Adventures in Dangerous Art
I'm learning the art (or is it a craft?) of stained glass. At this weblog, I record progress, note useful links, and document flesh wounds.


Links

The Art League
Where I took a lead class and a 3D construction class.

Weisser Glass Studio
Where I buy supplies, and where I took a foil class.

Virginia Stained Glass Co.
Where I buy supplies if I happen to be in Springfield and if they happen to have what I want.

Warner-Crivellaro
Great prices on supplies, a lively and helpful Glass Chat message board, and excellent Technical Tips on stained glass tools and techniques.

Glass Galleries Links List
A list of Glass Chat users who've uploaded photos of their work.

The StoreFinder: Stained Glass Store Front
Lots of articles.

ArtGlassArt.com Tutorials
Even more articles. Particularly recommended: "Anatomy of a design" and "Wood frames."

rec.crafts.glass
Courtesy of Google Groups.

Nancy's Beginner Tips and Tricks
Scoring, breaking, soldering, finishing, and more.

Splinter Removal Tips
Crucial.

Syndicate this site
Someone out there is using XML for something... right?

Movable Type
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Archives

It's a glass cutter.
May 31, 2006: Holding Pattern

It's not that I lost steam on the dogwood windows project after getting only as far as buying nine square feet of glass. It's that I don't have a place to work.

At the old house, the unfinished basement was full of ancient, dusty, ugly cabinets and benches and tables (including a small mirrored medicine cabinet with little pots and vials of things like mouthwash and shaving cream and pain relievers that dated, I'm guessing, from the 1940s and 1950s). One of these antiques, an unpretty but solid work table, was perfect for stained glass work. It had been there since long before Don bought the place, and now that we've sold it, there it remains. It didn't seem worth moving, but I'm kind of kicking myself now, because the basement at the new house is all drywall and recessed lighting. Nary a dusty, unused workbench in sight.

Nothing's stopping me from going to IKEA and getting a cruddy little laminate table, except, well, maybe I'm cheap but spending sixty dollars on furniture that's just going to end up covered in glass dust, solder balls, and lead came scraps? I can't bring myself to do it.

So I've been hovering around the furniture ads on Craig's List and the local Freecycle boards. I failed to move quickly enough on two good candidates there, which will get old fast if the pattern continues. Don had suggested a trip to Rough and Ready at 14th and T Streets in Shaw---a Sanford-and-Son-esque cave of dusty used furniture stacked to the leaking ceiling. But I reminded him that Rough and Ready was gentrified away recently, the entire block purchased for a planned condo development, and I know of nothing else like it.

I may have to break down and get Don to build something for me. Plywood and two-by-fours: stronger than IKEA laminate and aluminum, yet vastly less expensive. Why didn't I just ask him in the first place? Well, he's been busy, cleansing his palette after the couch project with an amusing little Mission end table, something he can do with one table saw tied behind his back you understand.

It's almost done now. When the furniture Don is building suddenly looks like something purchased at Abu Ghraib's Going-Out-Of-Business Sale (all torture implements must go!), that means glue-up is in progress.

Don's little Mission end table, bristling with clamps of all shapes and sizes as the wood glue sets.

And if glue-up is in progress, the end is in sight. I'll wait a few days for Don to put a finish on his end table and call it done; if by then my own Craig's List want ad hasn't resulted in a beefy workbench big enough to hold two 15 by 33 inch windows-in-progress, it'll have to be handy husband to the rescue.



Posted by Michelle on May 31, 2006 08:17 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I just found your site and have been stuck here reading your entries because you are such a hoot.

I have not learned this skill of glass but have been thinking about it for six years now. I have two small children and have decided it will just have to wait awhile. But, I get itchy and thus found your site.

You and your husband sound adorable.

Regards.

Posted by: lisa on June 26, 2006 08:52 AM

Sorry to make you stuck!

I can see how little kids and a glass hobby might not be compatible. I hope you'll get time someday, though.

Adorable? Well, Don certainly is. Me, I'm just surly and antisocial. Everyone's good at something.

Posted by: Michelle on June 27, 2006 02:30 AM

You're BACK! :) And in a new house! With PUPPIES!

I'm glad to see you're well -- your kitchen looks great!

[insert other happy comments, all with exclamation points!]

Posted by: roe/metrocake on July 28, 2006 01:54 AM

Glad to see you're doing well, and are back in the stained-glass saddle :-) Your new kitchen and couch are both quite lovely, btw! And the doggies look like loads of fun.

Best, Kim and David (and now Hayden, too!)

Posted by: Kim on July 28, 2006 05:24 AM

Glad to see your being creative again with glass...found your website a few years ago and check it periodically just to see what's new. (Doubt you remember , but we went to UGA together...you were the first preson I met in the dorms!) I love the pictures that the cats end up in....just because I am cat person!

Kepp those creative juices flowing...what talent!

Posted by: Amy on August 2, 2006 03:23 AM
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