of the kiln. (And now, faithful readers, we return to my usual picture followed by commentary format.)

I was delighted to find out that nothing had exploded or cracked or filled with bubbles. It in fact looked quite lovely. Apparently there was a bit of blistering, though I had trouble seeing it. One scary thing we noticed though was that the red glass had turned pretty much opaque and black. Fortunately, it started turning clearer and more red as it cooled. This picture is from about 15 minutes after it came out of the kiln, and as you can see, it's still quite dark. By the time it cooled completely, it was pretty much back to its original colour. Shows you really want to know what's making your glass a given colour though, and what happens if it's reheated.

After our group meeting (I made it to the second half) we headed over to Brenda's place again, where Hilary predicted that the glass "was going to turn into a monster... a crazed glass monster that will razor us to death. To dead tiny bits," proving that her visions of the future are not as accurate as the ones I'm claiming I had. (I felt the need to record that quote in my notebook immediately. I'm sure you can understand why. Anyway...) We set the painted pieces into our pattern and got to work cutting. The above shows us already at work, with more blue pieces and more red cut than we had left off with on Wednesday.

While cutting, we learned some intriguing things. It turns out that if you make cuts for multiple pieces, it doesn't crack crazily all over the place, and what's more...

Sometimes you get a piece that more or less fits into another spot. We think maybe this explains some of why there are so many small pieces in the windows. Not only was it possibly tougher to manage big flat sheets of glass, but also they cut/shattered with heat several fragments and then fit them together like a puzzle rather than planning it out and cutting pieces to fit each little pre-drawn panel like we're doing. Probably a much more efficient method altogether. (Unfortunately, we had already cut a piece for that particular space, and the one we had fit a bit better.)

Anyway, we kept cutting and placing...

And cutting and placing...

And measuring and aligning and cutting...

And wiggling and wobbling and nudging and placing...

Until we had cut out pieces 20-36 (16 pieces) of blue, 16 pieces of red, 2 pieces of green, and 42 pieces of amber glass and placed them in our pattern. Right around then, with absolutely perfect timing, Brenda made us some tea, and we were more than delighted to take a bit of a break.

(This picture is just to show that after all that cutting and numbering, I somehow managed to get ink all over my fingers and hands. Hilary's hands were very clean in comparison. I have mad skills.)

After our delicious Russian tea, we came back and got started caming. Instead of beginning in a corner like we did with our practice windows, we followed Theophilus' advice and began with the face, nailing it into place on our numbered pattern.

We then figured the wheel was a good central feature and much more complex than the wheelwright, so we'd really begin there. So far, I think we feel the modern method of starting in a braced corner is much easier than the medieval method of starting in the middle. Of course, that could just be because the wheel is painfully complex, both to cut and to came. Anyway, this is where we stopped for the day, after about an hour of caming.

And here, for a slightly different perspective, is the section of glass we've taken out and camed. Not a bad start, especially considering just how many little tiny pieces are in there, but we still have a lot of work to do. Time to let my fingers recover for a night before we get back to work tomorrow.

Experiments in glass painting

Last time we went to Brenda's place, she mentioned that there was a place on Tennyson Avenue where we could fire some pieces of glass and fuse paint onto them for only $15. So I called up the good people at Victoria Glass-Smith's to set up a time to come in and paint the sections of glass that most needed the details. Thus it was that Saturday morning I convinced my boyfriend to join me (unfortunately, Hilary had to work) on a quest to Tennyson Avenue to use some paint Brenda had kindly loaned me to give our good Wheelwright a face, some hands, and folds in his clothing. We arrived and got set up, and the very helpful proprietor showed us how to mix the paint and get started. Pictures to follow, with comments following them:


These are the pieces we decided most needed painting. The details you currently see on the hands and face are all in the pattern below the glass. At this point they're just yellow blocks of glass.

I got started on the face and used the printout to trace on the image. I think I was pretty okay at sticking with the lines. The paint we're using is black, by the way. After it's fired it should be nice solid black lines, I hope.

My helpful boyfriend (those are his fingers there) got started on stripes on the robe with only a reference since we had erased the dark red in our pattern. I think he did a really nice job, considering. You can see the reference next to the glass he's working on. Unfortunately, the reference page is a smaller size than the pattern we went with.

Okay, there's the completed face. I put it on the blank paper beside the pattern so one can compare the two. I think I did okay. I guess it would have been more helpful to put them at the same angle. Oh well. The lead came should overlap with the black outline and blend in fairly naturally, if all goes well.

I did the feet without tracing. They look a little foot-like maybe.

Well, they look better when it's all put together. Doesn't he look nicer than in the first photo in this post? I was really excited when I saw the result.

Into the kiln he went to be fired overnight. The shop is closed on Sundays, so I'll be picking it up early Monday morning. I really hope it turns out and doesn't bubble or blister or anything. I know it's just one small section of the window and that we have hours and hours of work ahead of us, but seeing the painted "central" figure laid out on the pattern made me feel it was really coming together.

Until next time,

Jessica