I just recovered a large amount of broken stained glass that was part of my old church before it burned down. I found these in the basement of my new church that was built over the old one. I played around with the pieces and made a large heart shape out of them. I would somehow like to preserve the shards in that position, mounting it on the wall of my church. But how do it create that with simple cheap material, not exceeding $50? Maybe two panes of glass sandwiching the shards?
If you have no other choice, I’d probably glue the pieces to another sheet of glass, using one of the transparent epoxies ("water white epoxy" or something like E6000 adhesive. That way, it can be mounted into a light box so you can still enjoy the old glass colors. If you want to put it on an opaque backing, then it becomes "mosaic", and though it can be pretty, it (imo) lacks the life of glass with transmitted light.
Do you have anyone in your church who does copper foil stained glass work? That would also produce something that can be hung in your church. Or, fused glass? (a fused glass artist will need scraps of the same glass to figure out if they’re all compatible — if so, your shape can then be fused together to become a new, solid piece of glass.) Both of these techniques would be too expensive to hire someone to do, but a church member might be willing to donate the time.
BTW, mosaic stepping stones and small panels tend to be good fundraisers.
http://www.life123.com/hobbies/glass-mosaics/mosaic/how-to-make-mosaic-stepping-stones.shtml
Cutting old glass can be a bit tricky, but learning the basics of cutting glass is pretty easy, fwiw.
Have you ever seen the Tiffany glass chapel done for the 1893 Worlds Fair?
http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/tiffany_chapel.html — the second photo there shows some mosaic glass detail.
Perhaps your church might want to use some of the glass you’ve recovered for decoration of something like a baptismal font base, too.
use MDF for it, you can paint it and make your mosaic / collage on it , hang it up like you would a picture.of
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If you have no other choice, I’d probably glue the pieces to another sheet of glass, using one of the transparent epoxies ("water white epoxy" or something like E6000 adhesive. That way, it can be mounted into a light box so you can still enjoy the old glass colors. If you want to put it on an opaque backing, then it becomes "mosaic", and though it can be pretty, it (imo) lacks the life of glass with transmitted light.
Do you have anyone in your church who does copper foil stained glass work? That would also produce something that can be hung in your church. Or, fused glass? (a fused glass artist will need scraps of the same glass to figure out if they’re all compatible — if so, your shape can then be fused together to become a new, solid piece of glass.) Both of these techniques would be too expensive to hire someone to do, but a church member might be willing to donate the time.
BTW, mosaic stepping stones and small panels tend to be good fundraisers.
http://www.life123.com/hobbies/glass-mosaics/mosaic/how-to-make-mosaic-stepping-stones.shtml
Cutting old glass can be a bit tricky, but learning the basics of cutting glass is pretty easy, fwiw.
Have you ever seen the Tiffany glass chapel done for the 1893 Worlds Fair?
http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/tiffany_chapel.html — the second photo there shows some mosaic glass detail.
Perhaps your church might want to use some of the glass you’ve recovered for decoration of something like a baptismal font base, too.
References :
Perhaps you could get some cement and make a plaque shape and place the shards on that. You may have to recreate the shape but I bet it would be worth it. Depending on how thick the glass is you could probably get a fine grout to fill in the heart.
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