Pretty Glass

[biffvernon]

Just spent a few days on a masterclass in glass painting at York Uni. Here's a pic of some 14th century quarries we were looking at in the York Glaziers Trust workshop.

I'm going to make stuff like this and incorporate it into leaded panels for secondary glazing. It'll cost an arm and a leg but you'll get your money back in saved heating (in about a thousand years, maybe) and be prettier than that view of the dustbins and the neighbour's garage.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Didn't think your windows could get any prettier Biff, but that's absolutely lovely.

Is it very fiddly and difficult? What kind of paints are used?

 

[robgil]

that looks great , you dont fancy making me a lantern for my porch do you?
for free?

 

[biffvernon]

Is it very fiddly and difficult? What kind of paints are used?

Well, like most things, it's easy when you know how
The black lines are a black pigment, metal oxides, iron and lead and others though the manufacturers are a bit secretive about exact recipes. You add a bit of gum Arabic or copaiba balsam, grind it up with one of various vehicles, water, vinegar, different oils, depending on just what you are doing, and apply with various brushes or pens. Then fire it in a kiln.
The yellow colour is a stain made from, mostly, silver chloride. When fired it stains the glass yellow or orange. In Britain and western Europe it was used from about 1300. You see it in saints' haloes and suchlike. Earlier glass doesn't have it. But that wasn't when it was discovered. The ancient Romans used it a millennium earlier but somehow the knowledge got lost.

 

[biffvernon]

you dont fancy making me a lantern for my porch do you?

Yes.

for free?

No.

(Nice try.)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Is it very fiddly and difficult? What kind of paints are used?

Well, like most things, it's easy when you know how
The black lines are a black pigment, metal oxides, iron and lead and others though the manufacturers are a bit secretive about exact recipes. You add a bit of gum Arabic or copaiba balsam, grind it up with one of various vehicles, water, vinegar, different oils, depending on just what you are doing, and apply with various brushes or pens. Then fire it in a kiln.
The yellow colour is a stain made from, mostly, silver chloride. When fired it stains the glass yellow or orange. In Britain and western Europe it was used from about 1300. You see it in saints' haloes and suchlike. Earlier glass doesn't have it. But that wasn't when it was discovered. The ancient Romans used it a millennium earlier but somehow the knowledge got lost.

That's fab! It must be pretty scary when you put your work in the kiln - does much get lost in the process?

The Dark ages fascinate me - where did all that knowledge go? It must have been so boring just sitting round being Dark.

 

[biffvernon]

Not just the dark ages. The Victorian glass studios were set up with individual workers doing their own part of the task but often not having complete knowledge of the whole process. Proprietors, mindful of competition, kept secrets. After the First World War a great deal of the knowledge was lost and glass studios in the 1920s used a number of very different methods. We are only now gradually piecing together the techniques that the 19th century craftsmen employed and much is still mystery.

 

[LadyArowana]

Then fire it in a kiln.

I'm hoping that it's a solar powered kiln, thought those things were very energy hungry. The glass is beautiful though!

 

[biffvernon]

Then fire it in a kiln.

I'm hoping that it's a solar powered kiln, thought those things were very energy hungry. The glass is beautiful though!

Well yes, sort of. It's hard to get a solar collector up to 600 degrees Celsius and more, directly, so we use solar power to generate wind which powers turbines which generate electricity which heats a resistance coil in the kiln. This may seem a roundabout route and there are efficiency losses at several stages but the energy certainly comes from the sun, is constantly renewed and does not contribute to climate change beyond infrastructure building and maintenance. We use a sub-contractor, Ecotricity to provide this service.

The kiln uses electricity about as fast as a domestic kitchen cooker. I hope that anybody cooking with electricity also buys their energy from Ecotricity.

 

[Penners]

we use solar power to generate wind which powers turbines which generate electricity which heats a resistance coil in the kiln.

Eh? You use solar power to generate wind?

Apart from the natural planetary weather patterns, which can I suppose be attributed at least in part to the sun, how do you use solar power to generate wind?

Don't tell me that you have a wind machine powered by photovoltaics! :shock:

 

[Flyfisher]

Apart from the natural planetary weather patterns, which can I suppose be attributed at least in part to the sun,

Wholly, I suspect.

Although I'd argue that you can't make the electricity coming down your wires entirely 'green' just by choosing who you pay for it.

 

[Penners]

Apart from the natural planetary weather patterns, which can I suppose be attributed at least in part to the sun,

Wholly, I suspect.

I can't argue with that, if one accepts that the very existence of our planet, and all of its atmospheric activity, has been brought about by the sun.

 

[robgil]

and the moon.

very interesting fact about the moon which holds the biggest known coincidence in the solar system.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread440531/pg1

and some not so interesting facts about the moon.

http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song

 

[Penners]

very interesting fact about the moon which holds the biggest known coincidence in the solar system.

It may be the biggest in physical terms, but it really can't compete with one that my son experienced, some years ago.

He had a shunt in his car, on a roundabout. He had to brake suddenly and another car ran into the back of his. Imagine the confusion this caused (the case later came to court) when it emerged that my son and the other driver had identical first names, middle initials and surnames.

And I'm not talking about any "John Smith" stuff. Our surname is pretty unusual.

That beats any paltry sun-and-moon coincidence. :wink:

 

[LadyArowana]

very interesting fact about the moon which holds the biggest known coincidence in the solar system.

It may be the biggest in physical terms, but it really can't compete with one that my son experienced, some years ago.

He had a shunt in his car, on a roundabout. He had to brake suddenly and another car ran into the back of his. Imagine the confusion this caused (the case later came to court) when it emerged that my son and the other driver had identical first names, middle initials and surnames.

And I'm not talking about any "John Smith" stuff. Our surname is pretty unusual.

That beats any paltry sun-and-moon coincidence. :wink:

What on earth did the first Mrs P think when she found out you had a whole second family :shock: ? I am surprised at you lack of imagination giving both sons the same name though, that was just asking for trouble.

 

[Penners]

It's OK, Yer Ladyship. I think I got away with it by pressing into service such phrases as, "Well, well! Stap me victuals! Ha-ha! Who'da thunk it? What are the chances of that?"

I can be frighteningly convincing in extremis.

 

[Feltwell]

That's a pretty good coincidence, it has to be said. I'd be even more surprised to bump into my namesake, as I am assured by the Metropolitan Police that there is only 1 other person of the same name in the UK !

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I always like the probability that two people in a room will share a birthday. Money can be made betting on this!

If you're in a group of more than about 20 people it's about a 50% chance, rising to a near certainty if more than 60 people are in the group. This is counter-intuitive - so make some bets when you're next out!

 

[LadyArowana]

I always like the probability that two people in a room will share a birthday. Money can be made betting on this!

If you're in a group of more than about 20 people it's about a 50% chance, rising to a near certainty if more than 60 people are in the group. This is counter-intuitive - so make some bets when you're next out!

We should test that here, anyone else 29th December?

 

[biffvernon]

Oi! Stop hijacking my thread. (Penners, what do you think causes the wind if it is not the Sun's differential heating of the atmosphere combined with the planet's motion, which results from the Sun's gravity?)

Now back to the pretty glass:

These quarries are probably from Wragby Church near Wakefield, were removed a couple of hundred years ago when some 'better' continental glass was installed and left in a box stored at Nostell Priory untouched ever since. The good folk at York Glaziers' Trust had just unpacked the box to see what was within and what might be done with it. There's loads more than what you see in the picture. Treasure still turns up.