As I write, we just experienced September 11th—ten years after theterrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many emotions came up as we were reliving the day and itsaftermath through many eyewitness accounts. Often the question was asked: do you remember where you were when it happened? And, of course, I do. With that recollection, I also began thinking about how the events affected us with our work, and one project stands out in my mind, a project our friend Bill Hueg designed for an upcoming gold-leafing class: the Liberty Torch.

The Liberty Torch, carved, shaded and gold leafed.

The image of the torch was carveddeeply into the glass, with the flag shaded lightly in the background. After blasting the image, we worked on gold leafing the torch, employing tinted size (by adding atiny bit of oil paint to the size) to achieve the greenish tint of the torch and 18 ctlemon gold to leaf the torch, while using 23 ct gold to leaf the flames, which alsohad tinted size applied.

Even though the whole project measuredonly 10” x 12”, the overall effect was much “larger”; after all, the torch ofLady Liberty is a powerful symbol. Every student was very moved by making thepiece, and I am sure that one or the other took another look at it this past weekend.Learning some add-on techniques is very rewarding and has a way of enhancing aproject which could not be achieved any other way. Gold leafing and airbrushingare two such techniques. Maybe this will pique your interest in learning some ofthese old “new” techniques.

Airbrushing offers a more refined way of adding color to a blasted project in comparison with color filling by means of spray painting, hand painting or adding color with needle applicators, floating the color into any depressed area. Utilizing an airbrush allows you to blend colors together in subtle transitions, creating gradations, allowing for under-paintingand laying thin transparent colors over the top of the under-painting. It does, however,require that one learn how to use an airbrush, and that takes a little patienceand practice.

We most often use a dual-action airbrushrather than a single-action because of the greater control it affords, since youcan regulate airflow and paint delivery with a dual-action airbrush. And sincewe already blast on glass, access to compressed air is no problem. We T-off fromour freestanding pressure pot at the regulator and are ready to go. We prefer usingregular airbrush paints that are water soluble but dry permanent.

Speaking of other techniques,I want to mention a couple of others, whichwe have mentioned in previous articles over theyears. One of these special techniques is actually nota technique, but a technique on a special typeof glass: blasting with the shading technique onflashed glass. We often employ this techniqueon clear glass, but it adds another dimension toexecute this technique on flashed glass. Flashedglass is a specific type of hand-blown glass that ismost of the times clear in its base color and then has a thin layer ofcolor flashed onto one side.

Blasted and airbrushed

In the shading technique, we blastwith very low pressure (about 1 to 5 lbs) using a multi-stage technique. The differentiation from onedesign element to the other is created by blasting each shapeto a different tonal value than the adjacent area. This takes abit of practice, since one has to move quite a bit quicker with thenozzle and watch closely as to what is happening on the glasssurface as it is happening; blast a little too long and you can wipeout your project. We apply our resist to the flashed side of theglass, and by blasting through it, a permanent two-color effect is achieved,with various tonal values of the same base color possible, if you do not blastthe color away totally, but only partially.

(left) Shading technique on flashed glass. (right) Blasted Initial, gold-leafed, mother-of-pearl inlay, glue chipped stripes.

Flashed glass is sold through stainedglass suppliers as is another type of glass we use, which is called iridized glass. For along time, it was not known in the awards and recognition industry, but lately we are seeing it offered in the formof slumped plate shapes or as part of certain trophies andawards. The iridizing layer is very thin and is created in themaking of the glass piece by depositing a metal vapor onthe surface of the hot sheet of glass in a chamber before theglass piece goes through the cooling process. The depositedmetals can take on hues from green to purple, gold orsilver or deep blue.

Again, the resist is appliedto the iridized surface and blasted away. Working ona dark base layer of iridized glass works best, such as blackor dark blue, to achieve maximum contrast between theblasted and un-blasted areas. The blasting is best done inreverse, meaning that the image stays covered by resistwhile blasting the background away. When the blasting is completed, the pieceshould be cleaned thoroughly by rinsing and pat drying, after which it can be spraypainted with clear lacquer to restore the blasted area to its previous shiny surface.

If you know something about fusingglass in a kiln, you have the option of firing the piece in a kiln to near slumpingtemperatures (around 1100 F depending on the glass used) which will fire polishthe blasted areas completely, making them shiny on a permanent basis.

(left) Iridized image, blasted, cleaned and fire polished. (right) Iridized black glass, surface blasted.

The same process is used with anothertype of coated glass: dichroic glass. Here you are not only dealing with a depositon the surface of the glass, but the glass is coated in such a way that dependingon your viewing angle, the glass reflects a different color: from one side it appearsyellow, from another angle green. Needless to say, this type of special glass is verypricey, but commands a lot of attention from viewers.

Last, but not least, I want to mentionthe technique of glue-chipping glass. With this technique, a texture resemblinga frozen window pane in winter (for those of you who remember singlepane windows) is achieved. Being able to glue-chip glass allows you to create thattexture anywhere on a given piece of glass.

You simply need to surface-blast the areasto be glue-chipped. After the blasting, a mixture of hide glue and water, which hasbeen heated in a glue pot, is applied to the blasted surface.

The glue will go through a couple ofdrying phases and then begins to contract so much that it causes the glue to rip outthin slivers of glass from the surface, thus creating the totally haphazard texture.This process has been around for quite a while and was widely employed in signageand also stained glass projects; however, it can be applied to any glass piece to createmore interest.

All of the above described techniquesare worthwhile learning and will help to set your projects apart from other blastedglass treatments. Should you be interested in learning these techniques, ask usabout our workshop program which offers various length workshops on a variety oftechniques.