A lesson in working with glass...

That sounds so formal, but it's better than "Watch youtube tutorials and you too can grind glass" but I digress.....

 

I watched video tutorial's on youtube and got down to cutting and grinding.

 

And it was FUN!

 

Typically I am pretty accident prone. I easily trip over my own feet (and constantly over my beloved Pug), walk into door frames, walls, smack myself in the face, burn, cut and generally maul myself, oh, and I fall down fairly often, but I am so good at it by this stage in my life, I pretty much bounce right back up, what can I say, It is a gift...I cannot teach this stuff. So needless to say, power tools and soldering irons make me a little nervous. But, I put my fears aside and gave it a try, and I am glad I did.

 

First things first, I ran to Harbor Freight, picked up a mini dremel tool and another soldering iron, a little smaller and easier to handle than my big gun, oh, and heavy gloves. Then home I went and just jumped right into it.

 

First, a quick test run...not bad for a first try.

 

Then go for it. Took my time, cut out my design instead of trying to break it...trust me...breaking it to make it smaller to work with....does....not....work. Just take the time and grind away. I found drilling holes around the design I wanted until it snaps along the line works best. Constantly spraying it with water out of a handy dandy spray bottle worked great! And it made sure I was not taking any glass chips to the face...ya...don't ask me how I know about that. See the white liquid around the pendant? That is all the glass powder I was not breathing in. Although, I was wearing a mask.....with a few drops of essential oils of course LOL.

 

 

About an hour to cut this smaller pendant out of a larger piece of glass, rough around the edges, but the larger bench grinder smoothed that out in no time flat. Again, keep that water spray bottle handy, and for goodness sake, wear gloves and safety glasses!

 

Of course I forgot to get a shot of the pendant once it was smoothed out. When I get rolling, I get focused and always forget pictures. I got so excited, I cleaned the pendant, got the copper tape wrapped and started soldering away.

 

I have decided that I love soldering, it is like painting with metal. Very forgiving painting, you can go back and smooth it out over and over again until you are happy with it. This can be dangerous if you are very anal retentive, if you let yourself, you can spend hours going over and over smoothing it just one more time.

 

 Don't ask me how I know that.

 

And the semi finished pendant. I think I will smooth it over once more before putting the loop on it for the chain. Then off to Creative Village it goes next week! Hopefully I will have another one or two to go with it.

 

 

I am having fun with this, can you tell?

 

I will be back to grinding away this weekend! With the possibility of a WHOLE INCH of snow tomorrow night, I may get an extra day to grind away :) Oh I love the South, one inch can shut us down. And I am not complaining.

 

Hope you are having a great week!