Project Waiting: Fused Glass Portrait Tiles



1) The template for all of the portraits


Let's say I'm going to have a series of entries that are partially titled "Project Waiting."  These are projects that I started in the past but that are now just waiting.  I certainly have a lot of those, and it's not utterly infrequent that I document them with photos I can share with you.

The portrait tiles were a very fun and challenging project.  I have included the pictures in order of progress so that you can see how I was working.

I wanted to create a small series of tiles that had a feeling of regularity but which depicted different people.  I chose to do portraits of my family, so there are four tiles in all.  The first thing I did was create a portrait template, so that each one would have certain qualities exactly the same: proportion, location of eyes, size, etc.  That portrait is photo #1.



2) My personal portrait



The second photo is the portrait I did of myself, more-or-less on top of the template.  For each portrait I picked through family photos until I found ones that seemed to represent folks the best.  One of the portraits is actually an amalgam of several photos, but the others are just copies of one photo.  It was tough to find photos that were crisply focussed and flattering and that showed all of the details I was wanting, but things worked out fine.  And yes, my eyes always felt crooked like that, to me.  Heh!



3) Translating the drawing into a glass cartoon



Photo #3 shows you how I simplified the portrait for glass cutting.  I chose areas that could be all one color, then figured out the fewest cuts I could get away with.  These tiles are actually pretty small, about 4"x4" if I remember correctly, so I couldn't get away with as many sharp inside curves as a good glass cutter can do when the project is larger.  On this particular tile, I would say that piece number 3 was the toughest to cut, but fortunately, at that size you're not wasting a lot of glass when you have to cut over and over again!





4) The glass, cut and laid out



Next thing to do was cut the glass, of course.  Check out the tiny bit of my blue shoulder you can see on the left.  A piece this small would by no means be worth bothering with if this were a leaded or foiled pattern, because the metal would cover it. With this tile, though, it gives a nice bright spot.  Plus, heck, no harm done if it ends up covered by paint or lead.

By the way, keep in mind that all of this glass is Spectrum fusible 96COE; cutting random glass that hasn't been labelled fusible and trying to fuse it will just result in an unpredictable and probably unstable piece, and often in a big waste of time.

So the last step I completed before becoming distracted by school, dating, housework and other life things was the step of fusing.  Ooh, I'll tell you, that was frustrating the first time!  I was taking a class at school to help me with kiln work (you'd think that a professional stained glass person like me would know how to do that stuff, but it's just not my forte).  One piece came out just fine, but I made a mistake with the kiln wash and my other three portraits cracked during the annealing process.  Since I was in class, I got a lot of sympathy--fine with me! 



5) After fusing



I recut the glass and fused them again, with much better results.  Photo #5 is as far as I've gotten on the portrait of myself.  The plan is to paint them using Reusche vitreous paints (I know, glass people, some of you find it redundant to call Reusche paint "vitreous;" sue me).  These are the most permanent form of glass paints, sold in powder form and mixed with a medium for painting, and they are to be fired on at about 1250 degrees.  Due to the pieces cracking earlier, I ended up with a spare of my sister, so I'd started painting that before getting distracted.  Unfortunately for you, I'd rather have her permission before posting those photos on a public site like this. 

Maybe someday I'll paint this one, and add the photos with the date and comments.  If I do, I'll even write about how the heck I found myself all motivated and back on track, too.  Surely there are some of you out there who have similar problems finishing projects.  I know I have an aunt like me in that way...!

Anyway, I do hope I come back to this project sometime.  It would be a very nice thing to be able to have this record of the family.  It's probably way too optimistic to hope that I might even do tiles of my fiance and future step-son, but wouldn't it be great if I did?